Working with Fetish, BDSM, and Kink Practices

FULL PROGRAM

Programme

Dominic Davies
Developing knowledge and skills in working with BDSM
Far from being rare and unusual, between 2.5% and 70% of people engage in, or fantasise about, BDSM. In a recent study of 766 clinicians (Kelsey et al. 2012), 25% automatically pathologised their clients based just on self-disclosure, and 30% thought kink desires should be eliminated by therapy. This presentation will share insights into how therapists can develop their cultural competency to work in a kink-affirmative way and make use of the new “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Working with People with Kink Interests”.

Dr Lori Beth Bisbey
Working with Clients Who Have Humiliation Kinks
Therapists often find kinks in which the person desires to be humiliated particularly difficult to respond to in a neutral manner. They can evoke disgust and are also often shame-inducing (eroticising shame) and can provoke therapists to be pre-occupied with abuse and the impact of this shaming in the long term. Disgust is one of the least studied emotions. In this presentation, Dr Bisbey will highlight the necessary skills to work with such clients without shaming or trying to cure them of their kinks. Lori Beth will also discuss the places where gently challenging the client as to the impact of these kinks in their lives is appropriate.

Dr Ryan Witherspoon
Strange Situations:  Provocative kink/BDSM client material and the primacy of process
Despite the near-normative prevalence rates of kink-related fantasies the frequency, depth, and nature of people’s actual engagement in kink varies tremendously.  Clinicians with less expertise in kinky sexualities and relationships may therefore find no trouble working effectively with one kinky client, only to feel alarmed and perplexed by another. This presentation will explore how a process-oriented approach can provide an affirming and respectful way to consider kink-related material as a vehicle for illuminating attachment dynamics, object relationships, empathic capacities, and boundary management skills relevant to a client’s presenting issues.  Resources for further learning will be provided.

Dr Richard Sprott & Anna Randall
Preliminary findings from the first International Kink Health Study
Kink-involved people engage in atypical erotic activities such as bondage, rough-sex, and other fetish activities that might risk injury or medical complications. Anticipated stigma leads to non-disclosure of kink involvement and delays in seeking care, thereby creating barriers to health and well-being. To date, however, no one has examined healthcare usage by people who engage in kink activities. The objective is to describe the use of healthcare by kink-involved people, including how many people disclose their involvement in kink when seeking care. The findings of the current study point to the need for clinicians to address barriers to culturally competent care for kink-involved people.