An affirming and sex-positive guide to working with sex workers: uncovering clinical biases, creating safe spaces, and dismantling the whorearchy.
Therapy fails sex workers. Despite the wide range of sex work--from street-based to OnlyFans--clinicians too often focus on what they think sex workers need, instead of building trust, developing rapport, and really doing the work to understand the unique stressors that make quality mental health care essential for sex worker communities.
Sex-positive therapists Theo Burnes and Jamila Dawson break down everything that mental health providers need to know to work effectively with sex workers, while dispeling the tired, pervasive myths that continue to impact treatment today. Readers will learn about:
• Who sex workers are; different types of sex work; and sex workers’ specific therapy needs
• How outdated research methodology results in bad data and poor care
• The whorearchy--the sex-work hierarchy--and why we need to dismantle it
• How to recognize and move beyond personal biases
• How to provide effective, affirming, and better clinical care
• What words not to use--and what they reveal about the sexism, racism, misogyny, and transphobia embedded in our society (and our practices)
As sex work changes and evolves, encompassing everything from brothels to cam work, clinical care needs to catch up. This book shows you how.
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Theo and Jamila’s guide fills an important gap in training by exploring the identities, needs, and experiences of sex workers. For too long, psychologists and related helping professionals have failed their trainees and those seeking our help both by remaining silent and more overtly denigrating sex workers. Through a sex-positive lens and drawing on relevant scholarship and first-person accounts, the authors provide vital context, relevant legal and worker rights' perspectives, useful clinical examples, and ample opportunities for students, clinicians, and trainers to unpack, re-envision, and employ an affirming, informed model of care for sex workers.
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Debra Mollen, PhD, professor and AASECT-certified sexuality educator at Texas Woman's University