AN INTIMATE LIFE

This Soft Skull memoir was initially called THE SURROGATE and the soon to-be-released movie based on Cheryl is called THE SESSIONS, and stars Helen Hunt and John Hawkes and William H. Macy. The movie is much anticipated – it was a favorite at the 2012 Sundance Festival, winning two awards: Audience Favorite and US Dramatic Film & Jury Prize for Ensemble Acting.

For the past forty years, Cheryl Cohen-Greene has worked as a sex surrogate, helping clients to confront, consider, and ultimately accept their sexuality. In this riveting memoir, Cohen-Greene shares some of her most moving cases, and also reveals her own sexual coming-of-age.

Beginning with a rigid Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, where she was taught to think sex and sexual desires were unnatural and wrong, Cohen-Greene struggled to reconcile her sexual identity. As the 1960s presented social upheaval and the Sexual Revolution, Cohen-Greene found herself drawn to other sexual paths, and was ultimately drawn to a rich and rewarding career as a surrogate.
Sex surrogacy was first developed by noted sex researchers Masters and Johnson in the 1960s, though since its inception the profession of sex surrogacy has remained in the shadows. The Surrogate offers a candid look into the personal and professional life of a surrogate partner, examining the cultural and emotional ramifications of pursuing something most people do not immediately understand.
The memoir opens with Cohen-Greene's work with Mark O'Brien, a Berkeley-based poet and journalist who was confined to an iron lung after contracting polio at age six. Mark and Cheryl’s relationship is the basis for the major motion picture to be released in October 2012.

Cheryl Cohen-Greene has been in private clinical practice as a surrogate partner and Consultant in Human Sexuality since 1973. She was trained in the Masters and Johnson modality and was on the training staff of San Francisco Sex Information for 19 years. Cohen-Green is a certified Sex Educator and Clinical Sexologist, and in 2004 she earned her DHS (Doctor of Human Sexuality) from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. She is currently the Vice President of of IPSA (the International Professional Surro gates Association). She was one of the founders of BASA (the Bay Area Surrogates Association). Cohen Green is a frequent media guest, who has been interviewed on Larry King Live, the Discover Channel, CNN, among others.