Encounter Therapy

Evelyn Gates sat primly in the waiting room chair, twisting her night-black hair and looking around the room. It seemed odd to her that no one else was here. But for her, the room was empty. She had been waiting for what felt like forever, so she approached the reception window.

"Hi again," she said, laughing a little self-consciously. "I was just wondering... I mean, it's been a while..."

The receptionist, a strikingly pretty woman with long, loose blonde hair and green eyes, smiled warmly. "It's only been five minutes, hon. You're just nervous."

"I guess I am," said Evelyn, exhaling heavily.

"Don't be," said the receptionist. "Dr. Kines is a very kind man. He may put you off at first, but he's good. Don't you worry."

"Thanks," said Evelyn, giving a pinched smile. She went back and sat down.

Finally, the door in the back opened and a man stepped halfway through. He saw her and said, "Evelyn," gesturing toward the hall behind him. He was an older man, Evelyn thought perhaps in his fifties. His hair was salted with patches of grey. He had a sort of chiseled-looking, handsome face, and dark eyes. He wore a blue shirt and dark blue jeans. She couldn't help but notice he was well-built. Evelyn felt both drawn to him and afraid, all at once.

She stood up and went through the door. "This way," Dr. Kines gestured, down the right path of the hallway. "Third door on the left." She walked ahead of him and into his office. It was tidy, even comfortable-looking, if spare. She expected shelves of books and maybe a desk. But there was just a luxurious, brown leather couch, and across from it a simple chair.

And there was the art. On one wall hung a slightly abstract painting of a woman reclining on a bench. A nude woman with small, shapely breasts, her legs turned away slightly, but her trunk twisted outward, her face appearing to gaze at the viewer. On the sill of the single window stood a strange sculpture, an organic-looking vertical shape, with a slight curve to it. And on the wall directly behind the couch was a large, framed print of a photo show a bare pair of legs, from about mid-thigh down, seated on a dark chair and crossed, primly, the light caressing the tops of the thighs and casting enticing shadows in the hollows. The feet were bare too, with nails painted night-black.

Kines gestured to the couch, smiling faintly.

Evelyn swallowed and sat on the couch, surprised at just how comfortable it was. She leaned back and relaxed a little. Dr. Kines sat in the chair across from her.

"Now," he said, "What brings you to me today?"

"Well, my mother... suggested I come..."

"Yes, in fact she was the one that made the appointment."

"Yes."

"Do you want to be here, Evelyn?"

"Well, I guess so. I don't know."

"Did your mother make you come?"

"Well, no, not exactly..."

"But you know that not seeing me wasn't an option as far as she was concerned."

Evelyn looked down at her lap. "Yes," she said, "I suppose so."

"Evelyn," said Dr. Kines, "you won't get anything out of this if you don't participate. You realize that, don't you?"

"I guess so," Evelyn said, continuing to star at her lap.

"If you're not certain, then no matter who is making you come here, you will get nothing out of it. And that's a waste of both my time and yours, isn't it?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn said reflexively. It was how her father insisted she address him. But somehow she was surprised when Kines didn't correct her.

"Good," he said. "Very good. You will find talking about things will genuinely help you. But you must be honest with me, and you must be open. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn repeated, lifting her eyes to meet his.

Kines, for the first time, smiled slightly, as if pleased by her deference.

"Good girl," he said. "Now, why do you suppose your mother sent you to me?"

"Well, um... she... she..." But Evelyn found she could not finish her sentence. What she wanted to say just stuck in the back of her throat.

"I want you to know something," said Kines, "Everything you tell me stays inside this room. I will not report anything we talk about to your mother or anyone else. Your intake paperwork says you're nineteen years old. Is that right?"

"Yes sir," she said.

"Good. Then, legally, your parents can't even demand that information from me. So all of this is strictly between us. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn said.

"Very good. And for that to work, I must ask the same of you. Anything we talk about is between us, which means you shouldn't share it outside of this room. Not anything we discuss, not anything we do with each other. Do you understand?"

"'Do with each other?'" Evelyn repeated, her eyebrows arching.

Kines laughed lightly. "Don't worry. At all times I have your mental health and your well being in mind. It's the most important thing to me. But I want you to know, I practice a specific kind of treatment, called 'Encounter Therapy.' Sometimes we will role play, or re-enact things, or I will challenge you in one way or another. It is always for your benefit, do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn said, folding her hands in her lap and sitting up.

