Private Finished First Session: Aisha

She wasn't being forced to be there, which was nice. A good start. Valli took patients with mandatory therapy, but he almost never enjoyed the sessions. People with mandatory therapy tended to fight back and make literally every single thing difficult. It made things exhausting that should have been easy.

Willing patients--ones who recognized a problem and wanted to fix it--were much better.

So it went almost without saying that when Valli opened the door to let her in he was... taken aback. Surprised, at the very least. She certainly didn't seem like she wanted to be there, but maybe she was just putting up a front?

"Come on in," Valli said, stepping out of the way as he waved her into the small room. "And take a seat where you'd like. I assume this is your first therapy session with the school?"

People having therapy elsewhere didn't quite count - the rules were different, and sometimes made things worse rather than better.

Valli had long ago accepted that, when it came to power scales, he was at the veeeeery bottom. He had a more or less human level of physicality. He'd learned self defense, but wasn't particularly good at it. He was skinny, and his standard physical activity was going on daily walks around his neighborhood.

He was, to say the least, not a threat.

"No," Valli said, making a point not to laugh at the implication. Some people were afraid, and it wasn't right to laugh at that. "I'm not going to hurt you. Therapy involves, in very general terms, sitting down and talking things through. It gives you a second perspective on things, and can help you learn certain skills to help move past difficult situations."

But he supposed he should start with the most important thing first.

"When I bring in a new client, I do try and emphasize three things. The first is that I have a weak aura - one that makes me appear more put together than I might otherwise. It won't change how you think about me any more than spending a bit more time getting ready would. The second is that I understand not everyone is open about going to therapy. If I see you in public, I won't acknowledge you unless you acknowledge me first, and I won't mention you as a client unless you acknowledge me first. Understand?"

"That's unfortunately common," Valli said. "Many people--human and otherwise--have a poor opinion of mental health care. They think that seeking help means you're crazy. But it's a foolish concept. People go to the doctor when they're sick so they can get better. But people also go to the doctor's for regular checkups. Almost no one would judge someone whose arm had been broken for going to get it set, but mental care is..."

Valli paused for a moment, then made a small 'so so' gesture with his hand. "People unfortunately treat it differently. I'm hoping that over time people will be more accepting of therapy as a viable thing. That said, I still haven't mentioned the third and most important thing: Confidentiality. Whatever you say in this session is one hundred percent confidential. The only time I can break confidentiality is if someone--you or otherwise--is in immediate danger. If you told me about a murder you committed years ago, it still remains between us. I can't tell anyone, police or otherwise."

He thought it was probably worth getting that out of the way before anything else.

"People saying that you need help can be a concern, yes," Valli said, "but I find it's often said to those who have grown up in environments that are so completely alien to the human concept of society that they struggle to understand it."

It was hard not to read her body language. Her refusal to look at him. Her body positioning. She was going on the defensive.

"A patient I had once--in the early days of my practice--had been raised in an almost feral environment. A werewolf, but rather than being raised as a man who turned into a wolf, he was raised more as a wolf who turned into a man. A great deal of his struggles socially were about finding his place, but something he particularly struggled with was understanding human social dynamics. Why would a human ever bare their neck to another? Why weren't they wary of attack? People told him that he needed help a great number of times, but he only ended up in therapy after things went poorly. You've already taken the first great step in choosing to investigate the option before it becomes something you have to do."

It was important for him to recognize it, but in his mind it was also important that she recognize it.

"There's a concept I bring up a lot called the social contract. The idea is that many human behaviors make no sense out of context. It's only when you consider how things play out in the grand scheme of things that you understand. In a society where everyone is only out for themselves, that is the social contract. In a society like the island, where people are expected to also look out for others, that is our social contract. Someone from one social contract will chafe under the other."

If Valli was unnerved about the smile, he didn't show it. He'd seen some truly alarming patients in his time, and something about the way she'd said it seemed... defensive. Less like she was trying to convince him, and more about convincing herself.

"I come from an inherent bias. I do my best to weigh to the pros and cons of each social contract, but it's difficult for anyone to do. It's what we're raised in. It's how we see the world. And now you've been plunged headfirst into a very different society from the one you know. It's a big adjustment."