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...Love Stories 
Testimonials,  Unabridged

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"If you're considering working with Candice, consider no more -- not only are she and the work powerful...you'll also realize just how powerful YOU are!"

This workshop, "Boundaries From the Inside Out," had a profound impact on me. As a result of the activities, participant interactions, and support from Candice, I realized that I'd been confusing sexuality and intimacy for most of my life. I was able to peer more deeply into the subconscious belief that in order to have intimacy with someone, there needed to be sexual activity. I was also able to deeply address my own challenges with boundaries and authentic communication. This experience was so empowering for me and has shaped and informed how I show up as an Intimacy Coach, as well as in my personal interactions. 

Through various boundary and communication activities, I learned that I had a deep knowing of what energetic boundaries felt like, when they were being honored, and when they were not. However, prior to the workshop, I found it challenging to acknowledge these boundaries, and even more challenging to communicate them to others. As a result of concrete practice during the workshop, I was able, for one of the first times in my life, to clearly communicate boundaries, and without guilt or shame! I am so grateful for the intelligent design and intentionality behind how Candice works. 

Working with Candice is like having a grandmother spirit in the room -- there's abundant love and support, with clear, honest feedback that allows transformation to be possible. Just like the quintessential grandmother, Candice won't let you stay in the cycle of your own bullsh*t that keeps you stuck and limited in your emotional, sexual, and human expression. She gives it to you how it is, while lovingly helping to expand your container to see the vastness and excellence of what you can create. 

Much love,
Lee Noto

Intimacy Coach & Sensuality Specialist ♥️
www.leenoto.com

"The is no homework, like Candice homework!"- Anthony - East Coast-2020

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"Not for the meek, but for those on a serious quest – you won’t do better.I am a better man for knowing Candice Dugan!!"

Candice is a Dakini in the finest sense of the term.

​She embodies tantra as blessed energy, and enjoys a perceptual reality rarely seen in these times. Studying with Candice should be seen as an honor, an opportunity to see oneself and to explore the energetic within.

To work with Candice is to upgrade your reality, to bring light into your relationships, both with yourself and others.
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She is a bright spark and working with her will be challenging but fun, as she has a rare sense of humor that cuts to the core. She is fierce, but compassionate and will ‘be there’ on your journey as only a true master can be. Not for the meek, but for those on a serious quest – you won’t do better.
I am a better man for knowing Candice Dugan!!
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Victor McWind www.victormcwind.com
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"Candice helped guide me out of living in a matrix of imposed expectations into an authentic relationship with myself."

Energy management:
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 Twice in my life, my energy - my chi, my vitality - became so depleted that I came down with chronic illness. This was my body’s way of saying: “you are living unsustainably, and you need to regroup!” The way I had been conditioned to interact in this world no longer served me. Our culture celebrates the extravert who is constantly on the go, never slowing down. I was lacking access to a different model, one that would not drive me to burnout and overwhelm as regularly.

Candice taught me how to get in touch with and balance my inner energetic tides. As a highly sensitive being, I learned that time spent “in” is how I recharge my soma: being in nature, watching movies, reading, meditating, exercising and journaling. I learned how to map, monitor and access the truth of my energetic overhead and take pride in living within my means, emotionally and financially.

Boundaries:
I grew up in an environment where boundaries were neither celebrated nor respected. Before working with Candice, I had a deep need to create a buoyant vessel and discard the flawed intimacy training that I had been using to navigate this world. Candice taught me how to upgrade my operating system for interacting with others, and, in broader terms, life itself.

In learning how to articulate my needs with others, I noticed that real intimacy begins to show up. I started to notice what I let in from the way I had trained family members and friends to even my exposure to advertisements from commercial interests and storylines from the media. I reclaimed my choice around how I communicate verbally, physically and electronically.
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James Conners-2019-BROOKLYN, NY
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​late bloomer
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"There are probably not many people who would not benefit from learning more about love, sex, and the human body’s capacity for pleasure!

I had no idea what I would be getting into, but I knew I wanted to turn my life around.  I was over 70 when I realized that I had a choice at that point: to continue to withdraw from the world and from myself, or to explore life. 

