We Burned Us Down So We Could Grow Us New
@jessica_tartaro2026-04-23T12:27:54-07:00Most people are afraid to acknowledge when a relationship is falling apart. It took me a long time to acknowledge mine was. But in doing so, I am freeing it.
Most people are afraid to acknowledge when a relationship is falling apart. It took me a long time to acknowledge mine was. But in doing so, I am freeing it.
Join us for a FREE on-line panel with all three Season 1 Couples from "We Too: Real Life Stories with Real Life Couples"! We will dive more deeply into each of their interviews and welcome YOUR questions to guide this candid, unscripted and brave conversation. 6-7pm on Wednesday April 29th. Register on Zoom!
"We Too" is a monthly video interview with one committed couple to reveal both your strengths as well as what it really looks like when you struggle, to reduce the isolation and create a source of resilience for long term couples. Interested in being interviewed? Fill out this application to be considered: https://tinyurl.com/2w6twcp2.
Join me for this two-part, online and FREE training on how to tend conflict well. This talk is part of the Northwest Grief Tending Mentoring Program Speaker Series, but all who seek to heal and expand your relationship to conflict are welcome. Wed, Jan 21 and Wed, Jan 28th, 6:30pm - 8pm PST. Register and donate at: https://events.humanitix.com/speaker-series-conflict-tending-for-grief-tenders.
THIS CLASS IS SOLD OUT! In these times when so much of life can feel out of control - and community as we know it can leave so many needs untended - we invite you to a unique 4.5-hour experience designed to help you revive hope through relating with others. Join us Saturday February 7th from 12:30-5pm. Located at The Hive in Port Hadlock. Class currently half full - register today to save your seat!
In these times when so much of life can feel out of control - and community as we know it can leave so many needs untended - we invite you to a unique 6-hour experience designed to help you revive hope through relating with others. Join us Friday September Friday, September 19, 2025 from 10am - 4pm. Located at The Hive in Port Hadlock. Early Bird deadline to register September 10th!
At two and a half years into my parenting journey, I decided to distill the insights I have gleaned through coaching adults that guide my humbling, hapless and sometimes helpful child rearing. Let me know what you think!
On a fateful Friday in March of 2020, I met with a mid-morning client in my cozy intimacy coaching office in the beautiful Mt. Baker Block Building in downtown Port Townsend. Neither my client nor I knew how significant that session would be.
Join us Sunday October 20th from 3-5pm for a lab space on conflict where you will have the chance to share about a conflict in your life and ask the circle for support in whatever form you choose. $5-$15 sliding scale. Come offer support, be supported and discover how many of us are carrying unresolved conflicts in our lives!
I hope you will join me for ~EITHER~ a live class on Sunday June 2nd in Port Hadlock or a virtual session on the afternoon of Tuesday June 4th to learn how addressing conflict directly and from a grounded place can actually deepen and grow the trust across all of your relationships. Email DrTartaro@gmail.com to register.
Join me for a taste of couple's work that involves stepping out from the isolation as a couple into a community of other couples bravely doing our work - together - to get better at intimacy. Drop in night Monday March 11th from 5:30-7:30pm. Address will be sent once you sign up. Advanced registration and preliminary interview required.
Join me on Sunday afternoon November 19th from 3-5pm for the chance to connect as a couple and feed your relationship through simple, playful communication games. Plus, for parents with children, affordable childcare is available! Read on!
On September 21st, we gather for the second of the three salons in the final Intimacy Salon season of the year - and YOU are invited! If you enjoy online learning and have wanted to dip a toe in the waters of making connection a practice, I hope you will join us on Wednesday, September 21st. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Join Jessica & James for a nourishing and playful celebration of partnership on Saturday, October 8th from 1-5pm. The first half will focus on communication tools for growing feelings of compassion, desire, playfulness and trust, led by Jessica. The second half will include a hands-on introduction to non-sexual partner massage for greater relaxation and body connection, led by James. All couples welcome!
After a successful summer series - and based on feedback from nearly 30 community participants - I will be offering a twice a month, in person, Fall SpeakUP series starting September 1st and running through November 17th. I hope you will join us!
In Season 3 of the 2022 Intimacy Salons, we will be focusing on applying the tools and skills we have been learning all year in our relationships with one another. Rather than a slide show being the focus, this season, your own heart and relational process will be the teacher.
When conflict takes over your relationships, most people default to silence. But silence wounds our relationships. When you use this tool, you won’t have to pay the price of silence between you again. 1:45 I’ve been seeing a lot of this in my private pra...
