At Intentional Orgasm in Nederland, CO, women can attend a workshop to re-invigorate their vaginas.

The “goddess workshop” is a practice committed to nourishing the yoni (a fancy tantra word for pussy). Up to eight women share the experience of yoni steaming, sunning and gazing — which is a lot like taking your vagina to the sauna, the tanning booth, and then a romantic dinner date.

While this all might sound mildly sexual, these practices are more about healing than eroticism, says Amy McBain, owner of Intentional Orgasm. McBain sat down with Rooster to walk us through a typical goddess workshop and highlight how ladies can soak up myriad health and spiritual benefits through their snatches.


[Yoni steam set; Steamychick.com]

“We women take on so much shit during our lifetimes — subjugation, negative programming, and the cultural putting-down of women’s sexuality. We start to carry a lot of blockages in that private space,” McBain says, gesturing to her crotch. “Yoni steaming is the ancient practice of using power of herbs to heal yourself.”

She designed special seat covers, which look a lot like toilet seats, to sit over 5-gallon buckets. At the bottom of the bucket, she puts a copper bowl filled with 13 herbs and spices, two more seasonings than you’d find in a bucket of KFC fried chicken.

These 13 herbs and spices have been used for eons, McBain explains. There’s actually a thriving market online for these time-honored herbs, with variations available for gentle, disinfecting, cleansing, cooling steams.


[Yoni steam herbs; Steamychick.com]

“We pour steaming water over the spices, then sit on top of it. The little hole at the top of the seat and the way you’re sitting actually creates a seal around your vagina. The steam opens up the tissues of your vagina, and the herbs can go up and heal things,” she says.

There are a lot of health claims surrounding yoni steaming, although you might be hard-pressed to find a doctor who’d confirm them. McBain believes steaming helps with menstrual issues like cramping, bloating and bodily exhaustion. Others say it increases fertility, speeds healing after giving birth, tightens the vagina, regulates irregular or absent periods, heals hemorrhoids, bacterial and yeast infections, and probably makes your pussy sparkle like a diamond and smell like Skittles.

“Physically, it feels good, but energetically, it’s amazing,” McBain says. She recounts the story of her first yoni steaming, a transcendental meditational experience that involved meeting generations of female ancestors, dating all the way back to Eve. It makes you wonder if one of the 13 herbs and spices is a hearty dose of LSD.


[Yoni steam herbs; Steamychick.com]

After the steaming, it’s time for “yoni sunning.”

“We lay down outside, naked, spread open our lips and the tissues of our pussy, so that the sun’s vitamin D can come in,” McBain says.

Once the twat is feeling warm and toasty, next comes yoni gazing.

“If you’ve ever done eye-gazing as a way to connect with somebody — just deeply gazing into their eyes — we do that with yoni gazing. Each woman takes her turn kneeling in front of another woman, gazing with love and appreciation and honor on her pussy, letting her feel loved and appreciated and honored.”

Finally, the ladies have a tea party to talk and journal about their yoni’s experience.

“Yoni steaming has taken on such a resurgence lately,” McBain says. And it’s true. Endorsement from public figures like Gwyneth Paltrow and her notorious GOOP lifestyle brand do attract attention, although not always in a good way.

For example, Gwen’s recommendation to shove jade eggs up your vagina prompted gynecologists to call bullshit on all the asserted “benefits” of laying an egg like a goose.

However, we’re not in the habit of telling ladies what they can and can’t do with their coochies. When it comes to your clam, the world is your oyster.