I had been through a really bad, long-standing sexual relationship that ended about 6 months before I started working with Candice.  For about 10 years I had shut myself down as a sexual being. 

I’ve worked through a great deal of fear about sex, and even revulsion against myself.  These feelings had evidently been instilled into me at an early age, had been fairly well hidden somewhere in my psyche during much of my adult life, but had become dominant during the bad sexual experience of the previous decade.  It has not been easy to work through these things – as I’ll describe below – but after a year and a half (including just two sessions with Candice, each covering 2-3 days) I am enjoying a greatly revitalized life.  I’m having fun! – of many kinds.

It is delightful to be with Candice; her loving and ebullient personality creates trust and helps to break through an initial wall of anxiety.  As the work goes on, monsters from the past come to the surface.  They don’t want to be banished, and find ways of fighting against the work Candice is doing: by getting angry at her, or by getting ill, for example.  She is strong and patient in waiting through these difficulties, and continues to radiate love under even the most difficult circumstances."
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---"Late Bloomer," a professional woman, over 70.....
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he said...., she said......
an interview:

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they said: “We love referring our friends and clients to you because working with you is so positive. So many of us have no idea what is possible and you have really opened our view. Anytime we get an indication that a couple in our lives would like to smooth out the rough edges with each other and go deeper, we like to point them in your direction. If you are on this path, Candice is a trustworthy and loving guide into the intimate arts.

We have been married for 41 years. We are deeply devoted to one another and love each other very much. We have grown and transformed many aspects of ourselves and our relationship together over the years. We had plateaued and stalled when it came to our intimate and sexual growth. We were both hungry for new ways of communicating, sharing, expressing and understanding one another. We needed a new way to be intimate with each another. We had both reached a point where we were both eager and open to getting to know our unique, individual sexualities independently of one another and then together." 

What were your hesitations when you were first making the decision to work with me, and what helped you overcome them?

she said: “I hesitated only because I was unsure if I could be completely open with you there during the phase where we invited you into our bedroom for coaching. This was an edge for me that I am grateful I overcame very easily.” 

he said: “My hesitation was due to a lack of familiarity with the overall topic of sexual energy in general. I had no idea what I didn’t know. I didn’t know what was possible or even what you offered. If I am hungry for a hot dog, thats clear and specific. Opening up our sexual universe is like being hungry for something and not knowing what you are actually hungry for."

she said: “I had done an intensive retreat with you in Portland and had such an amazing experience. I came home after that and he got very excited.” 

he said: “She returned from the Portland intensive activated and glowing. I could see and feel the shift in her and I thought working with you together could be good for both of us! She was the driving force!”

What’s a concrete change or improvement that you’ve seen in your intimacy and sexual life since we’ve been working together?

she said: “I feel you guiding us as if you are with us sometimes. I am so much more relaxed and open to being together sexually. We are communicating better than ever when making love with fewer misunderstandings between us.” 

he said: “Our intimacy is less frenetic, more deliberate, patient and mutual.” 

How would you describe what it’s like to work with me?

he said: “Gentle, respectful, safe and loving are characteristics of the reverent environment that you create for such a sensitive subject. It is good pheromones and just a wonderful interpersonal mystery you have opened up for us.” 

she said: “You approach your work with great sensitivity, immense respect and a huge amount of knowledge. I felt safe, capable and in loving hands.”

he said: “You know where and how to find where we are at in our evolution in this world. You really meet us right where we are. Your confidence and safe style took us on an expansive journey which we have been able to integrate and apply back in our intimate life!” 

-Professionals, Parents and Pioneers in Human Potential and Health Reform-East Coast-60-ish
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"my body was a source of shame and confusion..."

"For most of my life, my body was a source of shame and confusion. I wasn't fully present in my body. Feeling safe around sexual energy was a big challenge. Candice helped me step into my body and, therefore, into my complete self. I'm enjoying a significant shift in how I experience sexual energy. I see it as an integral part of my life force energy. 

