Action group warns of controversial ‘healer’: ‘Prevent more victims’

• Anna Mees

  editor Online

A man who ties clients up in ropes all over the world and hangs them horizontally from a structure in order to heal, is in the Netherlands this week. Women who previously came to him for a paid session accuse him of sexual abuse. An action group wants to prevent Bodhi Zapha, as he calls himself, from making more victims.

According to his website, “shibari healing’ intended for radical souls who want to become whole and vibrant beings.

There is talk of emotional liberation from energetic blockages. The sessions would also help to be freed from fear, anger, guilt, shame and self-limiting judgments.

Zapha, whose real name is Christopher Bold, calls himself an expert sexual trauma healer and trauma counselor.

And especially there, where he focuses on traumatized people, things go wrong, say five women who have joined forces.

They say they have 15 reports of women worldwide complaining about their experiences with Zapha in recent years. From transgressive behavior to oral rape, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently published. With their action group, the women, including a Dutch woman, want to prevent more women from being harmed.

“Women with trauma seek help for this. Then they become even more traumatized,” says Luna, who does not want to use her last name in the article. She practices herself shibaria Japanese form of bondage. “We don’t want women to fall into his trap and become even more traumatized. We want to stop the danger.”

Currently, the man who according to victims is from the United Kingdom and lives part of the year in Bali, is on a European tour.

In Amsterdam he had planned sessions in a house rented through Airbnb. When the owner of that building found out what was about to happen through questions from the NOS, he asked Zapha to leave. Berlin and London are also on the program. The sessions last five hours and cost more than 2000 euros. “This is not sadomasochism,” reads a video on his website about the shibari-sessions. “This is the evolution of a 16th-century Japanese art form”.

Professor of Asian religions Paul van der Velde of Radboud University Nijmegen: “This reminds me a lot of the way tantra commonly practiced in the West. That has little to do with Asia, but there is an Asian jacket around it. Then the impression is created that it is ancient and traditional, but if you look closely, it turns out not to be the case at all.”

“They are often very charismatic figures, guru-like types too,” says Van der Velde. “They know how to gain the trust of people who are already in a vulnerable position and create a kind of atmosphere of ‘I can heal you’. If it becomes body-oriented in combination with erotic, it is very questionable anyway.”

In therapy sessions in which physicality and eroticism play a major role, there must be a stop sign, says Van der Velde. “You have to be able to make it clear that something goes too far. What I get out of these stories format, is that women did, but it didn’t matter.”

In the bondage community, the alarm goes off when more than one accusation has been made about someone, Luna says. “People can make mistakes, an experience can be less good or there are misunderstandings. But several issues with one person, that shouldn’t happen. Especially not if that person claims to be a healer and to work with trauma.”

Zapha’s website lists all kinds of positive experiences. According to Luna, Zapha feels with whom he can go far. “With people without trauma who set their boundaries, he behaves professionally. That’s why he gets such positive testimonials from famous women. But as soon as it is someone with trauma, pushes he them. It’s like he senses who is an ideal victim.”

According to Sven Brinkhoff, professor of Criminal Procedure Law at the University of Amsterdam, it can be punishable by law if sexual acts are performed in such a session. For example, under Article 249 of the Criminal Code. This concerns people who work in health care or social care and who commit fornication with someone “who has entrusted himself to his help or care as a patient or client”.

In 2018 and 2021, two Dutch tantra massagers were sentenced to prison terms on appeal on the basis of this article.

“It is important for a possible criminal prosecution that there is sufficient evidence for committing the sexual acts and, specifically for Article 249, that it can be said that there is some form of dependence,” says Brinkhoff. “A dependency that is usually present in such a counselor-client relationship.”