The light in the shadows: therapeutic explorations of fantasy and fear*

Curative kink: survivors of early abuse transform trauma through BDSM

“…If applied to existing examinations of kink and coping (Kaldera & Tashlin, 2013;Labrecque et al, 2021;Schuerwegen et al, 2020), the model suggests underexamined constructs, such as prolonged exposure. Although the gradual exposure subtheme of repurposing behaviors has been suggested conceptually in a recent clinical guideline article (Levand et al, 2019), this construct lacks systematic investigation in BDSM studies. Given the large effect size of prolonged exposure in clinical research (Powers et al, 2010), perhaps the process of gradual exposure is a driver of kink-related coping with distress beyond trauma.…”

“…Instead, we advance the idea that, given a cultural context of healing, kink behaviors could be leveraged to help some kink-identified clients process their early abuse. In training programs, these results should be combined with other explorations of trauma recovery through kink (Hammers, 2014(Hammers, , 2019Thomas, 2020) to enhance cultural competence with kink-identified clients (Lawrence & Love-Crowell, 2008;Pillai-Friedman et al, 2015) and to broaden the interventional repertoire of therapists (Levand et al, 2019).…”

“…Indeed, some members of the kink community engage in kink explicitly to process past pain (Lindemann, 2011;Ortmann & Sprott, 2013). For some kink-identified clients, for instance, leather may function as symbolic permission to explore "darker aspects of [their] humanity […] in a safe and heavily structured space" (Shahbaz & Chirinos, 2016, p. 36), a process known as shadowplay (Easton, 2007;Levand et al, 2019). In defining the term, Easton (2007) described a punishment scene that reminded them of the physical abuse from their childhood, noting that "somehow that scene […] where I got to be storm-tossed and hurt and sad and pathetic had brought me into a profound feeling of love […] for my younger self " (pp.…”