Sarah White is a therapist who listens to her clients, in the nude.
Not recognized by any mental health association, Naked Therapy is a discipline the 24-year-old New Yorker started for her dissertation in psychology.
It relies on "power through arousal."
"The goal is to use nakedness as a therapeutic modality so you can understand yourself and your world better, so you can feel great and powerful, and so the excitement you feel during the sessions can lead to more excitement outside the sessions," Ms. White explains from her website, where she is almost nude, save for a laptop and her shrink-esque eyeglasses.
"Instead of the cold, objective, impersonal demeanour of the traditional therapist, you encounter me, just as I am and with nothing to hide," she continues.
Ms. White sees clients via webcam and later in person, presumably once she deems them to be sane enough. Her webcam rate is $150 (U.S.) per hour, but that skyrockets if you want an in-person session.
Some of her (male) clients "have unresolved issues from childhood," while others are addicted to porn. Others are "married men who simply want to talk to a woman other than their wife" - a young, naked one.
The Daily's Justin Rocket Silverman recently consulted Ms. White about his addiction to nicotine. (She removed her clothes; he did not.)
"I actually got downright effusive about my struggle with the smokes, as though I wanted to prove that I could analyze a complicated subject from every angle," Mr. Silverman wrote. "I was trying to impress her."
Sexual interaction between patient and therapist is highly verboten by professional associations, but as Ms. White points out to The Daily, "It's not like I'm having relationships with any of my patients."
Touché.
Still, she may be onto something. Escorts routinely say that much of their job entails listening to men who feel unappreciated, before, after or in place of the act. That's partly why some in the prostitution community call it a "helping profession."
They just don't have the chaise longue.
What do you think? Naked therapy: possibly beneficial, or exploitative of both parties?
Zosia Bielski