I follow Amira’s work on Instagram and was very pleased when she said yes for this interview. I like and appreciate the services that she offers for other sex workers for spiritual healing, these days it’s very much needed. We’re constantly interacting with people using our private zone, not like a waitress, who takes the order, serves the customer and leaves the table. We let any drunken, ignorant, drugged person enter our comfort zone and it’s so easy to collect all the negative energies, emotional rubbish from them. We have to deal with rejection, more than one time a night, and we have to participate in mind games. Indeed, it can easily lead us to burn out, alcohol and/or drug abuse.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I am a 34-year-old u.s. born Palestinian with 10 years of experience in the adult entertainment industry. I am mixed and I have one parent that’s an Arab Muslim immigrant and one that is a white Christian “American.” I’m also queer and part of the LGBTQ community. Because of these identities, I’m able to comfortably mix and mingle with a lot of different people and easily blend into a variety of environments. At the same time, I experience rampant discrimination for being Palestinian, queer, Muslim, a sex worker, just like everyone else who is a part of these identities, except I experience it in my own way and they experience it in theirs. It’s important to me to claim these parts of my identities but I don’t claim to speak for anyone else because we all have very different experiences of life. I don’t want to collapse myself either or let people think they know me just because they know my label.
Amira Barakat al-Baladi is my stage name and the name of my sex work persona. My family name is Nadia Ann Abou-Karr. Amira is an aspect of me, just like Nadia is.
How did you get involved in sex work?
I was working as a community organizer but the organizations I worked for weren’t paying me enough. I needed more income. I decided to leave the relationship I was in, which was going nowhere, and spend the time I would normally spend with him, working as a webcam model instead. It was fun and the money was good, but I was greedy and I wanted more. So I started finding clients as a non-pro (non-professional) on Craigslist and other dating sites. I would meet up with them like it was a date, and then charge them to have sex with me. Even just taking a couple of clients per week made a huge impact on my bills and my quality of life, so that when my chronic illness got more severe and I was laid off from my non-profit jobs, I was able to regroup while still being able to support myself and move to Atlanta, where my hustle took off. Ten years later, I have worked in so many different aspects of the industry including porn, escorting, professional BDSM, webcam, phone sex, fetish modelling and sensual bodywork. I’ve even helped other workers get involved in sex work and improve their business. I don’t work full time as a sex worker anymore but I still include it as one of my multiple streams of income. I’m now becoming a hybrid version of a sex worker/energy therapist/teacher.
What is your best advice for girls in this industry?
Have boundaries and stick to them. Don’t let people cross your boundaries. It’s better to walk away, to go home early, to not take that client you have a funny feeling about. Sometimes missing out on money saves you money when it comes to being able to rest and preserve your sanity and peace of mind. Take good care of yourself. Don’t give discounts. Don’t talk yourself into settling for less. It’s ok to run a special every now and then but don’t convince yourself you have to accept whatever you can get. Working smarter and not harder is the key to your longevity in this game. Charge more. If you charge higher prices that means you work less. Work with what you got and capitalize on your assets to charge as much as you possibly can when and where you know you’ll be compensated best. Never feel guilty or apologize for it.
You do holistic healing and give spiritual support to other sex workers. How do you clean your own energy?
I always sleep with crystals and herbs in my bed. I change them depending on the time of the month and the particular issues I’m dealing with at the time. I do self-healing techniques on myself including EFT which I teach on my live stream on IG, and Reiki energy healing, which I teach in my Heaven on Earth Holistic Healing class. I take lots of baths, which I soak in anywhere from 40 minutes to 6 hours. The more I do this work of helping others to heal, the more time I have to spend doing my own self-care in order to feel whole, balanced, and not burnt out.
What kind of services do you offer for fellow sex workers?
I’m always dreaming of more offerings I can share with my community. I’m really excited to be able to be part of this interview and tell you about myself and what I am doing, in my own words. First, I encourage other sex workers to be themselves and to contribute to our community. I think we all have something to give and we are all very special people. We get so much hate and animosity thrown on us from outsiders and even from the people within our circles who we regularly interact with like clients, coworkers, management and more. So at times, it can be very discouraging. We need support and support is a huge part of what I offer for fellow sex workers. As a stripper, escort, fetish artist, sensual masseuse, aesthetician and makeup artist, I became used to working closely with the body and experiencing the energy from other people. I began to use mantras and intentions to work consciously with that energy, not knowing that what I was doing naturally was very similar to the energy healing technique known as “Reiki.” I found that out when I became certified in Reiki, first in level I and II in Las Vegas, NV in 2016, and then as a Reiki master in Detroit in 2017. I had already received Reiki treatments from people in my community starting in 2011 but I never considered learning how to do it until 2014 during a major spiritual awakening in which I began seeing the reiki symbol and other esoteric symbols spelt out for me in sticks and fallen pine needles during my daily runs. This is after years and years of already investing time, effort and money into my spiritual journey starting in 2011 with my first spiritual detox. I now offer my support to sex workers who are also learning to make sense of the supernatural occurrences they experience and follow the signs they receive towards a better quality of life. My spiritual coaching sessions are a mixture of counselling, support, energy clearing and cord cutting, and some light bullying when you need an extra push. They are for people who want to develop their spiritual gifts and need some help, some accountability, and someone to talk to along the way. I’ll always give you messages from your spirit guides and help you tune into your intuition when you need some support finding your way back to yourself. I use my gifts, to help you recognize and utilize your gifts. Everything I do is guided intuitively so each session is a little different based on that person’s needs. I have learned to just trust and go with it when sessions deviate from the norm or from my expectations because spirit knows best. In my energy healing sessions, I focus in on clearing the chakras, the aura, cutting away energy cords and past connections that no longer serve you, and supporting that transformational healing work of releasing baggage and sifting through traumatic experiences on a deeper level. I help you access your intuition, your spirit guides, your past life memories, and your spiritual gifts. I also do tarot card readings for those looking for a little bit of guidance.
I’m excited to begin offering my Reiki Certification Class at the end of August in Detroit! From there I’ll be touring throughout the U.S. and Canada wherever I’m invited to offer this class. In this class, you’ll learn how to use energy healing for more profit, fun and success at work in the sex industry, for your own personal healing and the healing of your loved ones, and in your own holistic healing business. This can be a side career that complements your adult entertainment work or an exit plan if you are ready to leave sex work or simply just need a break. I’ll also be teaching my Heaven on Earth: Holistic Healing for Hoes workshop in Detroit at the beginning of September and bringing that community-based workshop along on my tour. In this workshop, I teach some of the same self-healing modalities I teach on my IG live stream and to my clients in sessions. These techniques include meditation, body movement, crystals, dream interpretation, emotional freedom therapy (aka “tapping”) and more. We don’t have enough support systems built in for us when we experience trauma, so I offer these classes and workshops as a way to help us build support for ourselves and each other during the critical times when we need it the most. This enables us to have the skills that we need to care for ourselves and support each other during times of spiritual transformation and social unrest when we are most vulnerable to violence, abuse, suicide, self-harm and spiritual attack. It is my goal for all of us sex workers (aka Sex Goddesses) to be able to awaken and cultivate our spiritual gifts for the good of all and to be recognized for the powerful healing work we’re already doing which benefits everyone.
Visit www.sacredstripper.com and @SacredStripper on Instagram and Twitter for more!
Thank you, Amira!
