Biography: Dr. Trina Read

Dr. Trina has one mission: To show people how to have fun and meaningful sex without an orgasm. She believes only with sex-positive knowledge can someone make an empowered choice and thus create a richer, more fulfilled sex life.

Dr. Trina’s humorous and easy to listen to speaking and writing style is like having a conversation with an old friend. She has a way of putting her audience at total ease with the topic of sex. As such, Dr. Trina has earned the reputation for being an entertaining and intelligent professional speaker and writer.

Dr. Trina has had the privilege of connecting with hundreds of thousands of people across North America, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Trina writes two newspaper columns. "Let’s Talk About Sex" shows couples how to keep and maintain a fresh outlook on sex over the long term. "Sex Doctors to the Rescue" is written with fellow Sexologist, Dr. Brian Parker, and takes couple’s hot button issues and dishes the male/ female side of the story. Dr. Trina’s columns appears bi-weekly in twelve papers across Canada.

Trina has been "Dr. Love" for ThermoSpa 2005 Radio Campaign, featured in First for Women, and quoted multiple times in Cosmopolitan, MSNBC News, Pregnancy, Women's Health, Men's Health, Destinations and Honeymoons, The Calgary Herald, Vancouver Sun and The Edmonton Journal, The Medicine Hat News just to name a few.

Trina's Story
When people ask me what I do for a living, they are usually shocked by my response. I am a sex expert. With raised eyebrows and eyes as big as saucers I can see they are thinking, "Did she just say sex?" Desperate to compose their features, they inevitably nod their head and respond with, "Interesting..."

Next they ask how I chose a field like sexuality. Well, simply put, I believe it chose me. Six years ago I was out on a dog walk with a friend. After an in-depth discussion around sex, he looked at me and said, "You should give a workshop on sex." And I thought, "You are right." At that moment everything clicked and it seemed such a natural segue from a career in corporate Canada to a career as sex expert. That is about as deep as my epiphany goes.

Yet it was a clumsy liberation into my new occupation. I am a pretty typical 30-something gal from Saskatchewan. Before I started all of this, I could not say body parts like "vagina" or "penis" out loud without giggling or stumbling over the words. I could never explain what I wanted in bed. And I always struggled with having the-made-to-look-perfect romance novel sex.

Not knowing where to start, my first step was to buy Lou Paget's How to Be a Great Lover. In her book Paget describes techniques on how to pleasure a man. I thought, "Well, if I am going to teach this stuff, I might as well learn it myself."

Too embarrassed to go to a sex shop, I went into my local Safeway and grabbed two cucumbers and a tube of KY lubricant. For half-an-hour I walked up and down the aisles of Safeway convincing myself, "Don't worry Trina, the check-out clerk won't figure out you'll be practicing hand techniques on the cucumbers."

I believe the hardest part of becoming a sex expert was telling my parents. In fact it took me four months to buck up the courage. To break the news I took them to dinner at a busy restaurant—no chance of yelling or crying fits that way.

As I sat across from my folks I felt like a 12 year old. A cool sweat spotted my brow. When the words, "I'm-gonna-be-a-sex-expert" came out in a garbled, high-pitched squeak, I was looking at my shoes. Worse yet was explaining that I would be writing a newspaper column that all of their family and friends could read. To this day I have a hard time talking to my parents about sex.

What qualifies me to be a sex expert? I have a Doctorate of Human Sexuality from a school in San Francisco. Yes, there are a few schools in North America that give out graduate level degrees in sex. Can you imagine?

Being a good (a.k.a. naïve) girl from the prairies, I almost did not go back after my first semester. The school's calendar did not explain how mind bending their "education" would be. For example, during my second week after a strenuous day of class, the instructor decided everyone needed to have a relaxing massage. Within two minutes everyone in the room (but me) was naked giving each other massages—the funny thing is, it was not as weird as it sounds.

And then every night my classmates went to things like S & M networking sessions or Bondage how-to workshops. On weekends, I declined invitations to hedonistic parties. To say that I was completely freaked-out by it all is an understatement.

Ironically my friends in Canada consider me provocative; my classmates in San Francisco considered me a prude.

Today, talking with people about their sex is as commonplace for me as speaking about the weather. On airplanes, I counsel businessmen on how to make a woman orgasm. At networking functions women ask about sex toys. At parties, both men and women ask how to find the G-Spot. In grocery line-ups, I speak with expectant moms about estrogen fluctuations that take place before and after baby. People are relieved when I give straightforward answers and do not judge their circumstance.

Finally, my hero is fellow Canadian Sue Johanson who paved the way and made any of this possible. My life's work is being the vehicle to give sex-positive education to anyone who will listen. My life's goal is to bring our Nation's sexual awareness to a new level. It is an exciting and at the same time daunting life agenda. Happily, I believe I am up for the task.