My Story

For over twenty-three years, I’ve worked with thousands of people coaching one-on-one, teaching in college classrooms, and guiding them in yoga studios.

And specifically over the last eight years, I’ve worked with hundreds of couples and individuals like you around sex and intimacy.

I offer this work because of my own decades-long journey toward deep sexual connection and intimacy with myself and with my partners.

Back then, I’d never experienced an orgasm.

Not by myself, not with a vibrator, not with people who identified as men, not with people who identified as women, not with non-binary, straight, or queer people.

I felt broken and like I was less than human.

My frustration, confusion, and deep grief around having never experienced an orgasm affected my sense of worth.

Then it began to seep into my sexual connections as my partners and our relationships took on the weight of it.

I searched tirelessly for information for decades, coming up disappointed each time and blaming myself and my body.

Only my body wasn't the problem.

My ability to follow and willingness to try a list of "tips and tricks" wasn't the problem either.

The problem was that I was disconnected from my ability to allow pleasure and to feel worthy of pleasure.

The word “pleasure” didn’t make sense to me.

My social conditioning, the roles and rigidity of heteronormativity (thanks, fairytale narratives), my unrealistic expectations of what sex is and should be (thanks to sex scenes, advertisements, porn, and other tools of capitalism), my shame, my fear, my self-judgment...

they were all holding me back, and all the while I believed the problem had to be me…

And my partners began to believe it had to be them.

Eventually I learned I had to dig deeper than skimming magazine articles, watching sex scenes in movies, reading books about sexuality, and talking to sex therapists to experience what I needed.

I had to explore and befriend my body.

I had to connect with my sexuality.

I had to become embodied.

Be myself in my body.

It was also on this journey that I became the person I needed back then.

I started meeting people who were experiencing the struggles I once knew.

I discovered my desire to find answers had led me to my this path.

I became a sex and intimacy coach so I can support and guide others to make their own journey.

I’ve gone deep so I can guide you deep.

It is my life’s work and an honor to support you on this journey.

A Few Fun Things About Me:

01

OHLONE LAND

I was born onto and continue to live, work, and play on land belonging to the Ohlone people. Long before it was Silicon Valley, I have memories of the San Jose Bay Area being fields and orchards with my fondest times being at huge pumpkin patches. I still love to pick apples, strawberries, boysenberries, olallieberries, blackberries, and more while also enjoying the garlic, artichokes, and spinach that are all grown locally. By far, though, my favorite is being at the beach and wandering the redwoods.

03

MOTHER OF THREE

As a parent through carrying two children and one through the problematic international adoption industrial complex, I intentionally choose to identify as a mother with all of the weight, expectations, pressure, and obligations thrust upon people who do this unpaid and undervalued labor.

02

KITTENS!

Chunks and Pinkie are my two all-grey sibling cats. I fostered their mother and their three siblings (for a litter total of five) and adopted these two into my heart and family.

04

JOY & PLEASURE

Spontaneous travel and adventures light up the playful and innocent within me, whether a hotel room, road trip, or international flight. I also have a love for theme parks where I feel like a kid again and enjoy fun food for my sweet tooth. I can also be found walking, and hiking as well as dabbling in watercolors, messing with stamps, and following my whims with other creative pursuits.

Degrees, Certifications, & Employment

  • Master of Arts Degree in Communication Studies from San Jose State University with emphasis in critical pedagogy, women's studies, and feminist theories

  • VITA™ Sex, Love, and Relationship Coach with specializations as a Relationship Coach; Tantric Sex Coach; Men’s Sexuality Coach; and Jade Egg Coach

  • Somatic Attachment Therapy certification with Dr. Peter Levine, Kai Cheng Thom, Dr. Dan Siegel, Dr. Diane Poole Heller, Dr. Ann Weiser Cornell, Dr. Albert Wong, Dr. Fanny Brewster, Jessica Montgomery, Dr. Ruella Frank, Dr. Scott Lyons, Nkem Ndefo, Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, Kekuni Minton, Jessica Fern, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and Karine Bell from The Embody Lab

  • Embodied Conflict Resolution certification with Kai Cheng Thom from The Embody Lab

  • Trauma-informed certification including Creating Safer Spaces with Shelby Leigh

  • Foundations of Somatic Abolitionism certification with Resmaa Menakem and Carlin Quinn from Education for Racial Equity

  • Certified Yoga Teacher RYT 200 through Yoga Source in Los Gatos, California with specializations in gentle, restorative, and yin yoga

  • College instructor at four-year, two-year, and online colleges in areas such as public speaking, writing, interpersonal communication, small group communication, critical thinking, and argumentation

  • Founder and creator of Siren’s Calling

Bio

Daniela Stevens (she/they) is a queer bi+/pan cis woman who is professionally trained as a trauma-informed and somatic attachment therapy certified Sex and Intimacy Coach for couples and individuals of all bodies and all expressions in all relationship dynamics.

She supports people to experience deep sexual connection and intimacy with themselves and their partner(s) by co-creating a Sex Practice to ripen into the best sex of their lives.

By naming and addressing the intersections of personal experience with multiple systems of oppression, she supports them to clarify, connect, communicate, heal, and co-create the sex they want and the intimacy they desire.

For over twenty-three years, she's worked with thousands of people coaching one-on-one, teaching in college classrooms, and guiding them in yoga studios utilizing somatic attachment therapy, embodied conflict resolution, somatic abolitionism alongside neuroscience, holistic healing, trauma resolution, and modern coaching blended with ancient and appropriated tantric and taoist wisdom.

For her, nothing is more important than connection.