Inspiring Conversations with Yael Rosenstock Gonzalez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Yael R. Rosenstock Gonzalez.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?

It seems to have been written in the stars that I would work at the intersection of sex education and social justice (my name and my star chart both allude to this work). When I started intentionally working in this field in my mid-twenties, it took me a bit to realize that I had already been involved for a decade! My professional experience started when I became a peer reproductive rights educator with the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) at 15 years old, but I was interested in both sex education, identity, and social justice from a much younger age due to natural curiosities and life experiences.

After working with NYCLU, I volunteered with sexually abused children, began work with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding, volunteered with young women who had been domestically trafficked and/or engaged in survival sex, started getting involved in sex worker rights and de-crimin organizing, and finally, started offering sex education workshops. When I decided it was time to write an introductory book for folks seeking to better understand themselves, set and respect boundaries, and sexually explore, I decided to also start my own publishing company under my business, Kaleidoscope Vibrations, LLC. I wanted to create a quality imprint that focused on books that don’t always find space in the mainstream, ones that speak to marginalized communities and celebrate us – and that’s what my team and I did.

Since then, I have started sex coaching work and built out the sex-focused part of my work through sexpositiveyou.com and my @yaelthesexgeek social media presence.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Many business coaches believe in the importance of identifying a niche. As a person with ADHD, I always struggled to find my “one” thing. My mind requires constant stimulation and I get that from having varied tasks, topics, and activities to keep me engaged. In naming my company Kaleidoscope Vibrations, LLC, I was seeking to create an umbrella for all of the work I do. My slogan is that ‘every event, or vibration, in your life creates a new beautiful you’ (like a kaleidoscope shifting!) and my company supports individuals in finding comfort, confidence, and community within their evolving selves. This gave me space for my coaching work, community workshops, educational initiatives, special projects, consulting, and publishing to all exist under the same company.

Even so, I started creating sub-businesses to delineate everything clearly. At one point, I had four mini companies going at once! And while I do still intend to return to each of these at some point, I realized that what would make the most sense for me was to use Rachel Rodgers’ business advice of identifying what I will focus on now and put the rest on the shelf to return to. I’m not forgetting or abandoning these other pieces – simply waiting to bring them back once I feel confident that they will feed me rather than deplete my energy.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Sex Positive You and Kaleidoscope Vibrations?
I’m a queer, polyamorous, neurodivergent Nuyorican (Puerto Rican New Yorker) Jewish woman and these identities, among others, inform the values of my businesses and how I interact with clients. Within my work as a pleasure activist (a term popularized by Adrienne Maree Brown) and identity/belonging coach, I see sexual wellness and sexual liberation as involving our WHOLE selves and that having a sense of belonging can often be key to our overall wellness.

That’s why Sex Positive You centers (1) identity, values, and social positioning work, (2) playful exploration, and (3) intimacy with self and others. Through these pillars, I support people in finding pleasurable, joyful, embodied experiences with self and sex through intentional practices.

As I shared earlier, Kaleidoscope Vibrations, LLC is dedicated to supporting and creating spaces for individuals to explore and find confidence in their personal identities, those that are permanent and those that shift, and in finding community. We do this work through brave space workshops, storytelling, and reflection, and connecting people to current and potential communities.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
TEAM: https://kvibrations.com/#ourteam

Pricing:

• Coaching: $100/hour individual (sliding scale options available)
• Coaching couple/friends: $150/hour (sliding scale options available)
• Consulting with businesses/orgs & professional coaching: $175/hour (or a 5 session package for $750); sliding scale rates available
• Book: $12.95
• Orgs/companies hiring me to do workshops: starting at $1,500

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sexpositiveyou.com  &  https://www.kvibrations.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yaelthesexgeek/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/yaelthesexgeek
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@yaelthesexgeek?lang=en

Image Credits
Jessie Wang, Arielle Rosenstock, and Leo Correa