Body Literacy Organization Gives Power Back to Patients

At 19 years old, Pamela Samuelson (she/they) received an injectable hormonal birth control that resulted in a year of disruptive side effects—side effects they didn’t even know were a possibility. One of Sameulson’s friends had to drop out of school due to the adverse effects of the same injection.

“There was no component of wanting me to be informed that was motivating my doctor,” Samuelson says. “Which in my mind is a violation of the kind of principle informed consent and informed refusal that I think is really key to healthcare that isn’t just putting out fires, but is helping people take care of their own bodies in very basic ways.”

Samuelson has been a manual therapist and somatics practitioner for over two decades, and the unacceptable gynecological experiences they faced were often echoed by clients. In September of 2022, Samuelson, tired of the power dynamics of traditional sexual healthcare, created the Center for the Advancement of Body Literacy, or CABL.

“(CABL) is based on an idea that I have had and have been trying to figure out while knowing that I didn’t hold all the pieces for several years,” they explain. “So the team that has come together for this are largely people in my life who I love and trust and who hold those other pieces.”

CABL is based in Los Angeles, and although the nonprofit doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar location, it’s been making waves in cyberspace and temporary event spaces. The organization specializes in evidence-based, dialogical education that is “responsive culturally and personally to the people who are present,” Samuelson says, adding that it’s vital for the information to be comprehensive and honor all bodies, experiences, and preferences in the room.

The organization hosts events like Pap Smears for Queers, a sexual health event where CABL, along with local midwives, facilitate and teach people how to do their own pap smears. For the past two years, CABL has even raised enough money to cover every participant’s labs.

“We ended up seeing… a ton of people who had just never gone for gynecological care because they are trans and did not have access to trans-informed and trans-competent care,” Samuelson says. “Just lots of people who didn’t want to see a doctor and didn’t feel safe going to a clinic, but came to us and managed to get results back in many cases which told them that they needed to take care of themselves in a different way.”

CABL wants to put the knowledge, and power, in the hands of its patients, revamping the traditional sex and body education that Sameulson says “(seems) designed to scare the crap out of kids and felt really disempowering to me.” Part of this quest is a new website, set to launch in mid-September, that will serve as an educational portal and community hub and include tools for self-led gynecological care. The website will also capture the words of second-wave feminists at the helm of the women’s health movement like Carol Downer, Rebecca Chalker, and Isa Coffey.

“I feel like this is world-changing work. I’ve seen it individually, and I’ve seen it in groups, that when people feel a true sense of authority in their own bodies, their lives change in substantial ways,” Samuelson emphasizes. “They stop putting up with shitty behavior that they don’t want to put up with. They find ways of communicating that change their circumstances. The things that we are putting forward are fairly heavyweight tools in that they explicitly and directly address places where we feel disconnected and disempowered in our lives.”

Photo courtesy of Body Literacy Organization