“The role I held between Gold Morning and now was always going to be a transient one. My patients and everyone else involved knew I was only seeing the patients I’m seeing now in a temporary way. I’m one of several therapists who are rotating through a patient caseload, and only half were my patients and mine alone. In making a transition, it is and was still my responsibility to look after those exclusive patients.”

“Okay.” I connected that thought to how she’d found a therapist for me. When it was a chore to get therapists to take new patients, it amounted to a pretty meaningful gesture.

“I’m referring the ones I can to other therapists. I’m in touch with twelve people who work with parahumans and a few who are breaking into that field. Not a single one of us is working less than seventy hours a week. Some of my patients didn’t need counseling anymore, and I was only helping them to find their equilibrium after Gold Morning. Others are on their way to a new facility in this world’s Europe, which they’ve been anticipating for over a year now. If you were still in the same condition as you were when I first met you, I would be recommending you go there.”

I nodded. I didn’t like thinking about it.

“I couldn’t find places for everyone, and I’d turn down the job before I abandoned patients in need. With the remainder, I saw common ground among them. Not all of them, but enough of them that it seemed like things could be workable. Some supplied, needed, or were looking into the same kinds of assistance, which is what prompted the line of thinking. I was going to introduce them regardless, I could see them talking, and I thought it would be best to have the initial and deeper talks in a supervised setting.”

“And from there, it was a short jump to thinking about group therapy.”

“Yes. Group therapy, interpersonal group therapy, seemed appropriate for what I wanted them to address with each of them. It meant that in the time before I took on my full-time role with the Wardens, I could devote more time to more of them. In an ideal world, if there were some who still needed attention by the time I was done, I could call in favors or find places for them.”

“Okay,” I said. “Was it group therapy like I was a part of?”

“The therapy you were a part of was encounter-driven. Different. More involved, more simulations, acting and role-playing, confrontation, learning assertiveness as opposed to, say, aggressive behavior, or overly passive behavior. Engaging with peers.”

“I didn’t really do anything except sit there.”