Candice created a very safe place and space for me to release decades of grief and shame. She has a gift for taking what could be a very delicate subject and turning it into a playful exchange. She is truly an empath and often knows what I'm experiencing even before I can put words to it. 
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As I've begun to practice what she has taught me, I find my relationship to my body is much more positive and loving. This has spilled over (beautifully) into my connection with my husband. He's benefiting from all that I've been doing and sharing with him. 
I now have tools and techniques for getting and staying present in my body. As well as tools for setting appropriate boundaries around what feels right for me. All this has happened in just a couple of sessions and some interim coaching. I can't wait to see what comes next.”

 Mother of 4- Grandmother-Business Woman-Artist-Mentor and Healer- California-2016
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"Before beginning to work with Candice, I thought the zone of sexual healing was a fanciful new age creation that simply did not have any real world application. My own defense system labeled sexual energetic work as unnecessary, pretty useless, mangy and dangerous."

"I had always been able to reach people with my humor, though what makes me fundamentally me had felt out of reach. Coming out of a process of deep inner work that spanned many years, I was having difficulty taking all that I had learned and integrating it back into my life. I had gone to the moon with a one-way ticket and needed to come home. I wasn’t able to see myself clearly, as I had been repeating ancient patterns of creating insecure interpersonal connections and relegating my essential being into unseen realms to maintain a small sense of safety.

A very hurt child in me had been at the helm of my internal operating platform. I was in an abusive relationship with myself, which very badly needed to evolve. Relationships were more of a chess match than a place to relate, express, surrender and simply be. Every form of relating entailed a deal with my younger parts or a veritable sense of holding back because I just didn’t trust that I was safe to be myself in this world. It became clear to me that the imprints from a traumatic childhood were no longer serving me as an adult, and it was time to ask for help in transforming myself.

Before beginning to work with Candice, I thought the zone of sexual healing was a fanciful new age creation that simply did not have any real world application. My own defense system labeled sexual energetic work as unnecessary, pretty useless, mangy and dangerous. I projected all of my fears about sexuality on to Candice. A deeply wounded part of me simply could not trust women. The imagination of the little boy inside of me created a female praying mantis out of Candice, who would, inevitably, at some point, bite my head off when she was done with me!

I’ve had ongoing issues with cash exchanges around spiritual work. Candice’s patience, loving attention and steady presence dissolved my fears. Her centered state of being created the possibility for safety and trust. I came to realize that it is beyond a noble act for Candice to have taken this on as her vocation and cutting edge of service in our world (and for nature to have chosen her to be this amazing expression of love, too). To support herself in our economic system, the financial component is totally necessary. There is nothing wrong with being in the business of love. In fact, we need more people to choose this path to help heal one another and our planet.

I certainly tested Candice, as I let go into deeper levels of revealing myself. She met this part of me with her own truth, which led to the cultivation of freedom in loving relationship. My own amorphic nature allowed me to absorb by osmosis the best parts of her loving nature in my own core. In our energetic union, I surrendered to the pathways of bliss that she had created in herself. In letting go of the complications and complexity of viewing myself in an outdated, narcissistic paradigm, I felt safe enough to surrender to an illumined, deeper knowing, intelligence and flow in nature.

Candice has been the catalyst for my beginning to explore the wonder, awe, nuance and delicate beauty of the heart. I’m much more comfortable in my own skin, and I am in the process of developing and cultivating a loving relationship with myself and those around me. I have a sense of healthy grounding, which is best be described by the Talking Heads:

"feet on the ground, head in the sky,

it’s okay, I know nothing’s wrong..."

As an extremely sensitive individual, I have found Candice’s style to be energizing, self-affirming and beautifully compatible with my own needs in this world. In learning how to manage my energy and sensitivity, I have become literate in the language of feeling rather than a constant victim of the rip currents of overwhelm and overstimulation.

By offering opportunities to feel safe in my body, Candice helped to open up different pathways of relating and connecting with others, and, more generally, with life and nature herself. I have developed respect for my own defenses and resiliency patterns. Discernment is replacing judgment, especially around those younger parts. I have better access to my birthright place of timelessness, surrender and absolute peace. I understand how tantalizing and attractive healthy boundaries can be. Additionally, I have been given a glimpse into how multi-layered relationships can serve to promote harmony in our world, something I see as necessary in the evolution of nature with humanity and vice versa. Both sides can get what they want; one must only build and cultivate with conscious awareness.

