Beck Thom

My professional background is specialist (LGBT and mental health) youth and community work, and Social Work, where I specialised in children using sexually inappropriate or abusive behaviour, so this included a lot of sex education and addressing shame and difficult feelings. 

I attended and became involved in the Quintasensual (queer sexuality and Tantra) festival in the UK for several years, which exposed me to consent practices, conscious kink, conscious and sex positive community, and I saw how transformative this could be. It was also where I met my first Sexological Bodyworkers, as it was a modality I had not previously heard of. 

I retrained as a Certified Sexological Bodyworker in 2016/2017 with the Institute of Somatic Sexology. I also trained in Sharon Wheeler’s Scarwork, as a way to support trans clients with post surgery scarring and embodiment, and attended training around trauma informed bodywork practice. 

I have focussed my professional development on GSRD clients, particularly since the pandemic, where I offered over 100 hours of online workshops and sharing circles

spaces to the Quintimacy community. My learning has been rhizomatic and grassroots in nature - I have learnt a huge amount from working in practice with a wide range of clients. I also seek out mentors whose work I admire, and follow the work of queer and trans practitioners in the field.

I learnt further from engaging with the Institute for the Study of Somatic Sexology (ISSSE) in Canada’s graduate programme, a curriculum which recognises and celebrates diversity in human sexuality and gender, including social justice content.