(1987) The Celestial Bed Read Online Free PDF Page A

focus”.
    ‘Your first meeting, and every one after that, will take place in the privacy of your own home. This meeting will be half social, half work. The social part is to put a frightened guest at ease. You might offer the patient something to drink. Preferably tea or a soft drink. No alcohol. No stimulants. Remember, what you are trying to do is to tap into the patient’s own potential for exhilaration without outside help. The two of you have your refreshments and, fully dressed, you talk about — well, whatever you wish - food, sports, current events. You tell the patient a little about yourself, and get him to speak of himself. Try to alleviate his anxiety.
    ‘Finally, at that first session, you get to a hand caress. It is the least unnerving thing you can do. You are really focusing on the sense of touch. You begin by demonstrating a hand caress. You ask the patient to close his eyes, and you close yours, and you don’t talk. We don’t want any visual or verbal input to confuse the comforting hand caress.
    ‘During the next session you go to a face caress. You touch the various parts of his face, going smoothly, lightly, over every bump and crevice, fingertips on the face’s bone structure, the skin, the fuzz on it. You do this to the patient, and then he does it to you. It is amazingly relaxing and sensual. Incidentally, exercises need not be in rigid order. You can modify or change the order according to the situation or circumstances.
    ‘Anyway, at the third meeting, if all is going normally, you do a footbath. Literally a footbath. Clothes remain on, but feet are bared, soaked in warm water, and rubbed.
    ‘Not until the fourth meeting do you get into the initial nudity. You each undress yourself, or if you both wish, you undress each other. Usually, this isn’t a problem, but sometimes it’s not simple. Lots of people are used to undressing in the dark. As adolescents, they usually had not been troubled by being naked in a locker room, although some had worried about other boys whose penises were larger, who were hairier, or more muscular. And they don’t worry about being naked with a doctor or a nurse. But once they put on street clothes, and then have to take them off, it can be more difficult. Usually it isn’t too difficult since almost all men are
    used to disrobing when they have sex, and no matter if it’s good or bad sex, they are used to being naked then.
    ‘So now you both have your clothes off. Now you do the exercise called body imaging. You, the surrogate, stand in front of a full-length mirror, allowing your patient to sit back and watch you, and you point out various parts of your body from head to toe and then honestly confess what you dislike or like about your anatomical self. Then your patient does the same. You learn a good deal about yourself and each other during this exercise.’
    Freeberg paused again to draw another cigarillo out of his box and light it. He glanced at his digital watch.
    ‘I don’t want to exhaust all of you unduly, so I’ll go a little faster from here on. After all, everything I mention will be demonstrated to you in your training. Now, after body imaging comes the sensual shower — it can be a shower or a bath — together in warm water, and you lather one another and use soap as a lubricant. At the next session you do a nude back caress. Just what that implies. After that, the exercise of the frontal caress without touching breasts and genitals. This is followed by the frontal caress including touching each other’s breasts and genitals. But no big deal. Breasts and genitals get no more attention than touching the nose or the neck.
    ‘At the next session comes non-demand genital pleasuring. This
    means what it states. You have your patient lie on his back and
    you caress his genitals. The goal is not to stimulate or arouse, but
    to concentrate on giving someone pleasure, and they don’t have to
    pay you back in any way.
    ‘During the following