Chapter 25: Slave Trauma Vanquished

The author wishes to thank Corsair for his input on PTSD

After the meeting with Stephanie and Greg Masterson I called a taxi for her and walked back to my now deserted office. At my desk I began to think of the therapy Masterson had said would be available to Stephanie at his expense. I wondered if she would act on the information. Perhaps I could do some research for her and find a suitable facility that would best suit her nature. While my motives were partly charitable, I also reasoned that if she could get beyond the obvious traumatic stress caused by the rapes, then perhaps the prospects for our relationship would be brighter.

I picked up the phone and dialed Sherry Wilson. Now that she was a sex surrogate she worked with a number of sex therapists and perhaps she would know somebody who could help Stephanie. She gave me the name of an agency that specialized in helping women who had been raped.

The next morning I called the Henderson Trauma Management Center and said that I was trying to find a suitable therapy provider for a very dear friend. Dr. Henderson's secretary invited me to come over for an interview and tour that very afternoon.

The facility turned out to be an ivy-covered brownstone on the Upper West Side. I was shown into Dr. Henderson's office where I received a hearty greeting from the doctor. After some initial pleasantries, and my filling him in a bit about the nature of the trauma my friend had suffered, he proceeded to explain the very heart of the PTSD treatment process he had personally developed.

"Mr. Steelforth", he began, "there was research being done as far back as the early 21^st century that showed a connection between the intensity of a memory and the presence or absence of adrenaline in the subject at the time the memory was formed. Those memories that have the greatest destructive power years later were formed at a time of great stress when the body's stress hormones were raging. That caused the brain to store the memory in a particular way and to cause the subject to recall the stress emotions and again produce the stress hormones every time the memory was recalled. In that way the painful memory would be continually reinforced and often grew worse with the passage of time."

"It was also discovered", the doctor continued, "that there were certain drugs such as propranolol, that could mediate the stress associated with the memory. All that was required was for the subject to recall the painful memory while under the influence of the drug. Memory of what actually had happened in the past would not be impaired, but the emotional feelings and stress reactions to that memory would be very much muted. This would cause the brain to resave the memory in a different way so that it was less stressful the next time recalled. A series of such treatments could take all the sting out of a bad memory."

"Could this help Stephanie?" I asked.

"From what you have told me of her case I would think the prospects very good. Actually it is fortunate that you came to visit me today, as I have a young couple undergoing rape therapy that is to start in just a few minutes. You can watch the therapy and judge for yourself if it might help your friend."

"But what about the privacy of the young woman and her husband? Surely, on such a sensitive issue as her rape experience, she wouldn't want a stranger witnessing her therapy?"

"That really isn't a problem since she and her husband have waived their privacy rights. They came to us without the means to pay for treatment, yet they were facing the possible breakup of their marriage due to the PTSD symptoms. As you well know, there is no government provided social safety net in Capitallia. The young woman and her husband came to me seeking charity care. I have been known to provide my services on a charitable basis from time to time. But I also believe that fair value should be exchanged when the recipient of treatment has something of value to offer in exchange."

"I couldn't agree with you more!" I replied.

"In this case the young couple could offer me a rare opportunity to use their sex therapy for research purposes and for the education of potential paying clients such as yourself. I agreed to treat her with her partner without charge if they both would waive their privacy rights and allow us to use her treatment and his for educational and research purposes. By contrast, if your friend comes to us, she would be a private pay and would be entitled to every consideration for her privacy."

"Well, in that case, I would very much like to see how one of these treatments is done!"

With that Dr. Henderson picked up a file folder, opened it and handed it to me. Right away my eyes landed on two head and shoulder photos of the young mixed race couple. The woman was black and looked very familiar! At first I could not place where I knew her. The male was white and I did not recognize him. My eyes traveled to the names on the main data sheet. The first line was for "Trauma patient", the name there was "Tanisha Williamson", sex was listed as "female" and her occupation was listed as "bank teller". Now I made the connection. I had been cashing checks at the bank branch near my office for several years now and the teller I usually preferred was this Tanisha! The second line was for "Patient's Spouse", the name there was "Leroy Williamson", sex was listed as "male" and his occupation was listed as "pool maintenance man".

"Dr. Henderson", I began, "as much as I would like to see one of these treatments, I think I must inform you that I know Tanisha in another context. I am not sure it would be right for me to invade her privacy. After all she would surely be embarrassed to wait on me at the bank knowing I had been an observer of her sexual difficulties with her husband!"

"Bill, if I may call you that", he responded, "you are worrying about something that should not even be a problem. Tanisha and her husband have, after all, waived privacy as a way to pay for her treatments. She understands that there is very great educational value to allowing other persons to witness her treatments. You will be meeting her after watching a couple of her sessions and she will know that you watched. She will have to accept that because it is the bargain she made with our clinic. A bargain is a bargain after all!"

