The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being (2021)

By Julia Paulette Hollenbery – A Book Review

Julia Paulette Hollenbery’s The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being diagnoses modern life as fundamentally disconnected—from our bodies, from authentic feeling, from the natural world, and from what she calls “the Universe of Deliciousness.” The book presents a systematic journey from “Mess” (our current state of fragmentation) through “Magic” (the recognition of what’s possible) to “Medicine” (seven sequential practices for restoration). Hollenbery argues that pleasure isn’t mere hedonism or escapism but a form of embodied wisdom that modernity has trained us to mistrust and suppress. Her work builds on decades of stress research: where Hans Selye mapped the biological mechanisms of stress and Gabor Maté documented the cost of emotional shutdown, Hollenbery positions pleasure itself as medicine. The seven medicines she prescribes (Slow, Body, Depth, Relationship, Dark, Pleasure, and Aliveness) aren’t quick fixes but deliberate practices for rewiring our relationship to sensation, presence, and joy.

The book arrives amid a growing recognition that Western culture’s emphasis on cognitive processing and productivity has created what many somatic practitioners call an “epidemic of disembodiment.” Hollenbery situates her work within traditions ranging from tantra to neuroscience, from indigenous wisdom to quantum physics, drawing particularly on her training in bodywork, therapy, and what she terms “the wild feminine.” The book’s conversation with recent stress research is particularly striking: where Hans Selye’s The Stress of Life established the biological mechanisms through which chronic stress damages our systems, and Gabor Maté’s When the Body Says No revealed how emotional repression manifests as physical disease, Hollenbery completes this trinity by positioning pleasure as the antidote. She challenges not only the Protestant work ethic’s suspicion of pleasure and the medical model’s pathologizing of the body, but even the wellness industry’s tendency to turn healing into another form of productivity. The book’s insistence that we already possess an innate capacity for “deliciousness”—her term for the full spectrum of embodied aliveness—positions it as both critique and alternative to the self-improvement paradigm.

The seven medicines form a deliberate sequence, each building on the previous to create what Hollenbery describes as a journey back to wholeness. “Slow” establishes the foundational practice of deceleration, teaching readers to resist the “messy modernity” of constant acceleration. “Body” moves from slowing down to actually inhabiting physical sensation, using techniques drawn from somatic therapy and mindful movement. “Depth” cultivates presence and the capacity to stay with experience rather than skimming along surfaces. “Relationship” extends embodied awareness into authentic connection with others. “Dark” reclaims the generative power of darkness, rest, and the unknown. “Pleasure” itself arrives only after these preparatory medicines, presented not as goal but as natural emergence. Finally, “Aliveness” integrates all previous medicines into what Hollenbery calls “dynamic flow with reality.” Each medicine includes both philosophical exploration and practical exercises, from breathing techniques to movement practices, from journaling prompts to what she calls “pleasure practices.”

Hollenbery’s distinctive contribution lies in her integration of the personal and theoretical, the mystical and pragmatic. She grounds abstract concepts in visceral experience—explaining the vagus nerve’s role in pleasure, the “three brains” of gut, heart and head, and how trauma disrupts our capacity for joy. Her writing itself embodies the sensual attention she advocates, rich with metaphor and personal revelation. The book’s structure mirrors its message: rather than linear argument, it works through accumulation and spiral, returning to themes with deepening complexity. She draws on sources from Rumi to Reich, from Mary Oliver to quantum field theory, creating unexpected connections between ancient wisdom and contemporary science. Perhaps most significantly, she presents her own journey from what she describes as shutdown and trauma to embodied aliveness not as heroic overcoming but as ongoing practice. This vulnerability distinguishes the book from more prescriptive approaches, acknowledging that returning to pleasure requires not just technique but a fundamental shift in how we understand what it means to be human.

The book’s scope is admirably comprehensive, addressing what Hollenbery identifies as seven interconnected levels of disconnection—from the personal through the ancestral, collective, and spiritual dimensions. This multilayered approach reflects the complexity of how pleasure becomes blocked in modern life, though readers may find themselves returning to certain sections multiple times to fully absorb the connections. Hollenbery’s integration of diverse wisdom traditions—from Kabbalah to neuroscience, from Rumi to somatic therapy—creates a rich tapestry of understanding, even if the sheer breadth of references can occasionally feel dense. The numerous exercises and practices scattered throughout each chapter offer multiple entry points for different temperaments and learning styles. Some readers might initially find the shift between poetic, mystical language and practical techniques unexpected, though this mixing of registers ultimately serves to bridge the supposed divide between spiritual and embodied experience. The book acknowledges throughout that returning to pleasure after trauma or long disconnection is a gradual process, offering modifications and gentle approaches for those who might find certain practices challenging.

The Healing Power of Pleasure offers something genuinely countercultural: permission to trust pleasure as a form of intelligence rather than distraction. Hollenbery’s seven medicines provide a structured yet flexible path for those ready to challenge what she calls “the narrow conformity” of modern life. The book will particularly resonate with readers already engaged in somatic practices, those recovering from burnout, and anyone sensing that their disconnection from pleasure reflects something deeper than individual pathology. While it may not convert skeptics of embodiment work, it offers practitioners and seekers a comprehensive framework for understanding pleasure as political, spiritual, and ecological practice. In a culture that increasingly treats the body as machine and pleasure as commodity, Hollenbery’s insistence that we already contain “canyons and pine mountains” of sensation and awareness feels both radical and necessary. The book’s ultimate gift lies not in its techniques but in its reframing: pleasure not as reward for productivity but as birthright, not as individual achievement but as return to what was always ours.

With thanks to Julia Paulette Hollenbery.

The Healing Power of Pleasure: Seven Medicines for Rediscovering the Innate Joy of Being

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23 insights and reflections from “The Healing Power of Pleasure”

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