This week, in light of the recent school shooting and the abundance of pain, frustration, and horror that has cloaked our country like a gritty silt, I wanted to revisit one of my favorite topics: how to listen to one another. Think of this show like a “how to” for a basic building block of listening.
Reflective listening is deceptively simple. Anyone can practice it. And it has the potential to help us “catch up” when overwhelming events can be too much to digest on our own. 1:30 Emotionally metabolize events that are too big 2:15 Listening for du...
Many of you have been asking for it, and finally, it's happening. SpeakUP in person is coming back. Starting June 2nd, I will be leading a monthly, summer SpeakUP connection event IN PERSON every first Thursday in June, July & August at a beautiful, private residence on Old Eaglemount on the Olympic Peninsula. Email me your RSVP to receive the address.
When the going gets tough in relationship, sometimes you need more than words to reconnect you - you need bodies. In this episode "teaser", I introduce why sex as a practice can save and sustain your connection over the long term. Check out the full sho...
This week I’m going to explore the experience of relationships getting “stuck” and how to come back to flow. By “getting stuck”, what I’m referring to is when you have things unsaid from a moment in time that came before and you can’t fully move on from that previous moment. That’s the sticking agent - the unsaid thing.
Having things unsaid in a relationship will clog the pipes of your connection. In this episode, I explain that it’s never too late to get vulnerable and bring the flow back. 00:49 Big announcement about “Under 10” 1:39 Where to find me on Patreon goi...
While I was in Hawaii, I paid a lot of attention to my boundaries, including where they were respected and where they were not. Which I do normally anyway. Learning to set and honor my boundaries is a big part of how I've been healing my history of trauma. From my travels, one particular incident stands out.
“Just moving on '' after the worst of the pandemic poses major risks to our quality of life and capacity to connect. When you have the courage to slow down and honor what you just went through, you can retrieve and re-integrate the parts of you that got “stuck” in the stressors of the last two years.
“Just moving on '' after the worst of the pandemic poses major risks to our quality of life and capacity to connect. When you have the courage to slow down and honor what you just went through, you can retrieve and re-integrate the parts of you that got...
In this blog, I delve into the importance of a self-pleasure practice and specify steps you can take to create or deepen your practice. It takes courage to talk about this - and read about it! I'm grateful you're here.
In this week’s episode, I delve into the importance of a self-pleasure practice and specific steps you can take to create or deepen your practice. Whether you’ve been pleasuring yourself for a lifetime or have never felt ready – until now – I’m grateful...
Since the mask mandate was lifted in Washington on March 11th, the world is slowly beginning to re-open. It would be tempting to put the stressors of the last two years behind us. Yet when we "forget" we do a great injustice to the health of our hearts and minds. How do we transition gently while honoring what just happened?
Most people feel some shame about masturbation. Yet self-pleasuring is a powerful way to know what your body wants. In this blog, I tell the story of how I met the Grandmother of Masturbation and invite you to reflect on your earliest messages about your body’s pleasure.
Most people feel some shame about masturbation. Yet self-pleasuring is a powerful way to know what your body wants. In this episode, I tell the story of how I met the Grandmother of Masturbation and invite you to reflect on your earliest messages about ...
In the moments when your feelings are bigger than you can handle, it’s important to have options. In this blog, I share three “go to” principles to practice both when you most need it and especially in the times when you don’t.
In the moments when your feelings are bigger than you can handle, it’s important to have options. In this show, I share three “go to” principles to practice both when you most need it and especially in the times when you don’t. 1:35 No one-size-fits-all ...
When we only show our outsides to each other, we can feel alone. In this blog, I show you my insides and give you permission to do the same and to feel how connected we truly are.
When we only show our outsides to each other, we can feel alone. In this episode, I show you my insides and give you permission to do the same and to feel how connected we truly are. 1:05 There’s one main problem with being f*cked up 1:33 What if we had...
Opening with gratitude when love touches you can shake you to your core. Gratitude is not for sissies. In this blog, I explain why and offer you practices for growing your capacity to use the embodied "thank you" to let love deeply in.
Though it may seem simple, opening with gratitude when what you want in love touches you can shake you to your core. In this episode, I explain why and offer you practices for growing this capacity. 1:21 Caveat: you may not like this story 1:40 Somethi...
When you start to get what you want in love, a whole new challenge arises – the opportunity to learn to live life at a higher voltage. In this episode, I offer you practices for expanding gradually so you can receive what you want without getting in you...
When you start to get what you want in love, a whole new challenge arises – the opportunity to learn to live life at a higher voltage. In this episode, I offer you practices for expanding gradually so you can receive what you want without getting in your own way.
