Sex workers continue to face significant stigma and harm in clinical contexts, despite increasing calls for culturally responsive, trauma-informed care. This harm is rarely named explicitly, despite extensive documentation of providers engaging in pathologization, moralizing, non-consensual rescue practices, and denial of care. The presenters conceptualize these intersecting harms as “clinical whorephobia,” the structural and interpersonal stigma against sex workers enacted through the clinical gaze, often under the guise of “help.” Clinical whorephobia exists at the intersection of medical paternalism, therapeutic authority, and societal whorephobia, and manifests through both institutional policies and routine clinical interactions. This presentation will draw from qualitative data collected through the Hustle & Health initiative, which employed a community-based participatory research framework. The sex worker and academic research team collaborated with a community advisory board of 15 current sex workers representing organizations including Strippers United, MoHo Justice, and Black Sex Workers Collective. Interviews were conducted with 29 current sex workers across the United States, representing diverse identities, sex work experience, and geography. The interviews explored how policies impact participants’ work, safety, and lives. Reflexive thematic analysis was used with an abductive lens that prioritized community-based interpretations; themes emerged regarding their experiences with healthcare and therapy, including moments of harm, safety, disclosure, boundary navigation, and professional identity. The presenters will use this data as an entry point for critical reflexivity on how clinical whorephobia is internalized, enacted, and rationalized, even in well-meaning practices. Attendees will engage in facilitated dialogue, roleplay exercises, and small group discussion.
Dr. Madeline Stenersen is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Saint Louis University and a licensed psychologist. Her work uses both community-engaged and big data methods to investigate the intersection between the criminal legal system, LGBTQ+ communities, and individuals in the sex industry.
Kaliyah Gardner is a bi-racial/Black queer femme sex worker and an incoming doctoral student, who also holds MSW and MEd Human Sexuality degrees. Her professional background is in offering services and education to sex workers and survivors of IPV, DV, sexual assault, and their care networks.
Kaevyn Maple is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology program at Saint Louis University. She is committed to transforming the mental health landscape for marginalized communities. Kaevyn's research focuses on generational trauma, community health, and the impact of discrimination and systemic racism on minority mental health.
After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles, Olivia Croley joined the Hustle & Health (H&H) Research Initiative in 2023. Olivia’s community organizing background and H&H research on the legal and systemic issues surrounding sex work and trafficking inspired her to pursue a legal career.
Dr. Katherine Kelton is a staff psychologist at VA Boston with expertise in trauma-related and substance use disorders. Her research examines how structural conditions surrounding incarceration, homelessness, and sex work impact mental health. Her work centers around extending power to people and communities who have been silenced and unheard.
Dr. Maria Meinerding is a clinical psychologist at Grounded Therapy and the Veterans Medical Research Foundation in Southern California. She specializes in treatments for anxiety, trauma, and co-occurring disorders and maintains a reflexive, sex-worker allied practice. Her research has centered on structural conditions impacting those at the intersection of sexual health and policy.