Veronica Monet

Veronica Monet (born April 1, 1960) is an American author and activist for sex worker rights.[1] Her early activism focused on debunking stereotypes about sex workers and advocating for the decriminalization of all sex work. From 1989 to 2004, she was a high-end escort and courtesan,[2] Monet's later work focuses on anger management, healing shame, and helping couples integrate their sexuality with their spirituality.

Veronica Monet
Born (1960-04-01) April 1, 1960
Alma materOregon State University
Occupationactivist, author, therapist
Websitetheshamefreezone.com

Early life and education

Veronica Monet was born to working-class parents in the rural town of Prairie City, Oregon.

She was homeschooled and did not participate in public education until entering college in 1978, when she was granted Honors at Entrance at Oregon State University. In 1979, Monet left the denomination she was raised in, and in 1982 she graduated from Oregon State University with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Business Administration.[3]

The first seven years after college, Monet was employed as an office manager, department manager, and marketing representative. She experienced on-the-job sexual harassment, as well as gender pay discrimination, and these negative experiences would influence her subsequent work trajectory.[4]

Monet's early adult life was complicated by a severe addiction to drugs and alcohol that led her to a twelve-step program in 1985. She has remained clean and sober ever since, and attributes her long-term sobriety to the twelve-step programs and ongoing therapy.[5]

Career

Monet became a high-end escort in 1989, after four years of sobriety, and worked as a clean and sober high-end escort for fifteen years, as she described when she was profiled as a 'modern day courtesan' on A&E's Love Chronicles in the year 2000.[5] Throughout her escorting career, Monet was married and helped to raise her husband's two young children.[6] In 2004, Monet divorced her husband of fourteen years due to his relapse around pain pills. That same year, she transitioned from escorting to relationship coaching and moved from the California Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She spent the next eight years living in a mountain cabin while touring major American cities to promote her first book, Sex Secrets of Escorts, published by Penguin in 2005.

In the Fall of 2000, the Kinsey Institute established The Veronica Monet Collection.[7]

Academics in the field of psychology have referenced Monet's expertise on the dynamics of sexual shame and porn addiction. She is cited in the late Christopher Kennedy Lawford's Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit Manage Any Addiction (pages 166-167),[8] and Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo's Man (Dis)Connected (page 223).[9]

Monet became a Certified Sexologist through the American College of Sexologists in 2007 and an Anger Management Specialist through Century Anger Management[10] and is also a graduate of San Francisco Sex Information[11] and now works as a relationship therapist helping people heal trauma and shame.[12]

Selected works

Books
  • Monet, Veronica (2005). Veronica Monet's Sex Secrets of Escorts: What Men Really Want. DK Publishing. ISBN 9781440690778.
  • Monet, Veronica (2009). Sex de Luxe: Profi-Tipps für heiße Nächte (in German). Goldmann Verlag. ISBN 9783641017033.

References
  1. John Bogert (20 March 2008). "Escort explains sex secrets, success". The Sun. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  2. "Escort explains sex secrets, success". San Bernardino Sun. 20 March 2008.
  3. "Modern Sex Conference". 15 February 2011.
  4. "Former escort says sex is all in the mind". San Francisco Chronicle. 11 December 2005. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  5. Michael Castleman (23 October 2002). "The Two Worlds of Veronica Monet". Salon. Retrieved 11 September 2019.
  6. "Escort's hot tip: It's not just about the sex, it's about the mind". San Francisco Gate. 23 November 2005.
  7. "Indiana University, Bloomington - Veronica Monet collection".
  8. Lawford, Christopher Kennedy (18 December 2012). Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit Manage Any Addiction. BenBella. ISBN 978-1936661961.
  9. Zimbardo, Philip (17 May 2015). Man (Dis)Connected. Rider. ISBN 978-1846044847.
  10. "Psychology Today".
  11. Lawford, Christopher (17 May 2015). Recover to Live. BenBella. ISBN 978-1936661978.
  12. "Psychology Today directory".
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