Kink Culture: What Professional Counselors Need to Know

BDSM is an overlapping acronym that includes bondage and discipline (BD), dominance and submission (DS), and sadism and masochism (SM). Over the past few years, kink culture and BDSM practices have become more prevalent in the mainstream culture. Kink is an umbrella term used to describe BDSM practices and paraphilias (Popp & Kaldera, 2014), kinky sex, role play, sex games, fantasies, fetishes, and other erotic expressions (Taormino, 2012). Although kink and BDSM represent exclusive terms, many individuals use them interchangeably (Taormino, 2012). The authors of this practice brief use the term kink culture to refer to the community as a whole while specifying when topics are specific to individuals who practice BDSM.