Support Groups

This BIPOC only space will meet to work through stressful feelings & frustration associated with being a POC content creator weekly on Wednesdays at 7pm EST.

Workplace stress often ranks as a priority in mental health care. This is overwhelmingly more challenging to address for performers that have limited outlets to discuss, brainstorm, and develop healthy coping tools with industry colleagues.

This group can be used as a supplement to individual counseling or on its own to gain insight from peers and licensed professionals. This group will be facilitated BIPOC-AIC Wellness Member & Pineapple Support counselors, Jasmine Johnson LCSW.

In collaboration with BIPOC Collective

Every Wednesday at 7pm EST

Course provided by Jasmine Johnson

‘Welcome! By joining this group, you’re taking an important step along the path to healing. I’ll avoid trendy techniques in offering support and guidance, and focus instead on what experts strongly recommend. I’ve helped hundreds of trauma and PTSD sufferers with an approach that integrates “gold standard” cognitive-behavioural techniques. My articles on trauma recovery (including an invited article) appear in major psychological journals.’

6 week course starting Wednesday May 12th at 8 pm EST

Course provided by Russell Stagg MA MC RP RCC

This support group aims to provide the unique, welcoming assistance of others in the transgender community. Solidarity, advocacy, and understanding provided by a therapist within the community.

6 week course starting Tuesday June 8th at 5pm EST

Course provided by Rachael Wells

This support group focuses on the unique stressors related to adult entertainment on performers and family members. We provide a safe place to explore the characteristics of healthy family relationships, appropriate assertiveness with family members, and the hidden dynamics that shape your life.

6 week course starting Tuesday July 6th, 3pm EST

Course provided by Steven Mollura, LPC, LMHC

This is a group for those who have experienced the death of someone in their lives- a friend, family member, partner, or anyone else whose death has had a significant impact on their life, no matter how long ago. Group will meet weekly for 6 weeks with the same group members in order to provide a chance for group members to learn about one another and support each other wherever each person is in processing and understanding their grief. Group will be an open forum space where each member is encouraged to take an equal share of the talking time and support others to do the same with an open, process group format and the guiding idea of putting thoughts and feelings into words.

6 week course starting Monday September 13th, 7pm-8.30pm EST

Course provided by Angelyn Hermes

This support group will target and assist the distinctive issues and challenges unique to the LGBTQ community of adult performers. Coping, laughs, and solidarity assured.

6 week course starting Tuesday October 12th at 5pm EST

Course provided by Rachael Wells

Addiction: a Journey to Recovery” is a 6 week support group for those struggling with substance use. This group will be focused on identifying triggers and coping mechanisms to help members maintain long term sobriety and prevent relapse.

6 week course starting Thursday March 11th, Time: 1pm EST

Course provided by Rachael Farina

Out of control emotions can make it hard to maintain friendships, romantic relationships and can even jeopardise our careers. Many of us never learned the skills we need to cope with difficult emotions, and that makes it impossible to deal effectively with stressful or distressing situations that inevitably come up in our lives. This course teaches participants how to recognise, understand and regulate emotions so that they have more choices about how to manage day to day stressors and distressing events.

“Music and its elements are the core of being human. Those who are struggling to express their inner world may find this voice through the music experience.”
– Ronald M. Borczon, Music Therapy for Survivors of Traumatic Events
Family dynamics can be challenging, but during the holiday season they can be especially difficult. Holidays are often a time of stress, which can lead to feelings of anxiety, anger, hopelessness, guilt, and loneliness.

However, this time may also present new opportunities: a chance to connect with others. Music is a foundational way to communicate and foster that community.

Music has the potential to stimulate, activate, and inspire the mind, body, and spirit. It can enhance our quality of life and promote healing. Processing trauma can interfere with an individual’s quality of life, as our basic understanding of what everyday life “should” look like is profoundly transformed.

Through music, we will work to:

communicate our sense of self
build coping mechanisms
move closer to a new degree of normality

Structure of the sessions:

Four group sessions, two hours in length
All sessions will take place over Zoom
In music therapy, the following activities aid in addressing these objectives, finding ways to circumnavigate them, and build towards reconciliation with traumatic events. This, in turn, establishes new routines and ways to cope.

