All He Talks About is Sex(Final)Not "Dr. Sex"The waiting area in Jairo Bouer's adolescent psychiatry practice belies his nearly superstar status. Though it's just a short walk from São Paulo's poshest downtown corner, the clinic occupies a small, modest house. It's Bouer's personal humility, however, that most distinguishes him from other "media doctors."
Although Bouer's celebrity agenda keeps him as busy as the president of Brazil, he decided a few years ago that he would never give up his psychiatry practice. "Going back and dealing with individual patients isn't easy, but it's important. The kind of contact you have through the media is sporadic. It doesn't resolve people's problems. No matter how much you encourage them to see a doctor, in the end you never know if they go. You can answer questions, suggest behavioral changes, detect problems and debunk misconceptions, but can you produce change? It's hard to know. Plus, people have lots of sources of information, and you don't know what they're getting from each one." Occasionally, fans show up at Bouer's office after seeing him on television or hearing him on the radio. They ring the bell and ask for "the doctor from Fantastic," a popular TV program Bouer regularly appears on. He won't see them. "I only take patients referred by other doctors," he says. "If they come to me because of my media activities, I do phone triage to see if they really need me. I'm not the ‘Dr. Sex' they say I am."
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Some professionals go to the media to promote their practice, to be trendy. For me it's the opposite. The more time I spend doing media work, the less time I have for my practice. I don't have a superstar salary. In fact, I charge less than many of my colleagues because I know I don't have the time to keep myself up to date."