"So if you become uncomfortable, I'd encourage you to continue to do as I direct. You will gain no benefit if you do not. Do you understand?"

"I do," said Evelyn, but her voice was slightly shaky.

"Alright then," said Kines, smiling again. "Let's go back to why your mother made this appointment for you."

"Well," said Evelyn. "My parents are... they're very conservative. I've never been allowed to date, or even see a boy socially."

"They're strict," Kines said.

"Yes," Evelyn said. "They are very strict." It wasn't a word her parents cared for, and she'd been forbidden from calling them strict at home. It felt surprisingly good to say it out loud, to call the thing what it was.

"Go on," said Kines.

"They're against me... um, touching... doing..."

"Masturbating," said Kines. Another word forbidden in her home.

"Yes," she said. "They believe masturbation is a sin." The freedom to just say the word "masturbation" out loud gave her a small thrill.

"I see. How do you feel about it?"

"Well," she said. "I don't know. It's never really mattered..."

"It doesn't matter to them how you feel about it?"

"No," she said, "I guess it doesn't. They just told me it was wrong."

"But you've done it," Kines said, almost off-handedly.

Evelyn felt her face grow hot, knew it was rapidly turning red.

"Yes sir," she said, in a voice so small even she could barely hear it.

"Tell me about that," said Kines.

"Tell you about it?" said Evelyn, shocked.

"Yes, Evelyn," said Kines. "How often do you masturbate?"

"Oh my, um... Well, I've only done it a few times."

"Most boys and girls masturbate more than that, Evelyn. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Okay," said Evelyn.

"Tell me how it felt," said Kines.

Evelyn felt her face grow hot all over again. She stammered.

"Remember, Evelyn, that all of this is very private - just for you and me. And that it's important for you to work through this."

"Okay, well. I felt, ah, good."

"Describe the good feeling."

"It was warm. And nice. It felt kind of, I guess, special, in a way. I guess that's dumb, though," she said, bending her head down and letting her long hair fall to obscure her face.

"Look at me, Evelyn."

She tilted her head partway up, but still didn't meet his gaze.

"I said, look at me," he said, almost forcefully, though still within the bounds of gentleness. So she met his eyes.

"These are your feelings. We aren't going to judge them. Okay?"

"Yes sir," she said, prompting him to smile again.

"This kind of touch felt special to you," he said. "Your parents, did they show much physical affection to you when you were growing up? Did they hug you much, say?"

"Oh no," said Evelyn.

"You were deprived of touch, then," said Kines.

"Yes," she said. "In fact my parents criticized other parents who hugged their kids a lot. They said it was fawning. That they were spoiling those children."

"Do you agree with that?" asked Kines.

"No," said Evelyn, feeling more comfortable stating her own opinion now. "Not at all."

"Can you see that by masturbating, you might have been fulfilling a need to comfort yourself with touch?"

"Yeah, I guess so," said Evelyn.

"Do you think there is something wrong with that?"

"No sir," she said. "No, I don't."

"Alright, then," said Dr. Kines. "What does this have to do with your mother making this appointment?"

"Well," said Evelyn, "Last week I was... masturbating. It was right before I was going to sleep, and I was in my room..."

"You live with your parents?" asked Kines.

"Yes," Evelyn said. "I was on my bed, and I was doing that. And my bedroom door opened." Evelyn paused, her face tight.

"Somebody came in?"

"Yes."

"Go on," Kines said.

Evelyn took a deep breath. "Well, not exactly came in. It was my father. He poked his head in and saw what I was doing."

"Your father caught you masturbating."

"Yes," Evelyn said.

"I want you to repeat that, Evelyn. 'My father caught me masturbating.'"

"My father caught me masturbating," Evelyn said. Kines smiled, and she felt a strange thrill go up her spine.

"Then what happened?" Kines asked.

"Well, he just stood there."

"He was watching you?"

"I don't think so. Why would he do that?" Evelyn was horrified.

"Did he look away?"

"Well, not for a few seconds."

"So he watched you for a moment."

"Yes. And then all of a sudden he looked upset, and shut the door again."

"Would you say he looked upset with you, specifically?"

"Well, I thought he was."

"That's fine. But looking back now, remembering how he looked, the expression on his face. Did he look at you with scorn? When he suddenly looked upset, did he meet your eyes?"

"No," Evelyn said.

"Have you considered," said Kines, "that he may have been upset with himself?"

"What? Why? He caught me doing something bad."

"Didn't you say just now that you didn't agree that masturbation was a bad thing?"

