As helping professionals, mental health workers have an ethical and a professional responsibility to provide culturally sensitive care to our clients. Sensitive care is especially crucial for individuals who are underserved and misunderstood in society, such as those involved in kink and fetish. When some find their way to mental health
professionals for help, they may be fortunate to find a therapist who is knowledgeable and experienced with kink and BDSM. Yet, many more may find clinicians unfamiliar with kink who have unaddressed biases or may pathologize them. Due to this care gap and high likelihood of negative experiences, people involved in kink often fear being
stigmatized and can experience the negative effects of minority stress.
To change this, in the Spring of 2018, a team of highly experienced clinicians gathered to explore what constitutes clinical best practices in working with those who are interested and/or involved in leather, kink, BDSM, and/or fetish eroticism.
Because our goal is to have this project be community-informed, we need YOUR input so our guidelines are culturally aware, clinically relevant, strengths-based, and useful. We invite community-members who
are involved in kink/BDSM as well as clinicians, educators, and researchers familiar with the kink and fetish client experiences to share their ideas via our new 2019 Clinical Practice Guidelines Draft Survey. Your involvement will make these guidelines better informed, more culturally appropriate, and inclusive.
Please invite others to participate as well. When we work together, we can create a safer world and better mental health resources for those who need them!
To feedback form directly: http://bit.ly/draftguidelines
For more information:
https://www.kinkguidelines.com/