"Dr. Zhang will see you now."
I nodded at the pretty receptionist, Zola, and walked towards the door she had indicated. I had never been to a sex therapist before and I could feel my hands shaking as I walked. I knocked.
"Come in."
The room was a standard therapist's office, with two couches facing each other, pictures on the wall and fairly nondescript furniture. Dr. Zhang was seated on one of the couches and as I entered she met my eyes, smiling briefly.
"Please take a seat," she said, indicating the couch opposite her.
Dr. Zhang wore glasses and had sharp, intelligent eyes behind them that took me in as I sat across from her. Unusually for a therapist, she wore a smart suit with dress pants, tailored to perfection. She sat one leg crossed over the other, with her high heels dangling from her toes. Despite her young age -- she couldn't have been older than thirty -- she wouldn't have looked out of place in a corporate boardroom.
"So," she said. "I've been reviewing your files, and I understand Dr. Sushmita Adams referred you to my practice, after you'd taken some sessions with her regarding issues with anxiety and lack of self-confidence in your dating life?"
"That's right," I said somewhat nervously. "She said that you specialized in this area."
"I do indeed," she said. "Is it true that you've had trouble sustaining a relationship longer than a few weeks?"
"Yes. Things always start well, but generally I've had trouble sustaining things after a few dates."
Dr. Zhang nodded. "Tell me about your last relationship. How did things end?"
"We hit it off quite well after the first few dates. We even had sex, but she stopped talking to me right after actually."
"Hmm. Right after you had sex for the first time? Is this a common pattern for you? Was that how your previous relationship ended?"
I thought about it a moment. "Yes," I told her. "And actually the one before that as well. That's interesting, I've never thought about it that way. Do you think this might be an issue with maintaining an emotional connection after having sex for the first time?"
While I was speaking, I'd noticed that Dr. Zhang's eyes had drifted down to my crotch and back up again. The smallest of smiles crept over her face.
"That may be," she said, "although we'd need to get deeper into this to be sure."
She sat thinking, her head resting on her steepled hands. She was still smiling; her look was positively.. amused? It was hard to read her. I noticed as I watched her that she had an ample bosom behind her smart office jacket and white button down shirt. Definitely an attractive therapist, I thought.
Finally, she stood up, walking over to the filing cabinets on one side of the well. "It may be possible for me to help you. But in order to do so, we'd need to depart from standard procedure a little bit. Let me see -- ahh."
She extracted a sheaf of paper and a ballpoint pen, dropping them on my lap.
"What is this?"
"That's paperwork waiving all liability for what happens in these sessions. Like I said, I think we'll need to depart from standard therapeutic protocol quite a bit in order to help you with your issue, and that will mean dispensing with the usual legalese. Also, and this is quite non-standard, but there is a clause there which requires you to obey everything I tell you to do for the remainder of these sessions. I don't use that particular clause for many clients, but I do think that it will be beneficial in your case."
I was shocked. "I can't sign this!"
Dr. Zhang returned to her couch and sat down. "You have the option to not do so of course," she said. "But unfortunately, I must require that you do this if we are to continue having sessions together. Even if you sign, you are free at any time to walk away at any time, of course. But as Dr. Adams may have mentioned, my methods are fairly non-standard and based on my extensive clinical experience treating secondary referral patients. I do need this signed, so that I know you will commit to the treatment."
I swallowed. There was no way I could do this, could I? But I did need help, and she seemed extremely competent.
Dr. Zhang smiled at me. "I know this feels crazy, but trust me. You won't regret going through with this."
She really seems to know what she's doing, I thought. I felt reassured, and signed the paperwork as she'd asked.
Her smile widened. "Good," she said, standing up and taking the documents from me. "Really good," as she walked over to the cabinet and placed the paperwork inside.
"Now," she turned around and faced me, still standing.
"Stand up and take off your clothes. All of them."
I couldn't believe my ears. "I'm sorry -- what?"
"I told you," she said, smiling sweetly at me, "to stand up and take all of your clothes off."
"But, that's not decent, isn't -"