Practitioners adopt various titles, like “erotic masseuse”, “intimacy mentor”, “surrogate”, “somatic sex educator” and “shaman.” Professionals are viewed as doctors, of sorts. You can take courses at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in California (the only institute of its kind in the US) and get certified by the California Department of Education to practice. “There aren't any laws about it, because it's a relatively new field,” explained Rev. Dr. Ted McIlvenna, President of the The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. (Back in the 1960s, the Methodist Church assigned Rev. McIlvenna to turn gays straight– an impossible task that set him on a crusade for sexual revolution and gay rights. He is also the owner of one of the world's largest erotica collections. When asked whether he'd describe the field as therapeutic, I got a vehement NO; "You're not saving anybody, you're getting somebody sexually function. Saying we're providing therapy [to disabled clients]– that's just bullshit.")

Among its alumni, IASHS boasts Cheryl Cohen-Greene, the sex surrogate played by Helen Hunt in 2012 movie The Sessions. “She’s never had any problems, and none of our graduates have,” Mcilvenna said. “You’re not seeing malpractice suits, because you don’t go to [an intimacy mentor] on the basis of petting, or any of the things that would be malpractice.”

“I can’t say it was always protected, but it wasn’t specifically harassed.” That’s Kenneth Ray Stubbs, Ph.D, who pioneered the field of sexology (then, “erotic massage”) with Dr. Joseph Kramer in California in the 1970s. “People now do see many more practitioners. There’s a legal situation that allows people to practice openly, or there at least seems to be.”

Stubbs has recently expanded his title to “shaman,” because he views his role as getting people in touch with energies, exploring themselves through sexual contact. “When I started to put myself out there as teaching erotic massage, I realized that I was not just interested in giving people happy endings,” he said. “But if there was genital contact in the process of the massage that helped a person to embrace their sexuality, be at home with their sexuality, and discover more about themselves– that was what excited me personally.”

“That’s not to say that a quick hand job is not beneficial. It can be.”