"The only thing we would ask Bill", he continued, "is that since you will be witnessing very intimate activities and you will know the real identities of the patient and her husband, is that you not use that knowledge outside the context of the therapy program. What happens here stays here!"

"Agreed", I replied.

He led the way down a corridor and ushered me into an observation room overlooking a treatment area. There was one-way glass, so that he and I could see through to the well-lighted treatment studio, while our observation room remained dark and not visible to persons on the other side of the glass. The floor of the observation area was also raised about two feet higher than the floor of the studio. In the treatment area there was a couch, a coffee table, a wet bar, a double bed and a desk where a rather professional looking woman in a business suit was doing some paperwork.

"You see our therapist, Dawn Jacobs, at work preparing her notes for the session. In a moment you will meet Tanisha and Leroy Williams, our couple in therapy. If you look here in the monitor you can see video of Tanisha being prepared for her session. She will be receiving at a certain point in her therapy an infusion of a drug I patented called Traumatholin. This drug is in the same class as propranolol that I was describing to you earlier.

In the monitor I saw the young woman I had known as Teller No .4 sitting in a chair. She was as attractive as I remembered her from the bank. She had just finished removing her blouse and was sitting in a chair wearing a bra and her skirt. My eye was drawn to the dark brown skin of her very flat and well-muscled abdomen. A technician was swabbing her slender left arm with alcohol just above her elbow. I saw her give a start and a small grimace as the technician penetrated her arm with an IV fitting and secured it in place. Then a small vial of a drug was connected to the IV fitting through some kind of valve and the vial and valve were also secured to her arm.

"This is all being done", the Doctor continued, "ahead of time so that we can remotely administer the Traumatholin drug at the appropriate time without having to interrupt the flow of therapy."

"When they first came to us Tanisha admitted that she would freeze up with anxiety or anger or both whenever she would sense any signs of sexual arousal in Leroy. He could not make a move toward intimacy without evoking this response in her. They had a satisfactory sex life together until one day when Tanisha was assaulted and raped on her way home from the grocery store. That changed everything."

Just then I hear a soft chime sound and a naked man entered the treatment area and a moment later, through a different door, a now very naked Tanisha entered the treatment area. They both took seats on the sofa. I noted that they were a very attractive mixed race couple, both very slender, she with perky breasts and he quite well hung.

"Can they see us or hear us?"

"No, they are completely unaware of our presence today, though they were told when they signed their contracts that there might be the occasional observer of a therapy session — for educational reasons.

"Why are they naked?" I asked.

"Because", he replied, Tanisha needs to get a lot more comfortable with her own body and with her partner's body. When we first started working with them she could not tolerate being naked or seeing Leroy naked. Now she has become much more comfortable with that, though there are still occasional issues to work through."

After a few minutes of small talk I saw therapist Dawn touch a button on her desk.

"That will trigger her injection of Traumatholin. The drug will take a few minutes to become effective, so Dawn will use that time for more small talk to allow the couple to become more comfortable."

We could hear all the banter as they told the therapist how their week had gone. I noticed that Leroy's rather long penis remained quite flaccid against his thigh while Tanisha's nipples showed no sign of stiffening as yet.

"I have encouraged the two of you", the female therapist began, addressing Tanisha and Leroy, "to gradually become accustomed to increasing intimacy in the home setting. Gradualism is necessary when you are not here because Tanisha has not entirely overcome her PTSD yet and does not have the benefit of the trauma drug when at home."

"But here", the therapist continued, "because Tanisha does have the trauma drug in her, we can take a bolder approach. I want you, Leroy, to begin to be just somewhat sexually aggressive with Tanisha. Move closer to her so that your legs and hips touch, reach out and caress her neck and shoulders. It is ok if you become visibly aroused as you touch her — in fact I hope you will. Tanisha, be conscious of his penis — reach out and gently hold it with your fingers."

I noted that Leroy's penis was now becoming partially erect. Tanisha noticed it too, but it seemed to please her rather than distress her.

"You will have noticed", Dr. Henderson confided to me, "that Tanisha is not freezing up or experiencing any apparent distress as Leroy makes a move on her and as he shows his excitement to her. It took several weeks of therapy sessions with injected Traumatholin to get her to this point. In the beginning she was quite different. I have a video of their very first session which you are welcome to watch if you have the time."

"I might take you up on that!" I replied.

"Now Leroy," the therapist continued, "It is time to take it to the next level. I think Tanisha is ready for that. I want you to play with her breasts, her nipples and her vulva."

