'This isn't sex work- it's healing'

Opening up about her controversial work, sex surrogate therapist Lily explains the impact of the TV show Virgin Island

- WORDS: CALLY BROOKS

When Channel 4's provocative new series Virgin Island hit screens last month, it promised to break taboos and explore the very edges of intimacy.

What it didn't expect was to ignite a real-world ripple effect particularly for one woman in Bristol, who is now seeing her inbox flooded with enquiries from men who, until recently, didn't even know her profession existed.

Lily, 41, is one of the UK's few surrogate sex therapists - and since Virgin Island aired on TV, her work has seen a dramatic spike in interest.

"I received quite a lot of requests after the show, because a lot of people didn't realise it was a thing," she recalls. "I now have so many requests. In the USA it's more common, but here it's still a bit of a mystery."

Unlike traditional sex therapy - which focuses on conversation, behavioural techniques and cognitive approaches - surrogate sex therapy involves direct physical intimacy as part of therapeutic treatment.

The aim is to help individuals overcome issues like erectile dysfunction, anxiety, lack of sexual confidence and trauma around touch by practising intimacy in real life, with the help of a trained surrogate partner.

As controversial as it is misunderstood, surrogate therapy is legal in the UK but remains unregulated - and often hidden from the public eye. That is, until Virgin Island came along.

Healing tool