Becoming a Kink Aware Therapist by Caroline Shahbaz & Peter Chirinos

Author:Caroline Shahbaz & Peter Chirinos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Published: 2016-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Clinical Considerations

The BDSM community has worked and continues to actively work on defining and building frameworks to deal with abuse (Graham et al., 2015; Rivoli, 2015). Ethnographic reports from people within the BDSM community indicate that abuse can exist. Often these incidents are under- and unreported, particularly by kink-aware therapists, out of a desire to protect this marginalized community.2 Discrepancies in reporting abuse by therapists is a similar phenomenon with LGBT-affirming therapists not reporting known or suspected abuse for fear of further marginalizing this community. More specifically, private, public, and government-funded service organizations are reportedly “reluctant to provide specific services to GLBT victims or they may conceal the services they do provide because they fear losing funding” (Renzetti, 1996, p. 65). Two examples of abuse in BDSM relationships are presented below. While these examples refer to heterosexual couples, similar issues have been recounted to the authors across all sexual orientations.

The first case study outlines one example of how a Master might abuse a slave, while the second demonstrates how a Dominant or Master can exploit the lack of knowledge or awareness of a submissive newcomer (“newbie”) in the BDSM cultural context.3

Reports arose from several female slaves that a heterosexual male event organizer, considered to be a leader in the BDSM community, was abusing women. He was reportedly luring new submissive women with promises of fulfilling their fantasies. In actual practice he was reportedly engaging in non-consensual BDSM. Being new to the community, these women were not aware of the definition or role of consent in BDSM practice as the male Master withheld such education. He further commanded his new slaves not to engage with other experienced individuals within the community. Reports were initially seen as “gossip,” leading to members of the BDSM community turning a blind eye for some time. Eventually, persistent and repetitive patterns of maltreatment led community members to earnestly question this Master’s actions and ethical principles. Event attendees and other community members organized a boycott of his event. They confronted his actions and asked for his resignation, which then resulted in others managing his event.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.