Lightening Up on Blissful Intimate Relationships
Rhonda Levand Talks About her Workshop and BookWhy can relationships be so tricky…
Ciara: Rhonda tell me about what inspired you to do this workshop?
Rhonda: I trained in Rebirthing with Sondra Ray in the 1980s and then organised workshops for her. During this time I found that a lot of people didn’t feel innocent around their sexuality and they are carrying a lot of guilt. I had always been curious about the birth script because I wanted to know how my birth script affected public speaking.
In Rebirthing Breathwork, the birth script refers to the unconscious beliefs and emotional imprint we form around the time of our birth/including conception, gestation, birth itself and early infancy. These experiences influence shaping our personality, behaviour and life patterns, often in hidden ways.
Birth can be viewed as a template for life. The physical and emotional experience of being born including trauma, separation, stress or love can create a script or subconscious pattern that we repeat in adult life. For example, if someone experienced a difficult or delayed birth, they might struggle to start or finish projects in life.
Sondra created the Loving Relationships Training (LRT) which I loved assisting on, I travelled with Sondra, then became a trainer myself. I will always be incredibly grateful for all of the encouragement Sondra gave me and the pioneering work she has done in Breathwork. I still teach the LRT now.
In the 1970s Sondra found that many clients were coming to her with sexual issues and she published her first book “I Deserve Love”. The book was provided case studies and affirmations for healing sexuality.
Sondra noticed that I had a lot of energy in the area of sexuality and encouraged me to write a book about it.
At the time I was just getting together with my second husband Jeff. First of all, we created a workshop that we called, “Lightening up on Sex”.
I have a degree in Early Childhood Psychology so I already understood a lot about our formative years. In rebirthing we also focus on the effect of life events like conception, time in the womb, birth and early childhood.
My first marriage ended around sexuality and I really had a lot of issues in that area. I realized it had a lot to do with being a disappointment as a woman and that was my personal lie. You see, my dad really wanted a boy.
I created a questionnaire for the participants about these life events and in the workshop we related them to their intimate relationships and experiences. Guilt and shame prevents intimacy and connection and these are key issues we discuss in relation to our formative years.
The workshops started in California and I was invited to teach in Europe. After teaching the workshop for a few years I had gained plenty of case studies in all of the early life events and published my book Sexual Evolution.
People who have done the workshop comment that was the biggest realisation they made was how they were being run by these birth script thoughts, during conception, in the womb, at birth, being wanted, being unwanted, being the wrong sex or not being worthy.
Simply noticing it and being aware of it, then helps you to releasing it and breathing it out of your body. People have a lot of breakthroughs with those discoveries.
In the workshop we do written processes and we also share about our circumstances and how it relates to our experiences. We use practical tools for finding the courage to communicate openly about our needs. Releasing blame and resentment are key to reclaiming aliveness.
A safe space is held for participants to open up and tell the total truth. This may feel scary but what happens is that when we reveal our experiences, we realise our people have similar experiences and we’re not alone. An immense group connection between participants is always created in this workshop. Great realisations are made about our past relationships and people often remark, “wow I wish I’d have known this back then.”
It’s important to note that you don’t have to reveal your sexual experiences. However, some people find it is really freeing to share but know that it’s completely ok if you don’t. People often fear being judged and so this space is absolutely safe from judgement.
I called it ‘lightening up’ because of some of the silly things got into. The material can be heavy and you are completely supported to navigate it. But when you breathe on it the heavy load is transformed and you feel lighter. Come and join us in this is a completely liberating and fun workshop.
Currently Rhonda teaches the workshop live in Philadelphia but will be giving the workshop online for the first time August 15-17 2025. This means it will be available to participants in both the US and in Europe.
Social media and internet search engines block any references to the word sex, so the name of the workshop has changed to Lightening Up On Blissful Intimate Relationships.