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Occupational therapy professionals will work with clients who may hire sex workers or who would benefit from working with a sex worker.   

Here are 5 things OTs need to know to be prepared to address sex work with clients and to advocate for destigmatizing sex work:

1. Sex work is work. Sex work is a consensual transaction between adults, where the act of selling or buying sexual services is not a violation of human rights. Sex work is an umbrella term that can include escort services, street-level sex workers, pornography, exotic dancing, massage, internet work, phone sex operators and third-party support (drivers, managers, bartenders etc.). Sex work is NOT sexual exploitation or trafficking. If the exchange is non consensual, it is violence, and is not considered sex work under the definitions of the World Health Organization.
   Like any career, sex work is deserving of respect, non-judgement, and professionalism. 
2. Sex workers (SWers) have autonomy and agency. SWers choose the
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Before you read on, here's a self-assessment to stoke self reflection.  

Take a look at Victoria's Secret's website and Rihanna’s SavagexFenty website.  Ask yourself: “if my sex and intimacy occupational therapy practice was either Victoria’s Secret or SavagexFenty, which one would it be?”

Here are some questions: 

1. If you have patient handouts, who is visually represented in them?
2. What clients do you address sex and intimacy with and which ones do you hesitate to address it with?
3. Do you ask your clients what kind of sex they have or what it typically looks like?  
4. Are you comfortable celebrating the expansive forms of sexuality and ways sexual activity can be engaged in?  Does this acceptance translate when you’re working with your clients?

Last week, I wanted to buy a few new pieces of lingerie. Like an old habit, I typed Victoria’s Secret into my google search bar and went to the website…I didn’t last 7 seconds.  

I quickly visually scanned the pictures and saw the bodies...

Something OT practitioners need to keep in mind as we (humbly) approach the topic of sex with clients is how people can have sex in countlessly different ways –many that may be unfamiliar to us, and some of ways that may even be considered…

Kinky.

Kink is a broad term that describes aspects of sexuality that fall outside of the mainstream ideas of sexuality. In more detail, The Kink Clinical Practice Guidelines Project defines kink as “…sexual identities, erotic behaviors, sexual interests and fantasies, relationship identities, relationship orientations, and relationship structures between consenting adults not accepted by the dominant culture. We specifically include BDSM (Bondage/Discipline,  Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism), Leather, and Fetish as important parts of the umbrella term of kink” (p. 4). 

 The Kink Clinical Practice Guidelines Project is composed of a multidisciplinary team of healthcare providers, therapists, educators, and advocates working in the area of s...

If you have a brain, you have a bias. Confronting our own biases is uncomfortable, but it is our ethical responsibility as occupational therapy professionals.  Considering how paramount reconciling our biases are to enhancing the therapeutic relationship and treatment efficacy, and reducing patient harm and health disparities...

Many of us weren't taught this in school.  

Welp, add it to the list of uncomfortable yet essential topics that were and are omitted from OT curriculum !  And it's a double whammy omission-effect when we combine this with sexuality. 

So what does this mean for OT professionals? 

We need to do the work to acknowledge our bias and make sure to include sexuality when doing so.  This is exactly my motivation behind my favorite CEU offering, "Guided Self-Reflection of Sexuality Values, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Biases" (see below section for more info).  We're all sexual beings with our own experiences and beliefs around sexuality that unless explicitly self-analy...