With gentle encouragement and guidance, Candice offered enough light and insight for me to begin to navigate some of my “no-fly zones.” Candice’s teaching style is supportive, while, at the same time,  being forthright and no-nonsense. Candice walks her talk and serves as the living and breathing model of what she teaches. Her effervescent and blissful nature is the product of much deep, inner searching, clearing, fortifying and layering of cultivated erotic essence. Candice knows some of the truth of the deepest part of the Self, and her entire soma and vibration exudes this wonder.

My conception of sexuality has changed dramatically: it is no longer a discarded, primal and biological function; rather, it is now my guarded rose. When I come across a young and hurt place, I am able to breathe into that less-efficient zone of reception and bring clean burning, adult presence into healing these pathways. Becoming better acquainted with forgiveness and tolerance is allowing me to create sacred space in myself and with others in the world. As I have gotten free and found safety, this sense spreads naturally and with grace to the people in my life.

I love working with Candice. She teaches a way of life, which equates to an active homecoming to one’s unique essence in a world that has a little bit of everything in it. Candice teaches self-awareness and self-ownership. She has moved between various places in relationship to me as an ally, guide, teacher, friend, confidante, muse and the provocatrice of my best self.

In working with Candice, I experience safety and freedom that I never felt or thought possible. Candice is not afraid to let me know when I am out of line. Given the trust I have been able to cultivate with her over the span of two years, I feel secure in all of our relating. Whether floating on cloud nine or sliding down the mountain, Candice has been there for me. Above all, Candice is a good, balanced woman who offers mirroring unlike anyone else. Maturity matched with the playful nature of a magical child is her hallmark. I tend to sing her praises; nevertheless, it is critically important to mention that working with Candice is a co-creation. We created this change together, and both of us may claim ownership to this budding harmony, while experiencing joy as it weaves through our lives, those we touch and the greater story of this world.
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If you are ready to get to know yourself and your essential essence, Candice is an outstanding guide with whom to work. Be prepared to learn about radical self-care. Come in with the willingness to find your own rhythm. She has done her work. Not only does it show, but, more importantly, it is felt. The primacy of authenticity in feeling is the beginning and the end. All parts of life intersect in the unity of her loving guidance and teaching."

Angel Investor-NYC, NY-Male-33

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 Sacred Sexuality 

"Candice’s big heart and deep empathic qualities make a phone session feel like an in person private session. Her acceptance and lack of judgement make it easy to discuss frustrations and desires freely. No hesitations, I was ready to jump in! 

I was going in and out of a holding place of celibacy to a looping place of casual sex with random dates. I was still thinking that sex was suppose to look like main-stream pornography and was mostly fulfilling for men. I was still thinking that my body had to look a certain way in order to be sexually desired and fully loved by a partner.


I now have a fulfilling sensual, sexual life now. I have learned how to increase my pleasure capacity. I have found a voice for my yoni. I have learned to let go more and focus on feelings, not how it looks."

Portland, Oregon. Sacred Sexuality Intensive Retreat Participant- 30-ish



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Sacred Intimacy

"Here's what I love most about Candice: "yes, yes, yes!"  Candice has a gorgeous spirit, a caring and encouraging nature.  She is, all at the same moment, innocence and wisdom, childlike and ageless, tough-loving and gently forgiving.  More than anything I feel safe with Candice, safe to share intimate feelings, to explore new territory, safe to ask, safe to discover and own my desire, safe to more fully reveal myself in the presence of another human being. 

Somehow with Candice, the secrets pour out and in telling them to her, and in how she receives and shapes the exchange, the old stories and patterns loosen their grip to create openings for new beginnings and growth.  I love the way Candice listens, taking each word in fully with appreciation and respect, building on ideas, accepting while challenging.  I love the way Candice guides, carefully choreographing the steps one must take to unlock one's fullest life-force and potential."

