Balancing Romance and Care in Disabled Relationships

Balancing Romance and Care in Disabled Relationships

What happens when love, intimacy, and caregiving intertwine? Join Madeline and Alistair as they explore navigating sex and relationships when your partner is also your carer. Guests Mia and Troy Wallace who have been together for nearly three decades discuss the challenges of balancing care roles with intimacy, the assumptions strangers make about their relationship, and the inventive ways they’ve kept romance alive. Also joining the conversation is Tess Devèze, occupational therapist and somatic sexologist, offering their expertise in supporting people with disability and their partners to connect, explore intimacy, and move beyond clinical touch to intentional, sensual touch.

Love, Sex and Chronic Illness

Sex and intimacy are rarely talked about in the context of chronic illness. Navigating pain, fatigue, and fluctuating energy are only part of the story. There’s also the emotional toll of societal perceptions, the impact on self-image, and figuring out where to turn for understanding. In this episode, writer and activist Carly Findlay opens ups about her own journey with chronic illness, and psychologist Liel Bridgford brings both professional insight and lived experience to unpack the role of communication, self-love, and reimagining intimacy when bodies and abilities change.

Dating with an intellectual disability

Too often, people with intellectual disability are left out of conversations about love, intimacy, and desire. In this episode, John O’Donnell shares what it’s like to navigate dating with an intellectual disability. John speaks openly about the challenges he faces, from being misunderstood at clubs to being excluded from dating apps because of his difficulty with reading and writing. Joining the conversation is First Nations disability advocate Madeline Prasad, and Zoe Broadway from VALID, to talk about the importance of visibility, autonomy, and representation in relationships.

Acquiring a Disability: Intimacy, Reimagined

When Mandy McCracken acquired sepsis and lost both her hands and feet, her world was turned completely upside down. Overnight, she lost not just her limbs, but the physical ease and emotional familiarity that had defined her relationship with her husband. The couple found themselves having to rebuild their connection from the ground up - emotionally, physically, and intimately. In this powerful and deeply candid episode, Mandy shares the raw, often unspoken truth about adjusting to life in a new body, and how she and her husband set about relearning intimacy. Joining the conversation is Tori Bellentina, a qualified functional sexologist who specialises in working with people with disability. Join both as they chat with hosts Madeline and Alistair in a celebration of resilience, adaptation, and redefining intimacy when acquiring a disability.

Disability and Dating: Looking for Love

In this candid and hilarious episode, Lebanese Australian comedian and actor Imaan Hadchiti joins disability advocate and model Alex Reimers to unpack the highs and lows of dating and looking for love in an often ableist world. Imaan, who is short-statured, reflects on how dating apps often amplify ableism, especially by placing unnecessary emphasis on height. Meanwhile, Alex, a wheelchair user who communicates via an assistive communication device, shares how dating has been an emotional rollercoaster, including a time when her date fell in love with her support worker instead of her. Join our guests on their wild and unpredictable journeys through love, rejection, resilience, and self-worth.