Clinical Perspectives on Kink: Your Brain on Kink: The Neurobiology of Kink Online
This workshop walks participants through what is happening “under the hood” during kink play and why that matters for clinical care. Using a brain and body based frame, we look at what lights up during kink, including the limbic system, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, and anterior cingulate cortex. We explore how these regions work together to shape fear, excitement, safety, memory, and meaning in scenes, and how they help explain why certain experiences can feel intense, comforting, clarifying, or even healing. Building on recent psychobiological research, we examine how consensual BDSM scenes can shift stress hormones and pain perception in ways that activate reward and bonding systems and can turn pain into pleasure or deep calm in the right context (Wuyts et al., 2020; Wuyts & Morrens, 2022; Dunkley et al., 2020). The program will also highlight how these states can support trauma processing, embodiment, and integration for some individuals, while at the same time acknowledging that repetitive, high-intensity experiences can mimic compulsive or addictive cycles when not grounded in care, consent, and reflection. Participants will be invited to consider how nervous system concepts are often oversimplified in popular discourse and how a more nuanced understanding of arousal, regulation, and recovery can inform clinical conversations with kink-involved clients. By the end of the session, participants will be better equipped to discuss kink in biologically informed, non pathologizing ways, to differentiate between supportive and harmful patterns of engagement, and to integrate this knowledge into assessment, psychoeducation, and treatment planning.
Presented by Yulinda Renee Rahman, PhD, LCPC
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This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 3.0 CEs for Psychologists, 3.0 IL CEUs for Counselors and Social Workers, 3.0 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSWs, and LMFTs, 3.0 AASECT CEs for Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, or 3.0 NBCC Clock Hours.
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PROGRAM PRICING:
- General Admission: $75
- Students: $50*
(*Please email officeofce@thechicagoschool.edu for coupon code. Code must be entered at time of checkout to receive discount.)
Refund Policy: 100% of tuition is refundable up to 48 hours before the program. Within 48 hours of the program, and at any point in Homestudy format, tuition is nonrefundable.
- Date:
- Thursday, May 21, 2026
- Time:
- 11:00am - 2:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Central Time - US & Canada (change)
- Online:
- This is an online event.
- Event URL:
- https://tcsppofficeofce.com/may_21_2026/
- Audience:
- All Graduate Students All Students Alumni Doctoral Students Faculty Masters Students Public The Chicago School Community Undergraduate Students