"Well, yes."

"But he does."

"Yes, he does."

"Then why," asked Kines, "didn't he scold you? Why didn't he tell you to stop? When he looked upset, why wasn't he looking at you?"

"I don't know," said Evelyn.

"Let's assume he was upset with himself. What reason could there be?"

"I don't know," insisted Evelyn.

"He didn't close the door right away. He seemed to be watching what you were doing. And after that he looked upset and immediately left. What do you think happened?"

"He was embarrassed?"

"And why would he be embarrassed?"

The whites around Evelyn's chestnut irises went wide. "He liked it."

"Perhaps so," said Kines, relaxing back in his chair. "You are an adult, a woman. His daughter is no longer a little girl, you see? She has a woman's face, she has legs, she has breasts." He gestured toward each body part as he named it, seeming to linger very slightly too long each time. "This could be both thrilling and disturbing to him, do you see?"

"Really?" asked Evelyn, desperately. "Do people really think this way?"

She wasn't entirely certain she liked the way Kines smiled at her now. "More than you know," Kines said. "In fact, I have another question for you."

"What's that?" asked Evelyn, a little frightened.

"Before he looked away, what were YOU doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you stop masturbating?"

"Well," said Evelyn, stammering, "I guess... not exactly, but..."

"Were you still giving yourself pleasure?"

Evelyn waited several seconds before saying, meekly, "Yes sir."

Kines grinned widely, showing his teeth. "Quite a thing to discover, isn't it?" Evelyn didn't respond.

Kines silently regarded her for a moment. She watched his eyes travel from her feet to her face, then down to her feet and up to her face again. She felt exposed. She was suddenly self-conscious about wearing shorts, about the v-neck top she had on. "You're a beautiful girl, Evelyn. A desirable woman. This is what your father struggled with. Your sexual attractiveness."

Evelyn looked away and blushed again. But the indirect compliment gave her a thrill. Nobody ever told her things like this.

"Alright, Evelyn," Dr. Kines said. "Let's begin the encounter."

"The encounter?"

"Yes, I mentioned this already, remember?"

"Yes," she said. "You did."

"We're going to recreate that moment for you."

"How do you mean?"

"I want you to show me what you were doing when your father opened the door to your room."

"Show you?"

"Yes. It's one thing to talk about it. It's another thing to see it, to experience it. Do whatever you need to do to recreate the situation. The couch is your bed. Do what you were doing then."

"But," Evelyn said, "I can't... um... I can't do it through my shorts."

"I told you to do whatever you needed to do to recreate this, didn't I?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn said.

"What do you think that means?"

"I..."

"Evelyn," said Kines, sounding slightly impatient, "What were you wearing when you were masturbating that night?"

"I was just in my underwear, sir."

"Then please remove your top and your shorts."

"Right here? Right now?"

"Evelyn," said Kines, standing up. "I don't want to have this conversation again. You agreed to do as you were told, even when it challenged you. You WILL do as I say. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Evelyn said.

"Very good," said Kines. "Undress for me now, please."

Evelyn's hands were shaky as she unbuttoned her cropped denim shorts and slid them down her long, toned legs, revealing bikini-cut, cream-colored panties. She glanced up at Kines, who seemed to be intensely watching every little move she made. She kicked the shorts aside.

"Very good," said Kines, his eyes fixed on her bare thighs. "Now the top."

Evelyn slipped the v-neck shirt over her head and tossed it down beside the shorts, crumpled on the maroon carpet beneath them. She was thankful she had worn a bra, although it was lacy, and the cups pushed our her small, perky breasts. She was now aware that it was a little bit sexy.

"Good girl," said Kines. "Evelyn, do you know that you're a sexually desirable woman?"

"No sir," Evelyn said, looking down at her feet.

"Well you are," said Kines. "Now, sit down. Position yourself as you were on the bed that day. Or as close as you can, on the couch."

Evelyn lay back, slouching, her neck curving against the backrest. Her skin felt cold, stimulated by new exposure to the air. And while she felt nervous, self-conscious, to have him looking at her nearly naked, she also felt a little bit unburdened, even thrilled. Her breath began to come in short, silent pants.

"Now touch yourself for me, Evelyn. Exactly as you were that night."

Evelyn reached down with her right hand and slid her panties aside, taking two fingers and stroking the outer lips slowly.

