Debbie Harpham
ABOUT:
Based on popular essays in New York Times‘ Modern Love and Salon, as well as an Off-Broadway one-person play, The Pleasure Plan is a sexual healing odyssey, a manifesto for women to claim pleasure as a priority, and a love story all at once.
Fifty percent of adult women have some form of sexual difficulty at some point in their lives, preventing them from enjoying vibrant, soul-satisfying sex. Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the shame and embarrassment of feeling “bedroom broken.”
For her, delving between the sheets meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self.
The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, Zam visited 15 healers and tried 30 pleasure-enhancing methods, including hypnosis with a bawdy therapist; Tantra with a geriatric mistress; and cutting edge workshops in desire, arousal, and orgasm. She also learned about pelvic floor mishaps, hormonal imbalances, and female erections! Amidst these adventures, the author seamlessly interweaves her recovery from child abuse, tales of her Auschwitz-surviving mother, and a clear-eyed view of how medical and mental health professionals might better serve women with sex problems.
Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this memoir also chronicles how Zam and her husband grow, in and outside the bedroom. Her healing becomes their healing. In this #MeToo era, partners can learn from Zam’s journey how to support a significant other who’s been affected.
Today, Laura works as a sexuality educator, wellness coach, and speaker helping other women who suffer from sexual dysfunction, the effects of trauma, or those who would simply like more pleasure (of all kinds) in their lives. She also consults with health care providers so they may better assist their clients in achieving sexual well-being.
The Pleasure Plan is a roadmap for sexual healing that empowers women to speak up, seek help, and take charge of their health.
PRAISE AND RECOGNITION:
“Zam is funny, smart and one hell of an educator. All women need a Pleasure Plan.”-Betty Dodson, PhD, sexologist, Netflix sex educator, bestselling author of Sex for One”
“Laura Zam’s work is passionate, witty, psychologically astute, filled with wisdom and good healing karma” -Susan Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Unhooked and Five Men Who Broke My Heart
“…beautifully woven together….So many people need to read this book to increase sex education, awareness and hope for more pleasure in their life.-Rachel S. Rubin MD, Urologist. Sexual Medicine Specialist, National Health Advocate
“In each of us, there is a quiet, bright voice, insisting on a life of pleasure and aliveness. This is the voice Laura uses to write this book…” -LiYana Silver, coach & author of Feminine Genius: The Provocative Path to Waking Up and Turning On the Wisdom of Being a Woman
“Reading The Pleasure Plan feels like going on the ride with Zam and exiting the off-ramp wiser, much more hopeful, and above all more human.” -Rosalyn Dischiavo, Author of The Deep Yes, The Lost Art of True Receiving, Founder of Institute for Sexuality Education & Enlightenment
“An empowering journey helping women navigate their bodies, their bedrooms, and their health. Gorgeously told.”
-Nina Lorez Collins, author of What Would Virginia Woolf Do, Founder of The Woolfer
AUTHOR VISITS:
Author visits with Laura Zam are available via staging.novelsandbox.com/our-authors/.