Ok, so I have recently put my degree in Psychology to the good use it needs since I have been unable to work for about 4 years due to disability. I signed up as a professional counselor on a reputable website at which people can click on my page and place a paid call to me to get counseling or simple advice on an issue they are having. One of the subjects I offer services in is 'sexual health'. To me, and to most people, that means such things as not being able to achieve erection or orgasm, having a vastly different sex drive as their partner, reproductive issues, etc. But for about a dozen or so of my callers, only men so far, think that means phone sex.
The first couple of calls of that nature that I received, I shut them down immediately, explained that is not what I did and ended the call. But then I got curious. With all of the phone sex websites and commercials on tv, why would someone choose to call a professional counselor to get their phone sex needs met? Was it the taboo of it? Was it the added arousal of the authority figure? Or was it merely that the rates are generally cheaper? I decided to try to find out.
The next call I got requesting phone sex, I started asking those questions. Well, not exactly. I simply asked, "Why did you call a professional counselor for phone sex?" The answer I got was, "I'm not really sure." So I probed further. I asked the specific questions. Was it taboo, was it an authority figure fantasy, was it because the rates were cheaper? He wasn't really sure why he had started using the website I work for to fulfill his sexual needs, but he told me something that shocked me. He told me that many of the counselors on the site that offered sexual health counseling provided phone sex for him. He told me that he had been a member of the site for years and that about 80% straight up provided phone sex for him, 10% said absolutely not, and the other 10% said that they wouldn't mind providing phone sex, but that they were too shy to go through with it.
EIGHTY PERCENT!!! my mind screamed...you have to be licensed or at least have a degree and experience in the field to be a counselor for the site. Why were these professionals risking their reputation by providing a strictly forbidden service according the terms of use? I thought he must be exaggerating, or even flat out lying in the hopes that I would hear that others were doing it, so why shouldn't I. Fortunately, I take my profession seriously and don't plan to engage in phone sex in order to make an extra bit of money. (Not that I find anything wrong with phone sex, it's just not something that I'm going to do, especially while functioning as a counselor.)
I have received a handful of other calls from men wanting phone sex. I ask them the same types of questions. I've found that if I tell them straight from the beginning that I am not going to provide phone sex services for them, that I am a professional and I take my career seriously, they simply hang up. So, I've learned to ask the questions that I want answers to for my own research before telling them that there is zero chance they are going to get any phone sex out of me. The call usually ends when they get tired of my polished questions and start to get a bit more sexual and I deny them. I assume they are hoping that if they answer my questions, that I will eventually give in and give them what they are actually looking for. Unfortunately for them, it never works out the way they hope. Occasionally they humor me and answer all of my questions and only end the call when their time runs out and the service asks them if they want to continue to pay my rate to continue the call.
The thing that continues to shock me is that most of the men tell me that they call different women from the service often and receive phone sex. I wonder why these counselors are performing these services. I wonder why, if they are going to perform these services, they don't just become phone sex workers. Maybe they do. Maybe they are professional counselors, but also work as phone sex operators for other websites or companies. But then the other question is, why don't they direct these types of customers to their phone sex lines? Advertising other websites or companies in your listing or to customers is forbidden in the terms of use as well, but if they are outright providing phone sex, thus breaking the rules laid out in the terms of service, why not break the rules and tell those customers about their other businesses? I'm pretty positive that phone sex operators make more per minute than professional counselors do. In fact, in my research, I took a look at some websites that offer phone sex and the rates are significantly higher in most cases. (Although if the men are calling because the rates are cheaper, and knowing that if they don't do it, someone else on the site will, they may well assume that the men will not call their other, more expensive line and simply continue to call other women on the counseling site until they find one that will provide the service. And if 80% of them are doing it, I'm sure the man would have no problem finding someone else to provide phone sex at a discounted rate. So these supposed professional counselors break not only the terms of service, but give those of us who are committed to our profession a bad name, all for the sake of making some extra money.)
I wish I knew the names of the counselors that were providing phone sex. I would happily report them. Unfortunately, there is not even a feature that allows me to report the caller as someone calling for phone sex and let the company know that these callers are telling me that many of the other counselors are performing phone sex for them. I'm sure I could send an email to customer service letting them know that this is going on, the member names of the men who are alleging that many other counselors provide phone sex for them, and that their history could be investigated to see which counselors they are speaking to for any length of time or frequency...but I'm not quite finished with my research of this issue yet.
I will keep you updated with how my research turns out, if I report any of the callers, and if anything is done about it. Until then...let me know your thoughts on this issue.
Thanks for reading!
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