BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission and sadism and masochism) is a term used to describe a range of practices or a lifestyle that is characterised by the consensual exchange of power, role play and often intense sensory stimulation (or deprivation).
Although recently de-pathologised in the DSM V, it continues to be pathologised in the World Health Organisation’s ICD-10 and myths continue concerning this practice/lifestyle within the therapy community and beyond.
This module will encourage you to reflect on your own belief systems around BDSM. We will examine some of the various ‘kinky’ practices and consider the meanings these may have for our clients. We will also examine some ideas around the healing potential of BDSM and the latest information about Kink Health and the new clinical guidelines for safe and effective work with Kinksters.
You will receive a Certificate of Study worth 15 hours CPD credit from Pink Therapy if you submit and pass a tutor-marked assignment.
About the Author:
Dominic Davies FNCIP, FNCPS (he/him) is the Founder and CEO of Pink Therapy. He has been a psychotherapist, clinical sexologist and practice consultant for over 40 years.
Over the years, Dominic has received several honours and awards for his pioneering work in gender and sexuality. In 2015, he received the Practitioner Award from the Sexualities Section of the British Psychological Society. He is the only non-psychologist ever to receive this award.
In 2016 he was made a Fellow of the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society, and in 2018 Dominic received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sexual Freedom.
Dominic was also been made a Fellow of the National Council of Integrative Psychotherapists. Fellowship is the highest level of membership for these professional bodies.
In 2021, the University of Minnesota named him as one of 50 Distinguished Gender and Sexual Health Revolutionaries.
Dominic (with Charles Neal) co-edited the first three British textbooks on working with LGBT clients published in 1996 and 2000, and he has contributed many other papers and chapters to the literature of this emerging field. He has presented at many national and international conferences. After almost a quarter of a century, he has co-edited (with Silva Neves) two more Pink Therapy textbooks aimed at GSRD therapists and Sex & Relationship Therapists in Europe. Routledge published Erotically Queer and Relationally Queer in April 2023. He is now working on the first core textbook for GSRD Therapy, which had its foundations in the Sage Handbook of Counselling and Psychotherapy (5th edition).
He has been referred to as one of the grandparents of Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Therapy in the UK and Europe.