Leroy began to do as he was instructed. As he did so Tanisha's nipples became stiff and his penis became fully hard in Tanisha's hand. His penis was a beautiful thing to see when fully erect. Now we could see the beginnings of an anxiety reaction in Tanisha, she began to shake, all her muscles were in play and her face draining of color. His hand had not gone anywhere near her vagina as yet. Finally a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Ok" the female therapist intervened, "that will be enough for today's session. Tanisha, I want you to verbalize for us just what you were feeling as you sensed saw and felt your partner's excitement."

"I was scared", Tanisha replied. "His erection reminded me so much of the erection of my attacker in that rape last summer."

"Well you know Tanisha, that the feeling you just described will become less intense every time you experience your partner's arousal. At our next session in two more days, I am confident we will be able to take it just a bit further! I want the two of you to continue to be naked together at home as often as possible, but don't try any sexual experiments just yet. For now the sexual experimentation should only be done when Tanisha has the trauma drug. I will see you back here Thursday."

With that the couple left the room by their respective doors, and the therapist was left at her desk to write up her notes on today's progress.

"At the rate we are going", Dr. Henderson remarked to me, "I think we will have them fucking possibly in the next session or the one after that. You are more than welcome to return to watch those sessions. Not only that, but I can arrange for you to have an in person meeting with the couple where you can ask them questions about their satisfaction with the treatment program."

With that we walked back to his office.

"If Stephanie does come to us for treatment she will need a partner to learn to be comfortable with intimacy. We can supply a male surrogate partner for her, but perhaps she will want you to fill that role. That is something I am sure you two will want to discuss."

Two days later I returned to the clinic eager to see the proof of the pudding. This time Leroy was able to progress with Tanisha to the point of having actual intercourse with her. From my vantage point and with the excellent lighting, I missed no detail of their coupling. Although I felt like somewhat of a voyeur, I also knew that seeing the two of them fuck was an important milestone in my believing in the clinic's program. At the conclusion of this therapy session Dr. Henderson asked me if I would like to meet and interview the couple. Of course I nodded my assent. He opened a door I had not noticed before and led me right into the therapy studio while a naked Tanisha and Leroy were still seated on the couch. The therapist excused herself and left the room. Dr. Henderson and I pulled up two chairs and sat facing the couple across the coffee table.

"Tanisha and Leroy" the doctor began, "I want the two of you to meet Bill, an observer who watched Tuesday's session and today's session. Bill is considering whether our program would be suitable for treating the PTSD symptoms of his female friend. Bill was impressed with your progress Tanisha and would like to ask you a few questions."

"You watched us ... today?" she asked, looking in my general direction, but averting her eyes. "We had no idea we were being watched."

"What the fuck!" Leroy said in a very loud voice, tensing the muscles of his upper back and neck as well as the muscles of his arms and legs. He looked about ready to pounce on me.

"Leroy — chill!" Dr. Henderson said firmly. "You both knew you might have an observer at some of your sessions when you signed your contract."

Leroy was still tense, but obviously weighing his response. After a few uncertain moments we saw his muscles visibly relax. At last he spoke in a more conciliatory voice.

"Yes we did agree to that. I am sorry if I overreacted. You might have let us know, doctor, at the beginning of today's session that we were not alone."

"Ah, but then you would not have behaved spontaneously. In all likelihood you would not have achieved successful intercourse today."

At that last comment Leroy looked beat and no longer wished to meet our gaze.

"In answer to your question, Tanisha", I replied, "I watched the two of you today because I felt that it could help me decide whether to recommend this program to my friend if I could see actual proof that a woman who had suffered from rape trauma could be cured to the extent necessary to actually allow ... well ... enthusiastic fucking, if I may put it that way."

"I think what Bill means is that he saw how you froze up in Tuesday's session when Leroy got hard. But today he saw you entering into intercourse with abandon."

"How do you know I entered into intercourse 'with abandon' today, as you put it?" Tanisha interjected.

"Forgive me Tanisha if I am being too blunt", the doctor replied, "but Bill and I could see your nipples erect, the increased blood flow to your breasts and inner thighs, and frankly quite a bit of your juices running down your legs. Also we could infer from the hardness of your partner's penis as he withdrew that you must have been milking him pretty firmly with your vaginal muscles!"

"Oh! Is there anything you people didn't see or notice? Any detail that escaped you?" she responded and looked away, embarrassed.

Neither the doctor nor I responded to this outburst, as it was obviously a rhetorical question.

"Will Mr. Steelforth be introduced to the Sergeant Major as well?" Tanisha asked after a long delay and in a somewhat sulky voice.

"That is a definite possibility that I will be discussing with him shortly. Bill may be returning for any or all of your remaining treatment sessions if he chooses. He is my guest here and every courtesy must be shown him."