She received referrals from high school friends who were now climbing their respective career ladders in finance and film. There were TV stars and fitness personalities, athletes and plastic surgeons. Before long Becca built a thriving practice, even having to turn clients away. After a year and a half, she found herself growing disenchanted. Her job was to listen and offer guidance, to stay impartial. Some days her high-functioning neurotic clients left Becca resentful and annoyed.

She understood the TV writer’s annoyance that his boss gave a script to some “less qualified woman” or that his college buddy got a two-picture deal and he didn’t. She understood the young housewives who’d grown frustrated by their husbands’ demanding schedules, feeling neglected and unseen, how bored they were by their yoga/boot camp/Pilates schedules, their lives a Groundhog Day of privilege. She understood it. She did her best to see them through each and every one of these struggles. As time wore on, she began to resent them all. Not a good quality in a therapist, but she was only human. Sometimes she wanted to say, “Get over yourself. Take a step back and look beyond you. See what’s happening in the world.”

She hated feeling this way. People’s problems were relative. Her clients deserved someone who was totally and completely invested in her work. She didn’t talk about any of these feelings, not even with Christian. She could imagine his teasing, “Guess only poor people can have problems.”

Eventually, she had to make a change. She’d been on the receiving end of bad police officers, watched in shock the callous way they dealt with her family, how they ignored Robbie’s mental illness, choosing to treat him like a criminal instead of a person in the midst of true suffering. It wasn’t until Becca met Christian, and saw the kind and compassionate way in which he did his job, that her feelings about law enforcement changed. There were lots of good cops out there, and lots of smart and well-meaning people like her trying to change the way law enforcement handled mental health situations. She thought about how different things would’ve been if the officers who arrested Robbie treated him with kindness, if they’d understood his fragile mental condition.

The more time passed, the more Becca began to search for a new way to serve those in need. She was looking at job boards when she saw the posting for the Mental Evaluation Unit.

She didn’t even tell Christian she was applying. She figured the odds of landing the job were slim, especially considering her brother’s criminal record. Two weeks later, she received the news that she’d been hired. A month after that she terminated the majority of her private clients, keeping only a handful as she began her new career.