Women On The Couch

Identity, Homelessness and Sex Work

The term psychotherapy pre-supposes a desire for change and an ability to form a close relationship with another i.e. the therapist. Many homeless women and women engaged in the sex industry have little or no experience of secure attachment with a primary care giver. Their early relationships were most often cultivated in a climate of fear and mistrust and a need to keep safe in order to survive.

Teela Sanders in her book Sex Work: A Risky Business (2004) speaks of the many strategies and “complex web of deception” sex workers will employ to protect their identity from exposure and in order to manage the psychological issues related to selling access to their body parts. This requires what she calls “continual mental acrobatics that may lead to self-degradation.” Forming a therapeutic relationship in such circumstances is challenging and requires unorthodox approaches. Marion will talk about the model she and her colleagues have developed in order to engage with women in this client group, and the quest for intimacy within the context of commodification and objectification of self and other.

Maria Lazopoulou will speak on the theme of chaotic processes the practitioner encounters in this field of work, especially on how countertransference and projective identification are unavoidable. How can we as therapists and counselors turn the latter into tools of insight and potential professional development?