Dear everyone,
I hope everyone’s having a great year! I’d like to first send a huge thank you to all my fans, clients, supporters, and friends. I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging and media side lately, and I wanted to take a moment to explain why.
It has been quite a ride since opening the first Naked Therapy practice in October 2010. After a huge press splash in 2011 I set about the harder work of writing two books – The Arousal Plan and Naked Therapy – both of which should be out this year. I have and still do take the field of Naked Therapy very seriously. I think it’s essential to continue to explore and offer ways of helping people that are an alternative to the traditional and institutionalized methods of helping people. We live in an evolving and changing culture, and the only way to address the needs of the individuals is to also evolve our ways of helping and supporting.
What I have found is that those institutions are not particularly open-minded – whether it’s because they’re scared to be put out of business, because they operate on a different plan than us, or because our society still hasn’t broken from its puritanical roots. Which is fine; such are the challenges of progress.
Fact is, traditional therapy actually seems unable to consider Naked Therapy as a viable option. While a number of professionals have approached me for support, and do send me referrals, they cannot be named because they are afraid of de-licensure. Further, for founding and offering Naked Therapy, I have been kicked off Paypal, Chase Bank, Facebook, and more.
I consider those who have openly supported me to be truly brave. I also consider those who have supported me in private to be brave. Upon embarking on such a trajectory, I had no idea it would be so contentious.
My original plan in 2010 was to pursue a Masters degree (and even a Ph.D.) in psychology. Unfortunately, as the trend goes, I was told that not only was I not allowed to discuss Naked Therapy in my psychology classes, but that I would not be allowed to practice Naked Therapy while in my graduate program. This was completely shocking to me. I was not about to censor myself in that way – to not talk about Naked Therapy, to not talk about the seriously important issues going on in the world – in a psychology program, when I thought school was the place to learn and explore.
While I obviously believed this to begin with, I’ve been even more convinced through talking with psychology programs, advisors, and Ph.D.s in counseling, who have confirmed to me that traditional therapy is not ready to accept my practice. The “institution” still seems unable to discuss sexuality, the tendency to write off of male sexuality as base and unimportant, and its assumed assertion that I am not the pro-sex feminist that I am.
While I plan on publishing my ideas, I am simply not up for fighting the fight in psychology programs and with the APA. My belief is that they will come around to realize that Naked Therapy is an important option to support and welcome – but it could take them ten to fifty years. It will take further crises among their male patients, time for them to realize that the Internet is an important locator of sexuality, and many other things, and then they will start the studies and welcome NT in as a new field. I can’t rush them. But until they come around, I unfortunately can’t make them, so I think it’s best I resort to publishing in the hopes that I can help to bring psychology to realize how important Naked Therapy can be to them to achieve therapeutic goals. And I do think they will, but that it is going to take time.
I’ve been quiet because I’ve been sorting this stuff out in my mind: what it means, what my role is in helping people, what my role is. And I find that when I see something unfair or hypocritical, I just can’t help but push on it. And ask why. And continue the discussion of male and female sexuality, value, health, support, pro-sex, meaning, etc.
Since deciding not to complete a psychology program, I have felt more open and free about myself, and continue to explore what it is to be growing up today in our web world, with our past, with our future. I can’t say yet how that will manifest, but I am excited to feel free from the bounds that I had put on myself and to explore unhinged what else I see in the world.
I, as always, will continue to offer Naked Therapy and other Arousal Inspirations through SarahWhiteLife.com. I truly believe that an aroused life is the best way to live, and that Naked Therapy is a super important therapeutic form. But I’ve also learned that trying to fit into the traditional psychology regime is not a viable option for me – that someone else can be the one to take that on. As I move forward I’m interested in talking more broadly to people – outside therapy – in art and in motivation and in happiness.
All the best,
Sarah
March 4, 2014
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