I have no idea . I wrote a comment in a prior discussion asking how various Doms had been brought into kink . Which in my case was by dating a well connected sub from a rather random connection . And she then connected me to the Boston kink community back in the 1990 s , and a few tops one in particular took me in to train . He ' s passed on now . But my experience with him was formative . I ' ve also met several Doms Tops who I believe to be honest and ethical in their approach . But . commonality ? In the real world we ' d set standards , collect data , generate metrics , perform analyses , and all that . None of which has ever been done . So . I can ' t answer your question . But I don ' t think ' kink training ' is as bleak in ideal form as those who claim it to be nothing more than teaching sexual service . Yet obviously there are those who abuse their role . And you ' d be well advised to avoid them . So . can I give you hard and fast rules ? No . That ' s too black and white . Too easy . Kink is very much a part of the human sexual condition . It ' s deviant in the way so many need to find expression outside conformity of psychosexualsocial expectations . It won ' t go away . Societal suppression of it will only redirect it toward other expressive forms . And recognizing this , I think to pursue one ' s sexual and emotional needs directly is to accept them and seek ways to gain from them rather than avoid . The suppression is individually and socially worse than the consequences of overt sexual expression . That is , being truthful with ourselves about ourselves and our needs is the best outcome long term . Even if it means sometimes shortterm emotional difficulty . But it ' s always a personal path . An individual road to achievement and selfawareness . And in following the individual path like drumming that individual beat in opposition to the masses one always takes risk . Ultimately , I think the road of open selfexploration with all its pitfalls leads to a happier life . And if you are drawn to kink then training is sometimes helpful . As a nascent Dom I was trained by a sub and an elder Dom . In this , I gained new insight . Something I never would have done otherwise . And it benefited my life . So , from my perspective , if a Dom offers you training , your job is to determine if that training might actually benefit your life . And act upon your emotional gut reaction there . Then let the emotional chips fall where they may and learn from the experience .