The ability to respond with forgiveness and understanding in a world that is teaching us to fight and condemn feels Divine. In this essay, I reflect on what it means to me to become better than my own history of trauma in order to heal myself and the world around me.
This practice is totally about making out, but about so much more, too. It’s about allowing yourself to be in full pleasure with what is, rather than finding what’s missing and focusing on what isn’t. Be warned, this is an advanced practice. And the more vulnerable you feel, the harder it will be. It can also multiple the happiness quotient in your relationship by one hundred-fold. I’m excited to show you how.
You can spend your life focusing on what you don't want and criticizing the people who want to help you. Or you can get oh-so-turned on about the best two minutes of your life. You decide. 1:40 The negativity bias saves us time and again 3:00 But it un...
I’m going to begin by stating the obvious. In order to ask for it – whatever “it” is - you have to have some clue about what you want. For example, when placing an order at a restaurant, you are expected to specify, “I would like beef curry, spice level 3 with a side of brown rice”. If you don’t know what you want, when the waiter shows up at your table, you’re going to have a very tough time getting fed that evening.
Without knowing what you want, you will have a very hard time getting it. In this episode, I explore how to clear the channel between you and the voice of what you want so that you can hear the animal of your desire. 1:05 In order to ask for it, you have...
It’s exceedingly rare these days that I get hit on. Between infrequently leaving the house, a steady decline in my hygiene since 2020 and the fact that I broadcast “happily married” in my every step, I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like. So yesterday afternoon when the guy in the co-op parking lot started flirting with me, it was like a lost art waking from a winter slumber.
A once a month night of adult discussion, candid sharing, meaningful connection and live intimacy coaching for anyone looking for real talk about what makes relationships thrive beginning February 16th, 2022, and going through January 18th, 2023.
Across my private practice, I have recently been hearing about your hesitation and sometimes outright paralysis when it comes to telling your partner what you actually think, feel and need. In this show, I want to normalize why that can feel so scary as well as explore the impact of withholding truths on the aliveness of your love.
In this episode, I attempt to normalize why asking for what you need whether big or small can feel scary when you think it might rock the boat of your intimate relationship. 1:30 Dr. Brene Brown’s definition of vulnerability 1:50 In order for love to ge...
In this episode, I introduce two principles for growing community that I have learned from my years of starting groups. In this era of prolonged social isolation, it’s revolutionary to still find ways to gather. I invite you to get your hands dirty with ...
In this episode, I’m going to share with you two, simple practices I have been honing for years on how to start community in the hopes that you will join me in rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty and getting to work filling some of those gaps.
Individual therapy is important. But it will never alone fill the needs that community so powerfully meets. We need the village more than ever. In this episode I explain how being a part of a healthy community, in addition to doing your personal work, is key for activating our blueprint for health.
Individual therapy is important. But it will never alone fill the needs that community so powerfully meets. We need the village more than ever. In this episode I explain how being a part of a healthy community, in addition to doing your personal work, is...
This episode is about the importance of talking to one another during love making and all the many ways that communication in sex is vital for increasing the pleasure and deepening the connection. Something most people never learned.
Most people never learned why talking matters in our love making. In this episode, I explain how words in bed are the road signs orienting you for the journey and teach you three different forms of communication you can use to connect to your partner dur...
Happy new year! I pray the new year has begun in peace for you. Though I happen to know, because you have told me, that for many of you it hasn’t. This episode is about all the friction that has been happening lately - in couples, in families and across community.
Everyone gets triggered. What makes the difference between constant breakdown and healthy relating is what you tell yourself and how you mend. In this episode, I invite you to bring compassion to your triggers so you can learn from and heal these momen...
This episode is my fiftieth installment of “Under 10”, marking a full year since the birth of this podcast. You could certainly call this a climactic moment. In celebration of the momentous occasion, this week I’m going to reveal to you a personal sexual secret.
In Episode #50, I share with you a secret about my sex life and reveal a lesson that I’ve been teaching you all along throughout all my previous forty-nine episodes, though you may not have realized it was actually about sex. 1:38 Climax in movies or lit...
Unless you have the training, it can be easy to talk at people rather than learning how to talk to them, leaving you lonely and disconnected. In this episode, I introduce you step-by-step to the simple, life changing practice of “tracking impact” and cr...
Pet names are sweet and fun. But if you use them too early in your relationship, you risk falling in love with an idea of a sweetheart rather than the actual person. Here’s how you can avoid that pitfall and help your relationship last. 1:30 Remember th...
Instead of only sounding in your love making when you feel pleasure, in this episode I explain why you might moan in order to expand your pleasure and in so doing, become a source of your own enchantment. 1:08 I’ll be talking about sex in this episode 1:...