Father. Husband. Global Community Leader-50-ish-Woodstock-2017
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Gay Men 

"I am a gay guy who spent his adult life in San Francisco and New York. Sex was easy and promiscuity was expected. I didn’t know myself deeply and had limited understanding of intimacy. There was shame and self-loathing in the mix. I’d been working on myself for about a year and a half when Candice and I met. I was taking a break from men during most of that time and then became totally confounded in intimacy with a new lover. In the aftermath I came across an invitation to work with Candice and another teacher (the event was called "mysteries of love") and I jumped at it. It was an informed leap of faith. 

I had LOTS of hesitations and questions when I met Candice.......The hesitations were partially the normal care you’d put into choosing the right professional to open up to. Otherwise, I was worried about being naked with a stranger - and a female one at that. I worried that being gay it wouldn’t work. That I was supposed to perform in some way. Once we started talking about her sexual energetics work, I got that it was not about actual sex. And it soothed me that we hung out a few days before a private lesson. I trusted her. She’s energetically clean.

I am WAY more confident navigating romantic relationships now and am a much better lover. My attention and awareness have greatly increased, which translates to me being more capable of intimacy. I can enjoy more fully the more subtle currents of energy in myself, in others, and in our connection. A big part of that process was the solo practice she taught me (that I still do twice a week).

I had a lover from 10 years ago re-appeared in my life last year for the end of the summer, during which we re-kindled things. The sex we had was totally new in amazing ways. The eye contact. The trust. The subtle orgasmic energies and the heights we reached as we danced together left me in awe at my transformation. 
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During the course of our work, something in my nervous system reset and I stopped, almost completely, my nightly struggle to get to sleep. And we weren’t specifically working on my sleep disturbance. It was one of the many symptoms of my stress which seemed to resolve as the byproduct of me becoming sexually balanced. 

Candice is a deeply perceptive listener. She asks me the right questions at the right time. She answers my questions with great insight. All of the work we do together flows from that interaction. She has an incredible depth and breadth to the work she can offer, and introduces whatever is appropriate at that time. Along the way, I found it really easy to tell her the gritty, embarrassing details. Never felt judged. In that part of the process, I get to know myself better by putting my feelings into words.

Oh! and how can I forget?  We laugh a LOT!  She is so fun to talk to, and it flows like a river. And because Candice’s heart is so generous and sweet, she never lets me forget my awesome qualities. This also helps me get to know myself better. And feel better. When she explains new concepts, she can hit them from different directions so if I don’t get it at first she’ll spin it around and explain it from there. The whole experience has a magical feel to it.

If you have a good mutual connection, Candice is very wise and you’ll probably get a lot out of it. If you’ve got issues with intimacy (friends, family or lovers), she is extremely adept in this arena. Commit to yourself and the work you’re doing, give it space to unfold, and it will pay off in unforeseen ways."

Amazing Human-50-ish-NYC


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Transformational Sacred Unions 

I've been dealing with intimacy and sexual trauma issues my entire life, but if I'm being honest, I wasn't really "dealing" with them. I was aware of them, but didn't have a clue how to "unpack" the wounding in a way that felt safe.

The old saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" describes my relationship with Candice. When we met, I was absolutely ready and she was definitely the right teacher at the right time for me. I was impressed by her careful intake of my history and my dreams of deeper intimacy with my own body and with my partner.

From the very start, she prompted me to expand what I could imagine was possible and, at the same time, allowed me to set the pace of my process. She's helped me find my sexual boundaries and, in that, discover a field of intimate play that hadn't existed before.

Like any major healing effort in our lives, we cycle in and out of urgency. Candice was able to meet that ebb and flow over several years without missing a beat. Working with her individually and with my partner has given rise to a much more sacred expression of love and intimacy in our lives.

My partner of 25 years and I are in a place of radical honesty about what we want and don't want in our lives. I know this level of intimate consciousness has come about, in large part, in response to the work we've done with Candice. Working with Candice is like dancing with the Beloved. She sees you, she knows your moves and missteps. She knows how to guide you past your fears of being seen to a place of ecstatic expression.

Bold Hearts Unite-Female-60-ish-California-2018

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  • About Candice Dugan
  • Work With Me
  • LOVE STORIES
  • Food and Love
  • Contact