ABSTRACT
For many clinicians, negative countertransference is the greatest impediment to working with kinky clients. Some find it difficult to see BDSM as ‘normal’ because some of the sexual behaviors seem strange, frightening, and inexplicable to an outsider. Inexperienced clinicians working with kinky clients often perceive a need to explain the origin of the behavior. It is not unusual for feelings of guilt or shame to exist during the time a person is coming out as kinky, and for that to take the form of a desire to be cured. Clients just beginning to explore their kinky sexuality need their therapist to provide an affirming alternative to the negative attitudes of the mainstream culture. When working with kinky clients, it is important to be mindful that those who are strongly involved with the kink community, as opposed to practicing BDSM purely in private, may be involved in consensually nonmonogamous relationships.
