“Congratulations Adam! We’d like to offer you the position!”

That was a week ago after a job interview concluded for an intern/student position at a hospital in Sydney specialising in drug rehab and sex therapy. I was a med student, focusing on the area of psychology. I was the model student in many ways. My grades were always first class, with a 4.0 GPA. I am sporty, athletic and fit. But at 19, I still never had a girlfriend and still never kissed a girl, much to my mate’s amusement.

The first few days on the job were routine admin stuff, just to get me started. While I would have felt more comfortable assisting drug addicted patients in the drug rehab program, I was told that I am going to assist in the sex rehab wing, helping people who had sex problems. The first week would be training exercises so I knew what I was doing and then I’d conduct tests and the like by myself.

The group sessions I watched over were pretty routine, talk about your problems discussion. The doctor mentoring me simply tried to focus on the ‘why’, ‘why do you have this problem?’ And using these problems to come up with a solution. Patients at the hospital were almost all guys, maybe only 10% were actually females.

The first few group discussions I led were quite routine. Most of them also looked like drug addicts so it was hard to not focus on that as well. Some of their stories made me quite sad. A guy who was sexually assaulted as a child built a lust for rape while a women, dental assistant told of her sex escapades in the dentists office.

As I was preparing for my 3rd group discussion, 4 guys trickled in and sat down.