About
Aïsha de Barros Lopes | Certified Somatic Sexologist & Relational Practitioner
I work with embodiment, intimacy and sexuality as pathways into greater relational capacity, self-awareness and embodied choice.
My work brings together somatic sexology, body-based practice, and a background in community organising and advocacy. I am interested in what becomes possible when isexuality, intimacy, power and relationship are approached through the body, not just conceptually, but experientially.
This is grounded, body-based work that supports people to move beyond insight into lived change.
I use to work as a Community Organiser in environmental advocacy. I loved the work. I believed deeply in creating change, building community power and contributing to something larger than myself. Over time, I began to notice the impact of this. Not just as stress and exhaustion but as a deeper disconnection from my body, from pleasure, and from intimacy in my relationships.
It was not immediate or dramatic. It was a subtle and gradual loss of access to presence.
What I did not realise at the time was how much my life had become organised around work. Work came before rest, intimacy, pleasure and before my relationship with my body. I could no longer sustain that way of living.
When I left that role, I asked myself “who am I when I stop doing?” I became curious about what was happening underneath my experience. That curiosity led me into somatics, sexuality, relationships and pleasure.
Because I wanted to understand what it means to live from a deeper relationship with myself and the world around me.
What surprised me most was how closely commuinty organising and somatics mirror one another. Both ask us to listen, to understand power, to attend to what has been ignored, and to ask us to create conditions for change.
Today, I work as a Somatic Sexologist with individuals and couples navigating intimacy, sexuality and relationship.
Alongside this, I offer non-erotic bodywork in Melbourne and facilitate group and community spaces exploring relational patterns in collective contexts.
The work has not shifted as much as it has deepened. The same questions remain about change, power and how we come into relationship with ourselves and others.
Many of us know how to function well in the lives we have built. But less of us have been taught how to stay in contact with ourselves within them.
This is the work I now hold. A return to the body as a place of sensation, where pleasure, sexuality and contact with the world are no longer separate but part of how we live.
Foundations of My Practice
Professional Training & Certifications
Certificate in Somatic Sex Coaching, Institute of Somatic Sexology
Introductory Certificate of Embodied Counselling, Institute of Somatic Sexology
Certificate in Heartworks Lomi Lomi Massage, High Spirits by Mette Institute
Certificate in Womb & Fertility Massage, School of Empowered Feminine
Spiritual Sexual Shamanic Training, International School of Temple Arts
Professional Memberships
Additional Expertise & Background
Current Volunteer Coordinator, Festival of Embodiment and Sexual Transformation, FEAST (2025, 2026)
Certificate in Foundations of Community Organising, Queensland Community Alliance
Community Organising Fellowship, The Change Agency
Certificate in Cultural Competence, Centre for Cultural Competence Australia
Academic qualifications: Bachelor of Law, James Cook University; Bachelor of Environments (Architecture), University of Melbourne
Work with me
If you are seeking support with intimacy, sexuality or embodied relational change, you are welcome to reach out.
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