BDSM in Therapy

Richard Sprott received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UC Berkeley in 1994. His early work was on social and language development in early childhood. Throughout the 1980s, he conducted program evaluations for educational programs for migrant farmworker families and worked in other areas of migrant farmworker education. As a researcher he has examined in detail the relationship between professional identity development and the development of professional ethics in medical doctors, ministers and teachers, and professional identity development in emerging fields of work. He is currently directing research projects focused on identity development and health/well-being in people who express alternative sexualities and non-traditional relationships, with a special emphasis on kink/BDSM sexuality, and polyamory or consensual non-monogamy. He is also co-chair of the Children, Youth and Families Committee of the Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APA Division 44). All of these efforts highlight the ways in which stigma, prejudice, minority dynamics, health, language, identity development and community development all intersect and affect each other. Richard currently teaches courses in the Department of Human Development and Women's Studies at California State University, East Bay and graduate level courses at various universities in the Bay Area, including UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Holy Names University.Ryan G. Witherspoon is a clinician, researcher, educator and speaker. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant International University, and holds Masters degrees in clinical and general psychology from CSPP and Pepperdine University, respectively. As a clinician, he focuses primarily on practicing psychotherapy with adults and relationships, as well as working with non-traditional relationships and sexualities such as consensual non-monogamy, polyamory, and kink. Ryan frequently publishes and presents on these and other topics to professional and general audiences, as well as trains clinicians in cultural competence and sex-positivity regarding alternative sexualities and relationships. His current research focuses on the intersections between consensual non-monogamy, stress, stigma, and resilience.