Counselling and the kink community: a thematic analysis

ABSTRACT

Limited research indicates that people from the kink community may not find talking therapies accessible. Findings are presented from a thematic analysis of five semi-structured interviews with adults who self-identify as kinky. Participants reported self-censorship as a risk-management strategy to avoid encountering (i) social stigma, (ii) medicalisation and (iii) conflation of true BDSM with abuse or self-harm. Interviewees required counsellors to be better informed, and for services to be more inclusive and proactive. They regarded the kink community as therapeutically minded, harbouring a population motivated and appropriately skilled to engage with counselling and psychotherapy. Findings recommend potential changes to counsellor training and service provision aiming to enable practitioners to work more effectively and ethically with sexually diverse clients.

KEYWORDS:

• BDSM
• gender and sexual diversity (GSD) therapy
• kink
• psychotherapy bias
• sexuality

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Liz Ballinger for her support and feedback throughout the project, and Grant Denkinson for his advice and assistance in formulating the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Imogen Nevard

Imogen Nevard is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Manchester, UK. Subsequent to completing an MA in Counselling, she is currently undertaking a PhD in the University of Manchester's Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health.