Drumming experiences – reduces anxiety, breathing empowerment as a core component of recovery, encouraging vocal healing, unified strength
Music listening – analyzing music from our lives, lyric discussion
Storytelling – finding connections between projections, symbols and self. Three components of storytelling include
Musical drone
How the story is told
The story itself. Either pre-existing story OR group created story based on listening to music examples.

Improvisation – opening up a portal for a person to feel freely, empathic improvisation, listening and supporting one another through music (breakout sessions), the dual roles of soloist vs supporter.
Songwriting – group bonding, creativity. As in Blues music, state an issue, state the solution.
What is the effect of the trauma
What are you going through now?
What do you want to happen in the future?
Processing the meaning

Through these creative experiences with music, we can connect with what cannot easily be expressed verbally and rebuild a new sense of normal.

Music therapy is an evidence-based clinical use of musical interventions to improve clients’ quality of life. Music therapists use music and its many facets— physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual— to help clients improve their health in cognitive, motor, emotional, communicative, social, sensory, and educational domains by using both active and receptive music experiences. These experiences include improvisation, re-creation, composition, receptive methods, and discussion of music.

Music transcends time and is present in all communities throughout the world. Given the universal nature of music, music therapy is uniquely able to reach individuals across all backgrounds and ages. It does not require any previous knowledge for individuals to meet their goals and be successful. Music therapy provides individualized treatments to help treat individuals with disabilities, injuries, illnesses or to improve their well being.

What is music therapy? (from American Music Therapy Association)

Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.

Music Therapy is an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. After assessing the strengths and needs of each client, the qualified music therapist provides the indicated treatment including creating, singing, moving to, and/or listening to music. Through musical involvement in the therapeutic context, clients’ abilities are strengthened and transferred to other areas of their lives. Music therapy also provides avenues for communication that can be helpful to those who find it difficult to express themselves in words. Research in music therapy supports its effectiveness in many areas such as: overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people’s motivation to become engaged in their treatment, providing emotional support for clients and their families, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.

4 week course starting on Sunday 6th of December from 6.00-8.00pm EST

Course provided by Dorian Wallace

This support group is a place for men to speak openly and honestly about the unique challenges they face, in and out of the adult entertainment world. We will focus on self-esteem, relationships, career, and goals for being a better man. Together we can develop personal empowerment and growth.

6 week course starting on Monday 9th November from 3.00-4.00pm EST

Course provided by Steven Mollura

This group is for any parent /carer working within the adult industry, who would like to explore their parenting issues and worries in a shared space. While being active in the sup-port of other group members and their particular issues.

The aims of this group will be to provide a space where you can talk about your experienc-es and gain feedback and support without being judged or criticised.
And in doing so reduce feelings of isolation, improve your relationship with your child/children, gain resources, ideas and feel positive as a parent!

Michele Karban will be facilitating the group. She has been involved in Pineapple Support Charity since its very begining. Her experience of working with children, teenagers and adults spans over 25 years. She is a UKCP registered adult and child psychotherapist and an embodied relational therapeutic yoga practitioner.

If you are interested in joining this group please fill out the application form. Michele will then contact you directly for an initial chat re your application.

6 week course starting on Tuesday 6th October from 12.30-1.30pm EST

Course provided by Michele Karban

This is a group meant to cover the heart of loss. Grief and loss cover the range of tragedy, community strife, oppression, loss of a notable person or pet, trauma, and other ranges of suffering. We meet to learn about grief, come to accept ourselves as a valid, grieving individual, and learn tools to cope with the reality of loss.

6 week course starting on Wednesday 2nd September from 6.00-7.00pm EST

Course provided by Rachael Wells

This 6-week support group will address the damages caused by racial trauma due to exposure from institutional racism, discrimination, harassment, community violence and related news/social media.

Jamila Dawson will lead the discussion of the impact of this traumatic stress on behaviour, relationships, coping and parenting as well as strategies that promote self-regulation, safety, sense of empowerment, self-worth, self-determination and emotional confidence of Black Americans.

6 week drop-in course starting on Wednesday 12th August from 8.00-9.00pm EST

Course provided by Jamila Dawson

In this collaborative group we will explore the many layers of trauma and its impact on every facet of well-being. We will provide the basics of trauma neurobiology and tools for understanding the nuances of the symptoms, while also creating strategies for healing and integration of all the parts of you.