"Very good," Kines said, smiling. "Take your time." She watched him watching her, his eyes fixed on the motion of her fingers. Something in her that she didn't understand, wanted to entice him, to play with him by daring to increase his enjoyment. She slid one finger between the outer labia and began rubbing inside, between them. She felt the tease of pleasure all over her body. A sigh of pleasure escaped her lips before she realized it was going to happen. Then she began teasing the button of her clitoris, spinning her finger around it, rubbing over it.

"Good girl," said Kines. "Now, imagine I am your father. I've just opened your door and looked in at you. I'm still looking at you. What are you doing?"

"The same thing," Evelyn admitted, with abandon, continuing to stroke herself.

"I'm watching you, Evelyn," said Kines. "I'm enjoying it. How do you feel?"

She didn't know for certain whether he meant that in the role he was playing he was watching her and enjoying it, or whether he, Dr. Kines, was watching her and enjoying it. And she found that she didn't care. The answer was the same.

"I like it," said Evelyn, looking him in the eyes. "I want you to enjoy it."

"Good," said Kines, smiling. Softly, whispering now, he said, "Tell me more."

"I want you to think I'm a pretty girl," she said.

"You are, Evelyn," Kines said, continuing to whisper, his eyes roaming all over her. "You have lovely, long, brown legs, a thin waist with wider hips, a cream-skinned, small stomach, and lovely, toned arms. And as far as I can see under that bra, you have the most beautiful breasts."

"Do I?" Evelyn said, desperate to believe it.

"You do," said Kines.

"Am I... am I a sexy girl?"

"Yes," Kines said, with deliberation. "You're a very sexy girl. Can't you tell the effect you're having on me?"

"What do you mean?" asked Evelyn breathlessly, still touching herself in a musical rhythm.

"How can you tell if a man is aroused?"

And then Evelyn was embarrassed she had missed the obvious. She looked at the front of his pants and saw he was bulging. The sight caused her to suddenly become even more wet.

"Do you like seeing that, Evelyn?" he asked.

"Yes sir," she said.

And then he undid his belt and unzipped his pants. Evelyn could hardly believe what was happening as Dr. Kines pulled down his underwear and pants enough to take out his cock. She had never seen one before, not in person. Just once in health class, just a diagram more or less, and then a few times when her giggly school friends had looked at some pictures with her on the Internet, at the home of one of the more wild girls. A girl her parents eventually forbid her to see anymore.

But to see a male organ this big, bigger even than it had looked in his pants, standing up and stiff for HER, because of how attractive SHE was, it was overwhelming.

"Stop masturbating now," Dr. Kines said. "And stand up."

"Yes sir," said Evelyn. She shifted her panties back in place, sat up on the couch, and then stood.

"Step toward me," said Kines. Nervously, she did so. He caressed her cheek with the back of his right hand and stared into her eyes. "You understand where all this leads, don't you?" he asked.

Oh, she thought. Was that where this was going.

"Don't you?" Kines repeated. She nodded.

"Remember our agreement? You will do what is necessary for the encounter session?"

Evelyn nodded again, biting her lip.

"Good. Step back please, and remove your bra."

Evelyn was a little uncomfortable again, at the thought of being even more exposed. But she felt she had to go along with the doctor. And moreover, some part of her really wanted to, despite how odd it all was, how wrong it all probably was. And she held Dr. Kines' eyes intensely as she reached around, unhooked the bra, and then shrugged out of it, letting it fall into her hands, and then tossing it aside. She even stood up straight and arched her back for him, pushing her breasts out.

They were small, perhaps B cups, beautifully shaped, like the fruit of some exotic tree.

"Good girl. Even more lovely than I'd imagined. Now, the rest. Stand naked before me, Evelyn. Show me all of you."

This was it, then. The final barrier. She hooked her hands under the sides of her panties and shimmied her legs to work the panties down to the floor. Then she kicked them aside.

"Shoes too," Kines said. "There should be absolutely nothing between us."

And as she sat back down on the couch and untied her simple canvas sneakers, Kines stood and began undressing himself, exposing his broad, defined chest, muscular arms, and powerful legs. When they were both done he stood in front of her, just an inch or two away.

"Take my cock into your hand," he said. She did so, feeling the smooth, soft skin over the stiff, rigid tissue underneath. The doctor's eyes closed in a moment of ecstasy. "Stroke it," he said. And she moved her hand up and down, softly, slowly. "Yes," he said, moaning. "All the way up, past the tip. Let your palm slide against the front of the tip when you do. Oh yes, that's it."