Three years' experience in a sexual problems clinic.

The clinic is organised by a consultant psychiatrist with a special interest in sexual problems and working within a university department of psychiatry. The clinic takes up one session a week at which the staff-the consultant, a lecturer and a senior registrar in psychiatry, and two part-time women psychiatrists-see three to four new patients and also provide continuing treatment for other patients. These five people each contribute one to one and a half sessions a week to the clinic, in some cases seeing patients at times outside the regular clinic session. Each new patient or couple is given one and a half hours for initial assessment. All married patients are asked to attend with their spouses and unmarried patients with sexual partners are asked to bring their partners with them if the referring agency had indicated that this would be appropriate. During each clinic the staff members meet for half an hour to discuss the new referrals and decide what treatment should be offered. There is also a pool of other health professionals who have asked for supervised experience in treating sexual problems. During the past two and a half years 30 professionals have gained this training; they have included psychiatric trainees at registrar and senior registrar level, clinical psychologists, general practice trainees, social workers, medical students, and one nurse. These trainee therapists are allocated patients or couples from the waiting list, arrange treatment in their own time, and attend one of