6 week course starting on Friday 7th August from 6.00-7.00pm EST

Course provided by Angie Gunn

The month of July focuses on support on the parent/performer relationship. This group is an educational and mild process group that focuses on the relational tie in the family. In this group we will discuss the various emotions around the performer discussing or revealing their career choice to their parents and the parents’ reaction to the information. How to communicate and listen in a healthy way as a family and how to accept/support each other.

Topics include:
– What does sharing your career look like as the performer and as the parent?
– The grief process
– Healthy communication
– Sharing excitement and dreams

*DELAYED 1 WEEK* 6 week course starting on Sunday 19th July from 6.00-7.00pm EST

Course provided by Nicki Line

This six-week support group for LGBTQ+ industry professionals will explore and discuss your role as a sex worker within your sexual identity, examine the various roles people have to “perform” in life & work, moving with societal changes like COVID19, and maintaining self-care for yourself physically, financially, and in relationships. 

Co-led by LGBTQ+ and Trauma therapists with experience serving the adult industry.

6 week course starting on Wednesday 24th June from 12.00-1.00pm EST

Course provided by Andrew Pari & Julie Schiffman

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing lots of people to experience distress. This might be because of fear of getting sick, or it could be financial stress or the impact of being in closer than usual quarters with the folks that we live with. Whatever the reason that you’re distressed, dialectical behaviour therapy can help to equip you with the skills to cope. This course is all about finding ways to reduce your distress – using your body as well as your brain. It helps you to develop your capacity to manage distress better.

The fact is, we can struggle to manage intense emotions in our day to day lives when we can’t cope with difficult interpersonal interactions, overwhelming events or invalidation from loved ones, medics and employers. We can end up in crisis, and that can cause us to behave in ways that cause us shame or create practical problems in our lives. While we are often not responsible for causing the initial events, we still have to deal with our reactions to the situation, our emotions and behaviour. This course equips you with DBT skills to manage distressing situations without derailing your life or relationships.

For more information click here

7 week course starting on Tuesday 14th April from 12.30-2.30 EST

Course provided by Sophia Graham from Love Uncommon

The Recovery Education and Support is an online group led by Nicki Line, a licensed mental health counselor. The purpose of this is group is to provide education about addiction and a safe space for those struggling with addiction in any form to find support. The recovery journey is not an easy one and this group will provide a sanctuary for those in need of understanding, education, and support.
The group will be held online in the Zoom platform, an invite will be sent via email for you to join the secure platform.

6 week support group.

Groups will start on Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 6pm eastern standard time.

The group will include performers that are approved through Pineapple Support. The group will be a safe and confidential space that will serve to allow clients to feel seen and supported by others with similar life experience as well as provide support, empathy and referrals when needed.

8 week, in person, Adult Performer Process group held on Mondays at 12pm PST in West Hollywood.

Courses start February 3rd 2020

Join us for a weekly conversation facilitated by a sex therapist and sex worker, focused on the complex needs of those in the field. The conversation will be collaborative and interactive, addressing trauma, relationships, emotions, and navigating personal well-being and work sustainability. This group is for womxn/ femmes in the industry, and is inclusive of all types of sex work. Thanks to the support of Pineapple Support, we are able to offer this group for free! It is a closed group; we will accept the first 10 appropriate applicants and the group will then be consistent members each week.

7 week Performer Well-being support group held on Mondays at 2pm EST and 11am PST. 

Courses start December 2nd 2019

Out of control emotions can make it hard to maintain friendships, romantic relationships and can even jeopardise our careers. Many of us never learned the skills we need to cope with difficult emotions, and that makes it impossible to deal effectively with stressful or distressing situations that inevitably come up in our lives. This course teaches participants how to recognise, understand and regulate emotions so that they have more choices about how to manage day to day stressors and distressing events.

For more information click here

8 week DBT course held on Tuesdays at 12pm EST and 9am EST. 

Courses start October 1st 2019

Blue Pearl Therapy is a sex-worker-aware, stigma-free therapeutic practice that provides both online and offline therapy and coaching. Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker and gerontologist providing therapeutic services related to PTSD, depression and anxiety for over fifteen years. Read More on our Blog

5 week support group held on Wednesdays at 2pm EST.