My therapist, Lynn

It all started when I went to therapy. With all of the stresses of parenthood, I'd been feeling pretty worn down. I'd found a promising therapist on Yelp, Lynn Rosewood, and booked an initial appointment.

The first thing I noticed when entering her office was the faint smell of incense burning. A large, older woman, stood up from a chair in the corner and walked over.

"You must be John," she said, warmly. Her voice was deep and soothing; I felt calmer already. She brought me in for a hug — a bit odd for a first meeting, but I accepted it — and squeezed me close, giving me a European-style kiss on the cheek. I got a whiff of an elegant perfume with a hint of musk. "I'm Lynn Rosewood, and you can just call me Lynn."

I nodded, somewhat taken aback, but appreciative of the older, sophisticated therapist taking the reigns. I'd felt a bit awkward coming.

She squeezed my arm for a moment before pulling back. "Quite fit, aren't you?" she said, and winked. "Come on, sit down on the couch, let's get down to business."

Following her over to the couch and the chair, I had a bit more time to take stock of her. She was definitely not an attractive woman; old, and overweight. But she wasn't bad-looking either; her whole demeanor felt almost matronly. I suppose a calming look suited her profession, even if unintentionally.

We started talking about how I was feeling, and the stresses of new parenthood. Noticing my ring, she asked about my wife, and how we were doing. I said we were fine, but had been seeming less close lately.

"And I suppose less sex, am I right?" she asked.

I nodded a bit glumly. "You know," she said, "you seem unhappy about that, but I often find with my clients that some amount of the effort of keeping a strong sex life going after having children is taxing on both sides. Do you think there's anything on your end that might be making you want sex less?"

To be honest, I wasn't sure — I didn't think so. But I suppose Lynn knew quite a bit about this stuff. I told her as much.

"Sometimes it can be hard to take stock of your own feelings. Now, I'm going to suggest something that can be a bit scary sounding at first, but it's quite safe and effective — have you ever tried hypnosis?"

Hypnosis? I hadn't, of course, although I'd seen people do some pretty weird things at magic shows when hypnotized.

"Don't worry," she said, "Hypnosis isn't mind control, or anything like that. It just puts you into a trance where it's easier to bring out things that are already in your subconscious. It can't make you do anything you don't want to do."

I was a bit nervous, but then again, she seemed so calm and sure.