Posted by Lieutenant Tandra Mika (Chief Mental Health Officer) in Operation Restless Night

Posted by Lieutenant Séan Iven (Counselor) in Operation Restless Night

Posted by Lieutenant Tandra Mika (Chief Mental Health Officer) in Operation Restless Night
Posted by… suppressed (18) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
Mika nodded. “That sounds hard. Did it get easier later on? When you were older?” She asked. They had been talking long enough the sky had turned from mostly blue and pinks to dark purples and blues, stars becoming visible, street lights turning on around them.

~ Mika

“Not until I met my mentor. By that point I had a whole lot of anger boiling inside of me and my dad had further withdrawn into drinking. He kept the drinking lower when we were on voyages because it doesn’t help to be blackout drunk but every time we docked he’d binge for a week, two, or however long it took and that left me alone to get into trouble.” Séan shared with a sad smile. “When I picked a fight with the wrong, small asian man and got put on my rear, well things turned for the better with me and my dad.”

Counselor Iven

“Then I can say again, I’m glad you met that person, and that things got better for you,” Mika said. “I haven’t known you that long yet, but I can’t really imagine you punching someone.” She commented. She stretched on the bench. “I hope I’m not bringing up painful memories for you.”

~ Mika

“Ah no, I’m fine. The memories are bittersweet but still make up who I am. Plus as a counselor it helps me connect with people who have anger issues since I generally can relate.” Séan shook his head and smiled wryly. “I’ve never needed to punch anybody, outside of a spar, since my youth. While the martial arts I practice can be used for self-defense my motivation is for the health and focus benefits.”

Counselor Iven

Mika nodded. “I practice judo and Star fleet hand to hand… Being able to defend yourself comes in handy as a doctor. But I do it more because it’s relaxing. Clears my head.”

~ Mika

“I learned Aikido and it would have been handy to defend myself had I not let my guard down and got attacked from behind.” Séan said with a grimace as he unconsciously reached down to rub his right thigh.

Counselor Iven

Mika winced sympathetically. “Ouch… I’m glad you recovered.” She shrugged, “I’m a small woman… There’s no shortage of burly, belligerent patients with a stubborn streak who think I can’t handle myself.”

~ Mika

“Normally I believe my size deters any would-be assailants, but as I have recently experienced there are those who will not be deterred.” Séan shook his head with some regret. “Perhaps I’ll tell you the full story of what happened another time and with a drink to calm my mind. My training did come in handy after the initial attack and saved my life.”

Counselor Iven

“Good, I’m glad,” Mika said, grinning up at him, “because then you’re around to come here so I can redistribute the case load and maybe not lose my mind.” She shrugged then, “Don’t feel pressured to tell me about it. Tell me whenever you feel ready to… Or don’t. Maybe you’ll end up telling your counselor.”

~ Mika

“Oh I’ve been through the grief and trauma counseling already. I don’t foresee a need to bring it up again with a fellow counselor, but I kind of thought you’d be similar to me in that if someone dangled a story that you couldn’t help but draw it out of them at some point. And if you were like me in that way, I’m just letting it be known what criteria would need to be met before I divulged said story. You would need to buy me a drink or several.” Séan smiled but not in a flirty way, just a friendly one. “As for dumping some of the case load on me, well it is why I’m here but do please let me get my bearings first before you go on a vacation or something.” He winked to show he was jesting.

Counselor Iven

Mika grinned and shrugged, “We’ll see.” Everyone would tell him she wasn’t really the vacationing type. She looked at him and shrugged again, “Maybe that’s something that comes with experience? Or maybe we have different styles. I’ve never been that good at ‘drawing stories out of people’.”

~ Mika

Séan shook his head to deny that idea. “I don’t believe that style has anything to do with being good at anything to do with counseling or not. I do believe in this case that the foundation of ‘drawing stories out of people’ is simply built on showing your interest and desire to listen. Everything from that point on requires the training we’ve had to guide the conversation interwoven in the story to highly points and ideas the patient hasn’t thought or was unwilling to think about. Let me gives you a quick example if you’ll humor me. Early in our conversation when starting this walk you initially didn’t want to talk about your relationship troubles but then in the next breath started to talk about them. I think a good counselor wouldn’t say something like ‘Hey but didn’t you say you didn’t want to talk about this?’ as that might convey disinterest in hearing them out. Instead a good counselor would engage in the conversation despite being initially confused. They would ask questions throughout but let the patient talk as much as they needed to. Any hedging or deflections should be noted but not immediately addressed as that would bring the patient out of the mindset where they’re telling the story and instead being interrogated. When an opportunity arises however when the story is done and the conversation has a chance to be productive is when you circle back to the flags you’ve noted before. So why did you refer to our initial venting session as being relationship problems?”

Counselor Iven

“Of course I know-” Mika tried, but Séan was on a bit of a roll and then his final question threw her off. “Why did I..? What?” She laughed awkwardly and shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess? I mean I was talking about my ex and my… casual fling thing that might get serious or might not? That sounds a lot like relationship problems to me.”

~ Mika

Séan watched Mika’s reactions with interest. “I suppose so.” He responded noncommittally. He didn’t really buy it that that was all there was to it, but how far could he push before it went too far? “I guess maybe it was a semantics confusion on my part. It just seemed to me that there was more to it.”

Counselor Iven

“I don’t know… Maybe there is. I mean, I don’t really date casually, you know? It’s not my thing. Why waste time on someone you’re not serious about, right?” She shrugged again. “I’m just a little… lost, I guess.”

~ Mika

“What is your usual approach to dating or relationships? It sounded like you started your last relationship after having known her for a bit first.” Séan asked.

Counselor Iven

“I did, yeah. Aili.... She was my first real relationship. I mean everyone “dates” in high school, right? But that’s different.” Mika sighed softly, “And Kaleesa… It’s not like I don’t know her, she works in medical at the hospital. But I wasn’t friends with her first either? So…” She was going to say I don’t know again, but she realized how many times she’d said that already.

~ Mika

“Well I said before that uncertainty is alright to have. Gods know I don’t know what I’m looking for in life beyond continuing to do my best to help people.” Sean said with a warm smile. “If you’re comfortable then a little flailing around in the dark while you figure things out is to be expected.”

Counselor Iven

Mika nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She looked up at him again, “I’m sorry… I probably shouldn’t blab all my personal stuff at you. But what’s done is done, right?”

~ Mika

“I have been told that I’m easy to talk to. Kind of helps in this line of work. I’m not bothered by it and you shouldn’t worry over it. Besides I was the one who invited you out for a walk when you could’ve been in your quarters getting ready for bed or something. I think it’s a fair trade to lend an ear for a guide around the place.” Séan chuckled then stood from the bench with some effort. The sky was getting dark and that sitting had made his knees a little sore. “Why don’t I escort you back to your door? You’ve said that you can take care of yourself, but I’d have peace of mind making sure you got back safe.”

Counselor Iven

“Okay,” Mika agreed, standing from the bench herself. “Sorry I wasn’t a very good guide. I’ve just been so busy, I guess I haven’t had time to explore for myself,” she said as they started to walk back. It was her usual excuse but she didn’t work longer hours than she had to. She had time.

~ Mika

“Well maybe in the future we could do some exploration together.” Séan said as he carefully maintained his pace again. It would be far too easy to race past Mika with his long legged strides. “I’ll do a little research and see if there’s or reservoir within walking distance that we could go visit.”

Counselor Iven