Melissa Febos became a dominatrix at age 21 and worked in what she calls an upscale New York dungeon for four years.

She is the author of "Whip Smart," which chronicles her years as domineering mistress. She explained to HLN’s Dr. Drew what guys wanted from her.

“My clients would pay me to enact role play scenes that they spent a lot of time fantasizing about,” she said. “Most of these scenes involved me playing sort of an iconic female role -- either mommy, babysitter, cheerleader or the essential sort of dominatrix character with the thigh-high boots and the corset. But there was no sex and no nudity. It was really sort of a private acting job.”

She added, “Most [of my clients] were upper-middle class New York city residents -- a lot of stock brokers, probably because it is an expensive hobby to have, but they really sort of ran the whole spectrum. There were professors and doctors and police officers and just about everybody you can think of.”

But Dr. Drew asked if the re-enactment of childhood traumas could potentially be damaging to her clients? Hear the part of the discussion in the video player above.

Dr. Drew airs weeknights at 9 p.m. ET. Follow the show on Twitter @DrDrewHLN.