If you were in the room last year when Goody Howard (@askgoody) started talking, you already know exactly why we brought her back.

She’s a sexologist, educator, and consultant, and she walked into a room full of Black women with MS, lupus, and NMOSD and started a conversation most of us have never had out loud. Not just about sex, but about intimacy, which she’ll be the first to tell you is a completely different thing. Intimacy is what happens when you’re not having sex. It’s the culture of your relationship, how you show up when things are hard, how you stay connected when your body is unpredictable, and what sustains you in the spaces between everything else. That conversation matters for this community in a way it doesn’t get to matter anywhere else, because nobody at your doctor’s appointment is asking how your diagnosis is affecting your relationship. Nobody’s talking about what happens to desire when you’re exhausted and medicated and trying to feel like yourself in a body that keeps changing the rules. And most of us just quietly figure it out alone or stop bringing it up altogether. Goody doesn’t let you do that. She’s direct, she’s funny, she’s practical, and she makes a room full of women who came in nervous about the topic leave wanting to keep talking about it. She’s bringing all of that to Wellness Week(end) 2026. October 30 through November 1, JW Marriott Buckhead in Atlanta. General admission is $200, VIP is $375. Comment TICKET and we’ll send you the link. This session alone is worth being in the room. #WeAreILLMatic #WellnessWeekend #BlackWomenWithMS #LupusAwareness #ChronicIllnessCommunity