Student Wright State University School of Professional Psychology Columbus, Ohio, United States
Abstract Text: Education for mental health professionals on sex worker-affirming therapy and stigma resistance is crucial. A literature review was conducted in February 2025, using APA PsycINFO, OhioLink, and Wright State University library databases utilizing key phrases such as “sex worker stigma,” “stigma management,” “sex worker affirming therapy,” “sex work education in higher education,” and “stigma resistance”. Research on the impacts of stigma on sex workers is abundant, indicating that this pervasive stigma negatively impacts mental health care received by sex workers, access to social support, self-esteem, and physical health outcomes (Benoit et al., 2017a; Sawicki et al., 2019; Stenersen et al., 2023). Researchers have responded to this data in various ways, most commonly by exploring coping and resilience factors among sex workers as well as the development of sex worker-affirming therapy (Antebi-Gruszka et al., 2019; Bloomquist & Sprankle, 2019; Burnes et al., 2012a; Burnes & Dawson, 2023; Koken, 2011). More recently, researchers have shifted their focus from stigma resilience to stigma resistance in order to return autonomy to this community (Benoit et al., 2017; Weitzer, 2017). Despite the progress initiated in providing care for sex workers of all walks of life, many deficits remain within the utilization and application of sex worker-affirming therapy. Research has supported the notion that many sex workers receive subpar treatment, or even refusal of treatment, from mental health practitioners (Burnes et al., 2017; Miller & Byers, 2010; Stewart, 2021). The focus of the current literature analysis is to provide mental health practitioners with an overview of sex worker-affirming therapy through a CBT lens and to introduce stigma resistance to this framework.
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