Kinks and counselling

[denny]

Someone asked me to re-post this:

We have been asked to write a book chapter on BDSM and therapy for
counsellors and psychotherapists who want to learn how better to work with
clients who practice BDSM. As authors who are also in the BDSM community we
are keen to include some accounts of hopefully both positive and negative
experiences of counselling and psychotherapy that anyone might like to share
with us.

If you practice BDSM and have ever attended counselling or psychotherapy, we
would be very grateful if you would write us a brief account of your
experience. You can write as little or as much as you like on whatever seems
relevant to you. We are keen to hear from both those who felt able to be
open about their BDSM in therapy and those who did not, as well as from
those who saw their therapy/counselling and BDSM as somehow connected and
those who saw them as very separate. Things you may like to consider when
writing include:
• Reasons for seeking counselling/psychotherapy
• Any discussions of BDSM practices/identities within the therapy, and, if
so, the extent to which BDSM was considered in proportion to other issues
• Whether you felt it necessary to ‘come out’ as BDSM or whatever your
feeling on this issue might be
• Anything you didn’t feel comfortable talking about which you might like to
have covered and why
• The therapist’s own identity and attitude and how important these were to
you
• Any particularly positive or negative experiences
• Anything you would have liked the therapist to have done or said. Ideas
for ‘good practice’ that we can feed back to readers of our chapter.
• Anything else that you feel is relevant

Please be assured that your confidentiality will be respected at all times.
All email responses received will be copied and pasted into a computer file
with no link to the names or email addresses of the respondents being kept.
All participants will be given pseudonyms as will anyone mentioned in the
accounts. Of course, you do not need to share your real name with us at all
and you may like to write to us from an anonymous email address set up just
for this purpose.

If you want to ask further questions before responding, please feel free to
email us.

If you are currently seeking counselling/psychotherapy, there is a list of
kink-aware professionals on
http://www.ncsfreedom.org/kap/psycho.htm#UnitedKingdom and also members of
Pink Therapy should generally be open on this topic
(http://www.pinktherapy.com/)

Thanks very much for your help.

Meg Barker, Alex Iantaffi and Camel Gupta
(Email: megbarker108@hotmail.com)