Dr. Genevieve Marcel speaks on the existential dimensions of sexuality, desire, and the erotic life — territory that psychology has rarely approached with the philosophical seriousness it deserves.

Her lectures draw on existential psychotherapy, clinical sexology and her own emerging framework of existential sex therapy to address questions that sit at the intersection of the self, the body and the life a person is trying to build.

Areas of Inquiry

Sexuality as an Expression of the Self

Sexual life is not separate from the self — it is one of the self's most unguarded expressions. Dr. Marcel explores what a person's erotic life reveals about how they understand themselves, what they believe they are permitted to want, and what it means to inhabit desire as an act of selfhood rather than a performance of it.

Authenticity and the Erotic

Drawing on existential philosophy and clinical practice, Dr. Marcel examines the relationship between authenticity and desire — why the person who cannot fully be themselves in life so often cannot fully want in the body, and what it takes to become the author of one's own erotic experience rather than its manager or its captive.

Sexual Difficulties as Expressions of the Broader Life

Low desire, erotic shutdown, and sexual disconnection are rarely only sexual. They are the body's way of registering something true about a person's life — its safety, its freedom, its losses, its unlived possibilities. Dr. Marcel brings an existential lens to these presentations, reframing clinical symptoms as meaningful signals rather than deficits to be corrected.

Contexts

Graduate programs in clinical psychology, counseling and related fields. Professional conferences in sex therapy, psychotherapy and existential psychology. Invited colloquia and symposia.

Inquiry

To inquire about an invited lecture, please write genevieve@genevievemarcel.com

Excerpts from Previous Lectures