ABSTRACT
This chapter describes to assist the inexperienced therapist in treating clients with BDSM (bondage–discipline, dominance– submission, sadism–masochism) desires and/or behaviours. BDSM falls in the category of alternative sexuality, also referred to as Kink by practitioners. In the past, BDSM was classified a “sexual deviation” and later altered to its classification of “paraphillic disorders” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Despite the development in the understanding of BDSM, those with kink tendencies continue to be stigmatised by their classification in the DSM. BDSM has been gaining more exposure in mainstream culture and can be found in a wide range of media. In BDSM, this concept is considered erotic, yet, just as with the horror film, it can only be experienced as exciting and pleasurable when it is consensual. Consensual blindfolds are also shared as erotic toys by both BDSM practitioners and those outside the kink community.
