Occupational therapy professionals will work with clients who may hire sex workers or who would benefit from working with a sex worker.

Here are 5 things OTs need to know to be prepared to address sex work with clients and to advocate for destigmatizing sex work:

Despite anecdotal evidence regarding the potential for pleasure from anal play, it remains a taboo subject in the context of female sexuality. This partly stems from the fact that we often associate anal pleasure specifically with anal sex, namely anal penetration of a penis, which can be a daunting proposition for a woman who has never experimented with any sort of anal stimulation.

Before you read on, here's a self-assessment to stoke self reflection.

Take a look at Victoria's Secret's website and Rihanna’s SavagexFenty website. Ask yourself: “if my sex and intimacy occupational therapy practice was either Victoria’s Secret or SavagexFenty, which one would it be?”

A study conducted last year by Bolding et al. (2022) examined the knowledge, clinical preparedness, and attitudinal awareness of occupational therapy practitioners, in regards to the LGBTQIA+ folks. This self-report study was broken down by category and found that on a scale of 1-7, respondents scored a mean of 4.7 in their Knowledge about queer populations, 4.4 in Clinical Preparedness, and 5.6 in Attitudinal Awareness.

Something OT practitioners need to keep in mind as we (humbly) approach the topic of sex with clients is how people can have sex in countlessly different ways –many that may be unfamiliar to us, and some of ways that may even be considered…

If you have a brain, you have a bias. Confronting our own biases is uncomfortable, but it is our ethical responsibility as occupational therapy professionals. Considering how paramount reconciling our biases are to enhancing the therapeutic relationship and treatment efficacy, and reducing patient harm and health disparities…