I speak about the psychology of pup play, kink-affirming mental health care, and queer joy, for conferences, community events, universities, and clinical trainings.
The pitch is simple: the research fluency of a licensed clinician and the lived fluency of someone in the community. No translation layer, no anthropology-field-trip energy, and no audience left doing the explaining.
What pup play actually does for a nervous system: play as regulation, headspace as a break from self-monitoring, and pack as the belonging a lot of us didn't get the first time. The research, in plain language, for an audience that lives it.
For therapists, counsellors, and training programmes. What clients are actually screening you for in session one, where well-meaning clinicians lose them, and how to take a kink history without turning it into a case study. Ethics, scope, and the difference between tolerated and affirmed.
Internalised stigma is the thing that follows people out of the room. A working session on where the shame came from, what it costs, and how joy functions as clinical infrastructure rather than a reward for getting better first.
Each runs as a 45–60 minute keynote, a 90-minute workshop, or a half-day training. Happy to build something specific to your audience instead.
In person or virtual. Travel from New York.
Email speaking@puptherapist.comwith your event, the dates you're holding, and who's in the audience. I reply within two business days with availability and a fee.
It speeds things up if you include: audience size and makeup, format and run time, whether it's in person or virtual, and whether you need CE documentation. Fees depend on format and travel; community and student organisations, ask anyway.
Everything you need to announce a session or file a story — bio at two lengths, a high-resolution portrait, and the topic list above. Press enquiries tospeaking@puptherapist.com.
Alex Conway, LMHC, is a licensed psychotherapist in New York and a member of the pup community, known as Pup Disco. He works at the intersection of kink-affirming care, EMDR, and positive psychology, and speaks on the psychology of pup play to clinical and community audiences.