It can be easy to rush through a quick squeeze without realizing that hugs can be a source of deep nourishment for our relationships. In this episode, I introduce you to the four principles for learning to give good hugs. 1:11 These two men said I give ...
Healthy intimacy is not a given. It takes practice, especially when we don’t feel like relating. In this episode, I break down how to align with your desire for connection even through your resistance. 00:55 Intimacy in all forms is a practice. 1:21 I’m...
Following the intensity of last week’s podcast, this week’s show is about the period of rest after the expansion, why down time is so important and my favorite suggestions for how to nurture your nervous system. 1:14 How I first learned about coming down...
In this episode, I share the sad yet empowering story of our recent miscarriage and how that event challenged and deepened my bond with my husband and brought me closer to my community. May this account help others on a similar path to know you are not a...
The hard times in life are unavoidable. But feeling alone and isolated inside of them is not. How we listen when our loved ones are struggling can make all the difference. 1:21A hypothetical, low stakes conversation and three options for listening 2:20 ...
Loss hurts. And in the face of it, we can easily resist. When we consider softening something – anything – when we confront loss, we stand to birth new parts of ourselves from which to keep living. 1:17 I share a personal story of epic love, high stake...
Pacing our communication and seeking consent for the small and big transitions in conversation can smooth the rough edges of our relating and build trust. In this episode, I share this “relational superpower” with you step-by-step. 1:13 I tell you what...
Shame keeps us small, cut off from our instincts and separate. In this episode, I teach you a practice for taking your power back from shame as well as helping others do the same. 1:42 Definition of shame from Dr. Brene Brown 2:33 Get curious about your ...
The default is to see others through a narrow lens of what separates us. In Episode 38, I challenge you to look for what connects you to others and take your power back to shape your perception of the people around you. 1:20 I serenade you. 2:32 When we ...
Though it’s easy to blame our partners when we feel turned off, sometimes it’s ourselves that we have fallen out of love with, not them. Beginning by restoring our relationship to ourselves can salvage our love affairs. 1:10 How the pattern of compromi...
If eye gazing makes you squirm, you aren’t alone. But have you ever wondered why? In this episode, I describe the process by which eye gazing reveals the truth of our hearts. 1:07 A first eye gazing exercise 2:66 A peek into what I teach couples in inti...
It’s easy for relationships to burn hot and to burn quickly out. But if you’re after lasting love, it’s the friendship that you will want to prioritize. In this episode, I explain why and how. 01:10 Many couples are struggling right now. 2:25 My high sc...
Without skill or care, an apology can re-inflame the argument and cost us greatly in time, energy and emotions. In this episode, I teach you the four steps to making a heartfelt and efficient apology. 1:18 Think about the last time you apologized 1:38 Ap...
If we aren’t careful, we can treat kissing like a stop along the way to sex. But good kissing can be its own destination and invites us to arrive, over and again, through our lips. In this episode, I tell you how. 2:13 I always considered myself a good...
Most of us were taught to hang on in relationship no matter what. In this episode, I talk about how letting go and creating space can actually bring us closer to love especially in long term relationships. 1:14 Closeness without space creates imbalance....
Many of us learned that crying is a sign of weakness. In this episode, I suggest that to the contrary, crying is a sign that you are paying attention to life as long as you are safe enough to let go of control. 00:58 When was the last time you cried? 01:...
Everyone has the wild feminine in us – the part that feels most deeply. In a world that says “you’re too sensitive” as a way to keep us numb, it’s vital that we cultivate the relational skills to take exquisite care of the sensitive hearts that want to t...
Fighting the feeling of time always running out takes discipline and is necessary to truly live. In this episode, I teach you about the “vertical” axis of time and how to make moments count. 1:48 Busy is not a feeling 2:07 A lack of presence will be ref...
In this episode I explore the intersection of personal healing work and anti-racism, beginning with "decentering". I attempt to describe how decentering ourselves as white people can be a deeply healing practice to us and to the collective wound of raci...
Given the intense stress of this past year, it’s likely a part of you is stuck in time and still shocked at it all. Emotional digestion practices are essential for getting unstuck and liberating our energy to receive life in the present. The “wow” pract...
When we are scared, it’s easy to judge others based on our fears. But when we reveal our more vulnerable parts to one another, we shift from relating to our projections of others to relating to the complex, messy and marvelous humans actually in front o...
After this past year, most of us are sitting atop a mountain of tension and unexpressed anger. In this week’s episode, I discuss why anger is essential to survival and what can make the difference between anger that hurts us and others and anger that tra...
