Hello, I’m Amory Jane! I am a sex educator, sex industry consultant, psilocybin facilitator, and former host of the podcast Sex on the Brain with Amory Jane. I am also the Director of Communications at She Bop, a women-owned sex toy boutique in Portland, Oregon.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by sex and relationships and have been a safe person for others to talk to about taboo topics. Even when I was young, I’d be minding my own business on the swing set, or reading a book under a tree, and my peers would ask me for the answers their parents weren’t giving them. Of course, this was before the internet. They were drawn to me because, even though I was shy, I was knowledgeable, candid, and non-judgmental. I had older siblings who kept me informed and I read a lot of adult books and encyclopedia pages about human bodies. Plus, I lived in a sex-positive household, and sex-positive households were rare in the Midwest in the 1990s.

I went to college in the 2000s, where I studied psychology and gender, and was a peer sex educator (“officially” instead of just on the playground). In 2006, I moved to Portland, Oregon and embraced my queerness and political activism. In 2008, I started graduate school with the goal of getting my Masters degree in Marriage, Couple, & Family Counseling and eventually becoming a sex therapist.

I was the grad school Black Sheep; trying to get my professors to learn and speak about more LGBTQIA issues, systemic racism, chronic illness and disability rights, psychedelics, BDSM, and polyamory. I saw gaps in our training, especially when it came to intersectional counseling and sex therapy, but I stuck with it hoping I could find more inclusive and radical learning opportunities once I became a counselor.

During my internship, I discovered that being a family counselor for the state was not the best fit for a tenderhearted rebel like me. There was much paperwork, and not a lot of room for my own intuition or preference for somatic therapy. What I ended up enjoying most about my job was helping people work through shame, and educating them about sex, consent, and relationships. So, even though I was afraid of “looking like a failure” for quitting the world of therapy before I even really began, I stopped being a therapist and started working at a progressive sex toy boutique called She Bop. I began as a retail associate and sex toy maven, but started developing workshops and teaching classes within my first year there. It has now been over eleven years since I taught my first professional sex ed workshop (The Joys of Toys) and — I know this sounds cliché — but since then I’ve never looked back. Teaching and talking about sex is where I belong.

My passion is consent-based, pleasure-focused sex education and entertainment. I love being a permission giver and catalyst for exploration. I love helping people feel empowered and grow in their sexuality and confidence. I do everything I do with authenticity, vulnerability, and humor. This is because I don’t want sex education and growth to be a source of major anxiety or stress – I want it to be fun, whenever possible! Shame can feel so heavy. I consider it my duty to help you lift that burden of shame, smash it on the ground, and get playful!

I approach sex education (and life) from an intersectional feminist lens. Oppression can have a major impact on sexual health and relationships, and therefore racial justice and equity belong at the forefront of sex education. I believe pleasure is a human right.

Further, while I am happy there are other sex ed professionals offering things like $3000 in-depth Tantric retreats and swingers parties in paradise, my sex ed style is all about reaching curious “common” (albeit open-minded) folk. Sex Education from Amory Jane is Sex Education for the People!

Since becoming a professional sex and sexuality educator in 2011, I have been written about in Playboy, featured on Fusion TV, been a guest on Savage Lovecast and The Sexually Liberated Woman podcast, and I was filmed for being pregnant and polyamorous on Louis Theroux’s BBC documentary Altered States. I have spoken on dozens of panels about sex and sexuality, been a guest lecturer at over 25 different colleges, won Best in Show 2015 at HUMP! Film Festival, started a live sex-positive variety show, and have taught hundreds of workshops around the country about ethical non-monogamy, consent, oral sex, BDSM, sex + cannabis, and more.

I love human sexuality and the work I do, and I love sharing everything I’ve learned in an entertaining and inclusive way. Please, click around on my website, and if you want to work together or have me on for an interview – just reach out!