A series · 2026

CE-storybooks

Illustrated continuing-education tutorials for clinicians, taught through composite patient vignettes and the Atlas of Tenderness — soft watercolor anatomical plates.

Each volume is an eight-chapter tutorial on a specific clinical presentation. Each chapter opens with a first-person composite patient vignette and unpacks the clinical principles around it in second person to the clinician. Each volume is illustrated with ~50 watercolor anatomical plates and narrated as a full audiobook with chapter markers.

The volumes are designed to be read separately, in any order — and to compound when read as a set. Same narrator. Same illustration style. Same eight-chapter architecture. The closing question of each volume points at the same horizon in a different clinical dialect.

2 volumes · ~22,000 words · ~96 watercolor plates · ~2 hours of narrated audio

The volumes

Beyond the Pain — cover: a watercolor anatomical plate of the human vagus nerve descending from the brainstem through the heart, lungs, and abdomen
Volume 1 · 65 min · 48 illustrations · cover: the vagus nerve

Beyond the Pain

A psychosomatic and narrative approach to dyspareunia

Eight chapters on chronic sexual pain — taught through a biopsychosocial lens, the body's old library of conditioned protection, and the slow work of helping the body rediscover safety, choice, and connection. Maya is the throughline. Jordan opens the couples chapter. Renu opens narrative reconstruction.

2026-05-14 · 4 voices · 8 chapter markers
Beyond Performance — cover: a watercolor anatomical plate of the bilateral sympathetic chain running down each side of the spine, paravertebral ganglia rendered in dusty rose
Volume 2 · 72 min · 48 illustrations · cover: the sympathetic chain

Beyond Performance

A relational and nervous system approach to premature ejaculation

Eight chapters on rapid ejaculation patterns — taught through the autonomic nervous system, conditioning curves, spectatoring, masculinity scripts, and the arousal-ladder retraining work. David is the throughline. Sam opens the couples chapter. Marcus opens narrative reconstruction.

2026-05-14 · 4 voices · 8 chapter markers

The two covers pair as the autonomic complement: Beyond the Pain's vagus nerve is the parasympathetic regulator — the system of slowdown, safety, and return. Beyond Performance's sympathetic chain is the urgency cascade — the system of escalation, vigilance, fight-or-flight. Stand them side by side and you have the autonomic nervous system as a single anatomical plate, split across two volumes.

The lectures

A second form: narrated, illustrated lectures with word-by-word read-along — one painted plate per slide, three voices, a Present mode that puts one slide on screen at a time. Built from a sexual-medicine course's slide decks, expanded into spoken teaching, and fact-checked line by line before narration (each lecture links its check notes). 8 lectures · 125 min · 119 plates.

Foundations — cover: a watercolor anatomical plate of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis
Class 3 · 4 lectures · 58 min · 60 plates · cover: the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis

Foundations

Setting the scene, developmental anatomy, puberty, and the testosterone-exposed system

Four lectures that open the course: how to be safe and curious in a learning space, how language and genetics shape the body we describe, what puberty actually is and what sets it off, and the structures, maintenance and common failures of the testosterone-exposed system.

Setting the Scene · Developmental Anatomy · Puberty and Early Sexual Development · The Testosterone-Exposed System
Physiology — cover: a watercolor anatomical plate of the brain's desire circuitry
Class 4 · 2 lectures · 40 min · 31 plates · cover: the brain's desire circuitry

Physiology

The physiology of consent, arousal, and desire

Two lectures on the nervous system under the encounter: consent as a noun, a verb and a physiological state, with the autonomic nervous system, interoception and the ethics of informed agreement; then the neurochemistry of desire and arousal, the models of sexual response, the gas-and-brakes systems, the drugs that act on them, and how to start the conversation in clinic.

The Physiology of Consent · The Physiology of Arousal and Desire
Science and Culture — cover: a watercolor anatomical plate of the human eye in section
Class 6 · 2 lectures · 27 min · 28 plates · cover: the human eye in section

Science and Culture

The history and methods of sexual research, and a peek at kink

Two lectures on how we know what we know: the historical record from carved figurines to the Kinsey era, the ethics failures that produced review boards and the Belmont Report, how study design and instruments can mislead, and who is still missing from the data; then a clinical introduction to kink, its theories, and the consent frameworks that make it safe.

The History and Methods of Sexual Research · A Peek at Kink

About this series

CE-storybooks is an experiment in illustrated, narrated, story-shaped continuing education. Most CE materials are slide decks, journal articles, or recorded lectures. These are picture books for clinicians — same clinical rigor, different vehicle. The form lets the difficult content land differently: the patient vignettes do narrative work that bullet points cannot, the watercolor anatomical plates re-key the medical-atlas register away from clinical detachment, and the audiobook format makes a CE tutorial something you can listen to while walking.

What's in each volume

How a new volume joins the series

The build pipeline is in _kit/. See SERIES_GUIDE.md for the full workflow. In short:

Educational use only. These volumes are clinician-facing continuing-education tutorials. They are not treatment protocols and are not a substitute for individual supervision, training, or peer consultation. All patient vignettes are composite and anonymized.