Nervous footsteps. (Tag: Ferr)

[Ferret]

If Lexine heard a small cracking sound, it was probably Leevi’s heart breaking, especially judging from the look of sympathy on his face. No, wait. It was just a soft knock on the door. Excusing himself quickly, the mindhealer answered the door and brought in the tea. Soon, the smell of lavender tea suffused the small room. Settling down once again, Leevi offered Lexine the tea.

Abusive parent. Well, he had been guessing that. Not from her affinity for whers, of course, but there were always other little signs, especially to someone who had gone through a similar life. “I see. Here, drink some tea. It will help.” Yep, he firmly believed in the healing powers of tea, or at least in the powers of displacement activities. In a not-very-discrete at all way, he also made sure there were handkerchiefs nearby, just in case. Mindhealers always needed to keep a supply of those around.

“What you’re feeling is very, very normal,” he reassured her. “I’m guessing that your father had a pretty strong influence on your life?” Yeah, to say the least; people didn’t just up and start beating their daughter to the point that a watch-wher felt it had to intervene; abuse didn’t work like that. It was a long-term process, building brick by brick into a house of pain. “And without him, without that… pressure, you’re suddenly out in the world on your own. And it’s a very big world. It’s no wonder that you’re feeling a bit lost right now.

“What I’d like to do is establish some set goals and work with you to achieve those goals.” He slid a piece of paper over to the girl, along with the inked quill. “How about you write down something you want to achieve? It can be long-term or short-term.”

[snalf]

Even the soft knock on the door startled Lexine, though not to the point of jumping. But it was worth it, because the lavender smelled simply delightful. She took it with a smile, tea was welcome in even the most grim of times. Blowing gently on the surface a few times, she brought it to her lips and took a sip.

"H-His influence was p-pretty big, y-yes," Lexi gave a small nod. There had been a few minuscule good things about him, but the cons obviously dramatically outweighed the pros. "I w-will admit, h-him being gone h-has lifted a lot of s-stress," she almost laughed bitterly at the thought, and obviously it wasn't enough of a lift. Things had just turned out so negative, so wrong with her past family. "H-He was okay s-sometimes."

She picked up the quill and tapped the tip on the paper for a moment, leaving little black dots. Beginning to write, it could be noted her handwriting was rather odd. It was straightforward, lacking the curves you'd often expect with a female's penmanship

'No stuttering. More confidence. Less anxiety.' she wrote. They all go hand in hand, right?

'Lexisk's sad?' 'A little.'

[Ferret]

“Abusers often seem ok right up to the point where they suddenly aren’t.” And every victim lived in fear of somehow ‘pushing’ the abuser to that point, as though it was their own fault. Leevi knew that feeling all too well. He poured himself some of the lavender tea, enjoying the delicate and soothing smell more than the actual taste.

Once Lexine was done with the list, he took the hide back and looked it over, nodding at the three goals. “We might not be able to do much about the stuttering, I’m afraid. We might be able to help a little, but things are limited as an adult,” he said, apology ringing heavily in his voice. That always had been a drawback. But at least they could do something about the anxiety and maybe even give poor Lexine some self-confidence.

“You’ll have to do some work outside of sessions, but I’ve got an idea…” a brief rummage through another pile of things revealed a small notebook full of blank pages. “Here. Whenever you encounter a situation that makes you particularly anxious, or if you notice you’re stuttering more than usual, write it down in here. That way we can identify situations that upset you and figure out how to deal with them. You can’t always just avoid things that make you uncomfortable, but hopefully we’ll find a way to mitigate the stress.”

[snalf]

Lexine cleared her throat, head tilting to the side as she listened intently. "J-Just minimizing i-it would b-be nice," she mused, playing with the folds in her shirt. Whoops. Stay focused, dude! Bringing herself back completely, away from her daydream ,"I-It's stemmed f-from anxiety," she added quickly.

Work outside of sessions didn't sound all that bad, if it was going to help, she was willing. Taking in another breath of the sweet aroma and sipping, she looked at the notebook. "S-Sounds good."

Avoiding things was her number one way to go about doing things. Lexi preferred to sneak around unnoticed, which wasn't so hard at night and in the dark. But it was a bad habit, if anything. "I-I'll be s-sure to keep t-track of t-that."