Thomas Whitfield
Thomas Whitfield
Occupation: Sex Educator and Doctor of Psychology
Location: New York City, New York, United States
The Sex in My Business: In the past, I worked on a multidisciplinary team of researchers and educators to create and test sexual health interventions that primarily benefit sexual minority populations. The majority of my work revolved around increasing PrEP uptake among gay and bisexual men who are at risk for HIV acquisition. I am extremely passionate about sex education and have my own YouTube channel where I discuss various topics of sex and sexuality. My goal is to reach people across the world who do not have access to medically accurate and age-appropriate sex-ed. In addition, I recently completed my Ph.D. in Psychology and now work in a private practice providing therapy. Many of my patients present with sexuality and sexual health related issues including erectile dysfunction and vaginismus.
A Typical Day: Since the beginning of the pandemic, like everyone else, my typical day has changed drastically. My mornings are mostly dedicated to working on my YouTube content (e.g. writing, filming, editing), my podcast The Obsessables, and writing various blogs for adult toy and sexual health companies. In the afternoons and evenings I see therapy patients via webcam and telephone. It is a new frontier for providing health care and honestly much more impactful than I thought it might be back in March.
The Best Part: In terms of therapy, I love discussing sexual health and satisfaction with my clients. These topics can be difficult for some people to talk about (both clients and therapists), so I love being able to facilitate such conversations in safe ways. As for my Internet content, I am a creative person by nature and these outlets allow me to nurture that side of myself while spreading important information.
The Worst Part: I’m a bit of a workaholic. I sincerely love what I do, but I sometimes have a hard time saying “no” or not taking on additional projects.
How I Got Here: When I was an undergrad, I started interning at a sex research facility and fell in love with the process. In learning about sex research, I quickly found there was an entire world of sex I hadn’t known existed. I continued to feed my interest and eventually decided to pursue a doctorate degree. All through my doctoral program I studied issues related to sex and eventually taught a college class on human sexuality. From there, I started my YouTube channel. For me it has been a natural progression of just going where I’m curious and being open to new experiences.
What Society Thinks: When I said "sex researcher" in the past, many people imagined I was either watching people have sex or watching pornography all day. Although there have been sex studies that involved watching couples have sex, that is not what my work included. People can be uncomfortable when I discuss my work, even when only using scientific terms or just hearing the word "sex"! This only makes me want to work harder at destigmatizing all aspects of sex and to spread more education and awareness. I want everyone to feel comfortable discussing this important topic.
When I’m Not At Work: I usually spend my free time trying to force myself to relax. Sometimes that means watching a movie, playing a video game, or spending time with those I love. Oh, and if I can find a dog to hang with, PERFECT!! I'm a big kid at heart.
For more about Thomas, follow him on Instagram.
Published Sep 30, 2020
Updated Sep 16, 2022
Published in Issue VIII: Art