Join me for a six-session, outdoor summer series where we will cultivate, practice and embody the skills necessary to connect over difference. Starting June 9th, we will meet outdoors every other Wednesday during June, July and August in a spacious, 3-acre private residence in Chimacum, WA. Final gathering will be August 18th. I have the feeling that together, we can cultivate and refine the basic tools to support mending where our community has been torn the previous year. I hope you will register and join this journey!
Projecting is all about our perception. It refers to the process of seeing through the lens of the fears and anxieties hidden in our minds. When we can listen with presence, we can pierce through our projections so that we are not relating to fragments of our past but to real, live and unique people in our present. Listening without projecting is essential for connecting and reconnecting with community, and especially when we are relating to people different from us. I hope you will join us for the final online SpeakUP of the season on Wednesday May 26th to practice listening not projecting!
Fear has divided so many of our communities. Are you willing to try to connect through the differences? It's not an easy task. In this episode, I offer initial steps for connecting through conflict. 01:16 Where I live, there is fear in the air. 2:14 Con...
When love comes knocking, can you grow beyond who you have been to let it in? That’s the question I ask in this episode as well as offer a partner practice that can transform your relationship to receiving. 00:32 I start by giving you some love – can yo...
Resisting the urge to numb ourselves from the overwhelm of life takes determination. In this episode, I teach you a simple tool that you can practice any time for reclaiming the preciousness of your moments and turning stale air into pixie dust. 00:43 M...
Most adults misplace our curiosity along the way of growing up. We stop giving ourselves permission to probe into life as we may have once done as children. In this time in the world of uncertainty, pain, confusion and fear, bringing curiosity to our relationships is a game changer. It can shift disconnection into connection. Fear into safety. Enemy into friend. Join us May 5th from 5-6:30pm at Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend to ignite your curiosity in community together!
Politeness teaches us to ignore what is right in front of us. Curiosity gives us permission to get out loud again, name what’s present and revive our nerve endings. In episode 21, I invite you to reclaim curiosity with me. 1:20 She asked me about what wa...
Boundaries not only protect us, they make it possible for us to let others in. However, if your emotional sensitivity is a survival mechanism, it can feel impossible to stop taking responsibility for others. In episode 20, I describe the challenge of bou...
The theme for our April 21st, online event will be "Reconnection". Together we will ask the questions, "What has this past year been like for me? What have I lost? What have I gained?" Reconnection is not as simple as it might seem. Reconnecting well invites us to tune into all that has transpired in order to expand again sustainably. I hope to see you April 21st to reconnect mindfully and heartfully!
When the tough stuff in relationships arise, most adults look the other way which can be deadly for the quality of our relating over time. But if you have options, you don’t have to default to avoidance. In episode 19, I offer a 5-step process for addr...
The bottom line about grief is that it’s better to feel it than resist it. Yet, most adults resist grief. With episode 18, I demystify the communal grieving process as well as make a connection between pleasure and grief that I bet you didn’t realize. 1:...
In Episode 17 I talk about how using a timer can not only help you be more productive in life, it can also intensify and direct the heat, desire and yearning in your physical intimacy. I dare you to try it this week. 0:49 “I’ll time you!” worked every t...
Reconnection is not as simple as it might seem. When we go so long without social contact, our relational system by necessity, changes, to adapt to the solitude. Reconnecting well invites us to tune into our current relational bodies in order to move at a pace that will help us expand again sustainably. Join us from 5-6:30pm on Wednesday April 14th at Chetzemoka Park in Port Townsend to reconnect well together.
There’s so much in life right now that can’t be fixed or changed. The harder option is to listen, ground and feel. In this episode, I walk you through how to say nothing as a listener and in so doing, effectively lighten the emotional loads of those ar...
While infants can’t do it, as adults we can ask for what we need when we most need it. In this week’s episode, I share candidly about my rough week and how I found my words to climb out of my despair. Episode 15 is here. 1:00 I introduce you to my sist...
Next SpeakUP on Wednesday, March 24th at 6:30pm PST will be on saying, "I'm sorry". We will all mess up, hurt people we love and say things we didn't mean. It's how we clean it up that will determine the depth and integrity of our relationships. Delivering a heartfelt apology asks a great amount of presence and willingness to feel how intimately we are each connected and how much we impact one another. Join us next SpeakUP to practice together!
It’s an advanced skill to avoid blaming those we trust the most when we are hurting. And it’s vital for ensuring we preserve our sources of support when we most need them. Episode 14 is here. 1:00 A definition of blaming in relationship2:00 The conundru...