Illuminating the Realities of Sexual Exploitation and Concealable Stigmatized Identities

Presented by Julia L. Lancaster, PhD, LPC, ACS

Friday, August 15, 2025

8am-10am PT / 10am-12pm CT / 11am-1pm ET

Event held online via Zoom, link to access provided upon registration.

With the recent publication of Association for Counseling Sexology and Sexual Wellness Exemplary Practices for Counseling Sexology and Sexual Wellness this webinar aims to further efforts to elevate education and better equip mental health care providers to support clients wishing to address a range of sexuality-related topics. This webinar specifically addresses sexual exploitation and then broadens to cover sexual abuse more broadly. This includes reviewing characteristics that may make some more vulnerable to sexual abuse while also looking at the preparators’ characteristics to better inform our clients and ourselves. We will review hallmark signs of sexual abuse and revisit the concept of consent (Mills, 2025). Sexual exploitation is unfortunately not limited to one group of individuals or one country but is instead recognized by global and local organizations as a wide sweeping human rights violation with reverberating ramifications. The World Health Organization describes sexual exploitation as actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another (World Health Organization). While no one is exempt from the possibility of experiencing sexual abuse some individuals are more vulnerable. Sex workers are highly stigmatized and susceptible to sexual exploitation. Even researchers and allies of sex workers experience stigma by association. This stigma can lead to silence, creating conditions for blackmail, coercion, and other forms of sexual abuse. This webinar will review recent student sex worker research conducted by the presenter and colleagues before reviewing some documented complexities of having a concealable stigmatized identity like sex work (Duncan, 2018; Lancaster et al., in press). This webinar will end with suggestions for further training and a list of organizations working to end sexual abuse who offer resources for providers and those who have experienced sexual abuse.

Zoom link will be available on course page in “My Courses” upon event registration. 

This program, when attended in its entirety, offers 2.0 CEs for Psychologists, 2.0 IL CEUS for Counselors and Social Workers, 2.0 BBS California CEUs for LPCCs, LPSWs, and LMFTs, or 2.0 NBCC Clock Hours.

Price: $50.00 

Register Link: https://tcsppofficeofce.com/product/illuminating-the-realities-of-sexual-exploitation-and-concealable-stigmatized-identities/