Private Sessions and Public Scenes: Navigating the Kink Community as a Mental Health Professional
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Class Link
Links will be available 24 hours before the conference starts and can be found here so check back!
Class Description
Navigating the public kink scene can be scary as a mental health professional (especially when you work with kinksters!) Ask 5 people if they believe professionals can be public with their kinks, and you’ll receive 5 different answers. Torie and AJ have found ways to be professionals involved in their local kink community, and they want to share how they do so, what considerations to take when publicly navigating kink, where ethics fall into this, how to discuss your involvement in the community with clients/patients, self-disclosure, and how to navigate running into clients in kink spaces.
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Handouts
PresenterAJ Renard
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
AJ Renard (she/her) has been involved in the BDSM world her entire adult life, although she was a dark little thing far before that. AJ is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and has a deep passion for teaching about the intersection of BDSM and mental health. She finds her happy place when there is rope, electricity, knives, boots, fear, and a lot of crying involved.
AJ teaches a variety of classes all over the country, including classes on consent, negotiations, perspectives on D/s, bottoming for intense scenes and edgeplay, mental health and BDSM, and behavioral science in PE dynamics. Additionally, she often teaches about BDSM in non-kink spaces, hoping to de-stigmatize kink for therapists and medical professionals. She also loves bottoming for Violet Wand demos, and things that make her shy in front of groups of people.
FoxyFeistyRedhead.com
Torie
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
This is Torie’s (she/her) first time teaching at THRIVE, but she has attended since 2022. She is neurodivergent (ADHD), polyamorous, pansexual, fat, cisgender, white, kinky, and a TBI-survivor. She is a mental health therapist in private practice. She enjoys working with clients in areas such as ENM, LGBTQIA+, sexual desire, kink, gender, religious trauma, and ADHD. Her biggest goal as a therapist is to help create safety around talking about hard things. When not working, she enjoys playing with her dog Merlin, eating pancakes, going to kink conventions, bird watching, and trying to keep her house plants alive.
https://fetlife.com/razzledazzle
Moderated byGuan-Xuan
(they/we/it/ta)
Mxstress Rowen
(They.Them/it.its/We)
Shalimar
(They/them)
Class Stats
So far people have registered for this Class
PresenterAJ Renard
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
AJ Renard (she/her) has been involved in the BDSM world her entire adult life, although she was a dark little thing far before that. AJ is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and has a deep passion for teaching about the intersection of BDSM and mental health. She finds her happy place when there is rope, electricity, knives, boots, fear, and a lot of crying involved.
AJ teaches a variety of classes all over the country, including classes on consent, negotiations, perspectives on D/s, bottoming for intense scenes and edgeplay, mental health and BDSM, and behavioral science in PE dynamics. Additionally, she often teaches about BDSM in non-kink spaces, hoping to de-stigmatize kink for therapists and medical professionals. She also loves bottoming for Violet Wand demos, and things that make her shy in front of groups of people.
FoxyFeistyRedhead.com
Torie
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
This is Torie’s (she/her) first time teaching at THRIVE, but she has attended since 2022. She is neurodivergent (ADHD), polyamorous, pansexual, fat, cisgender, white, kinky, and a TBI-survivor. She is a mental health therapist in private practice. She enjoys working with clients in areas such as ENM, LGBTQIA+, sexual desire, kink, gender, religious trauma, and ADHD. Her biggest goal as a therapist is to help create safety around talking about hard things. When not working, she enjoys playing with her dog Merlin, eating pancakes, going to kink conventions, bird watching, and trying to keep her house plants alive.
https://fetlife.com/razzledazzle
Moderated byGuan-Xuan
(they/we/it/ta)
Mxstress Rowen
(They.Them/it.its/We)
Shalimar
(They/them)
Class Stats
So far people have registered for this Class
AJ Renard
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
AJ Renard (she/her) has been involved in the BDSM world her entire adult life, although she was a dark little thing far before that. AJ is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and has a deep passion for teaching about the intersection of BDSM and mental health. She finds her happy place when there is rope, electricity, knives, boots, fear, and a lot of crying involved.
AJ teaches a variety of classes all over the country, including classes on consent, negotiations, perspectives on D/s, bottoming for intense scenes and edgeplay, mental health and BDSM, and behavioral science in PE dynamics. Additionally, she often teaches about BDSM in non-kink spaces, hoping to de-stigmatize kink for therapists and medical professionals. She also loves bottoming for Violet Wand demos, and things that make her shy in front of groups of people.
FoxyFeistyRedhead.com
Torie
(she/her)
Presenter Bio
This is Torie’s (she/her) first time teaching at THRIVE, but she has attended since 2022. She is neurodivergent (ADHD), polyamorous, pansexual, fat, cisgender, white, kinky, and a TBI-survivor. She is a mental health therapist in private practice. She enjoys working with clients in areas such as ENM, LGBTQIA+, sexual desire, kink, gender, religious trauma, and ADHD. Her biggest goal as a therapist is to help create safety around talking about hard things. When not working, she enjoys playing with her dog Merlin, eating pancakes, going to kink conventions, bird watching, and trying to keep her house plants alive.
https://fetlife.com/razzledazzle
Moderated byGuan-Xuan
(they/we/it/ta)
Mxstress Rowen
(They.Them/it.its/We)
Shalimar
(They/them)
Class Stats
So far people have registered for this Class
Guan-Xuan
(they/we/it/ta)
Mxstress Rowen
(They.Them/it.its/We)
Shalimar
(They/them)