First Session: Zoraida

Valli didn't leave Zora waiting long, letting himself into the office after just a minute or two.

"I apologize," he said, closing the door behind him before gesturing for Zora to take a sit wherever she liked. "I work mostly up at the school these days, so I've started sharing my office with another therapist. I just had to check in with him and make sure things were in order."

And they were, thankfully.

The room was an open space, with several options for where to sit, and Valli took a seat on one of the chairs before letting Zora pick her own. Some liked the couch. Some liked seats of their own. Some preferred to pace, but he always found that distracting for both him and his patients.

"To start with the basics - anything you say in here is strictly confidential. I can only break that confidentiality in the event that someone is in imminent danger. Two, I won't approach you or address you in public unless you acknowledge me first. Three, I posses a low level aura that makes me appear more put together than I actually am. It won't effect your judgement of me any more than if I actually spent some more time in the morning putting myself together, but I believe in full disclosure, so I prefer to start with it."

And that was the basics, done in one go. He wasn't going to drag it out.

"Do you have any questions before we start?"

"Correct," Valli said. "I'm not sure which of my patients is your boyfriend, and frankly it doesn't matter. The only time it would be an issue is if you were specifically coming to me for advice about your relationship, which can be a bit tricky if both of you are regular patients. I can't--and won't--even disclose that you're a patient unless I need to call your emergency contact for some reason."

He wasn't sure who she'd put down, but it was somewhere in her paperwork either way.

"My standard response, if asked, is to always just say 'I can't disclose who is or isn't a patient at my office.'"

"It's a mix," Valli admitted. "Generally I tend to ask some questions to guide the conversation. That said, if you have something already on your mind, you're welcome to start where you'd like. Some people like to lead the conversation. Others prefer I ask questions. I'm willing to do either, as you prefer."

"That's something in itself," Valli said. "The first and most important step is to recognize that there's a problem. I'm afraid medical care is a lot easier in that regard--it's easy to provide help for someone who has, say, broken their leg. But if someone doesn't recognize there's an issue, it can be nearly impossible to get proper help. That's why I always prefer clients who choose to come in for therapy of their own free will. It means they've recognized there's an issue, and they're hoping to work on it."

Which made his job far, far easier.

"Start with something small. Something that bothered you recently. And then we can expand out."

"Sometimes dreams are just dreams. But having reoccurring nightmares can be a sign of a lot of things--primarily unmanaged anxieties. One thing I encourage when dealing with nightmares is to keep a dream journal. Every time you wake up, write down what you can remember. Dreams tend to fade very quickly, so writing them down will help them stick, and let you look over the content, rather than just the emotions. I recommend keeping paper beside your bed, so that it's handy immediately after wakeup. Some people also find it helps them get over the anxiety of dreams faster."