We had the good fortune of connecting with Jo Mayari and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jo, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I shared parts of this journey online to my audience and community and this telling of my story created a space for women to feel safe to open up the depths of their hearts to me in coaching conversations. My coaching shifted from wellness to life to the beginning of someone’s sexual empowerment journey. Out of my own principle of integrity, in 2021 I decided to get properly trained as a Tantric Sex and Relationship coach and blended that with my training somatic integrative therapy and out birthed a powerful new way to help people heal and be liberated from shame, fear, judgement, and trauma. I knew that I could hold space for people based on my past career experiences, but the arena of sex, love, and relationships are far too important in my eyes to take lightly. And a lot of people already feel broken in it, and I wanted to have the training to heal and hold space with reverence and integrity.

When I think about the thought process, I would say I was guided by a curiosity for more and better for myself and the world out there. That inner voice and inner pull that most people say are intuition I have come to call as the Bougie Bruja, an inner wild woman archetype that continues to teach me that we are more than the stories we are given and we are whole in our desires for entrepreneurship and sacred sexuality.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My work and medicine is in helping women and couples create safety and trust in their bodies so that they can experience pleasure and love like never before. My speciality is taking people deep into their hearts so that they create healthy, secure, loving relationships in their life. I blend ritual, nervous system reprogramming, sensuality, and embodied education to unlock the intelligence of the mind, body, heart, and soul.

The path to becoming an embodied intimacy and relationship coach who also is a healer is not one you choose, it chooses you.

As a survivor of rape, I am a fierce warrior against slut-shaming and patriarchal conditioning, reclaiming personal power, and embodying radical AF self-love.
As a freshly divorced mom in my 40s co-creating a blended family with my beloved, I am a relentless champion for your dreams, no matter what critics or society say!

As a somatic integrative healer, I show you how to dance with your physical, mental, and emotional pain so that you can alchemize it into inner peace and resilience.

As a fierce, modern-day Bougie Bruja, I will help initiate you into connection with your deepest/highest source of wisdom and inner knowing.

As a life long student and NERD, I back it up with evidence-based science (if that excites you).

Everything I teach comes from my own creations. From struggling with body-image issues, isolation, and depression, I’ve embarked on a transformative journey. Now, I have a thriving business, surrounded by love and admiration, and radiating unwavering self-trust. My life has blossomed into one filled with abundance, affection, and a constant stream of joyful surprises.

The lessons I have learned along the way has become the very wisdom I share with my community from learning how to fall in love with your body after all the major changes in life, healing your heart from the deepest wounds of abuse to creating life filled with sensual delight.

What I want the world to know about my brand and story?

I want the world to know that the power in creating the life you of your deepest desires are all within. I am just a guide to walk you back home to your body’s sacred wisdom.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live in Oakland, CA but my adventures are all over Northern California. If my friends were to come visit for a week I’d start us off in a 2 night getaway in near the river in Sonoma County. We would start the adventure in our AirBnb having a lovely hot tub evening by the fire. The next day we would travel into Healdsburg for some wine tasting. We would go to go to Hawley and Selby tasting rooms followed by a late lunch early dinner at Bravas Bar de Tapas followed by pie over and ice cream at Noble Pie. After we would go and pick up some groceries and we’d head back to the Airbnb for a night of cooking, sipping on some wine we picked up, and getting intimate with our lives.

After our little getaway we’d head towards Oakland and SF to do some neighborhood exploring. We’ll start in Oakland where I live and move our bodies first by going on a neighborhood walk, I like to call them ancestor walks, or we go and do yoga at Corepower Yoga or another local studio. After we would pick up some lunch at Grand Lake Kitchen and then walk over for some park hangs at Lake Merritt. After we would head to Rockridge neighborhood to do a little window shopping and browsing. I love checking out the local stores, every one in that neighborhood stretch of College Avenue are special and unique.

The next day we’d go and relax at Watercourse Way, my favorite day spa in Palo Alto and unwind from all the adventures we took in the first few days. The day would be filled with ease, no agenda, just going where life brings us.

Then we’d head over to SF and check out some of my favorite museums: SF Moma, DeYoung, which has a killer view of SF. After we’d head down to Hayes Valley and choose from any of the restaurants there: Souvla, The Bird, or Domo. After and depending on the fog, we’ll head to lands end to go and watch the sunset.

The rest of the trip I’ll have my friends decide on what we might do. We have a jar at home with my family where we write down some free and local adventures and we might just play and create the next experiences from that.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am so incredibly grateful for the coaches and mentors I’ve had along the way. One in particular that comes to mind is my coach Sarita Walsh. She has been an incredible support system as I navigate and create a new way of being in my life as a mother and entrepreneur. We have been friends for years and I recently hired her as my coach because I was moving through some huge major life changes and finding myself slipping back into some negative thought patterns that I had thought I had already worked through. I was finding myself slipping into my old ways of being as I was starting to create my new life, something I worked really hard to do after my divorce. Her guidance, space holding, and ally for my transformation was absolutely incredible. Her frameworks were simple and impactful.

Website: https://www.joportia.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjoportia/

Image Credits
Natasha Renée

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.