Dolores knew that finding a way through a personal crisis was most often solved by the actual actions of the person in her care. She was a facilitator, a guide, someone who could hold a mirror to the person at the right time and in the right way, such that they would see themselves as she saw them. Acquiring the professional level ability to regularly accomplish such a feat took much learning, training, and practice.

Having met with Tim for five sessions to this point, Dolores remained puzzled by the intricately weaved issues plaguing him. There was surely the gender issue, but gender dysphoria failed to explain why Tim was plagued by the intense nightmares.

The nightmares were consistently of being a victim, of being trapped, of being helpless; surely being helpless is common to transfolk, who by the time they reached Dolores had lived life in the face of a society reluctant to see beyond what they knew of someone’s physical body. Still, even accounting for this common element, Dolores sensed there was more at work here, and that left her with an increasingly troubled feeling.

Perhaps she could arrange for Tim to undergo hypnosis, using that technique to draw down the walls blocking conscious recollection from triggering memories. Before trying that methodology, Dolores felt it best to spend significantly more time hearing Tim share the memories of his life. She would remain more silent than usual, and would let Tim take their conversations wherever he might wish to go.

“Why did the dreams just begin now?” Dolores left planning aside and returned to pondering what she knew so far. According to Tim, he never experienced such nightmares before. Could the cause be physical? Could the onset of therapy, digging into repressed feelings and such have opened other doors as well? She made a mental note to explore more deeply Tim’s memories of family and childhood, from home to relatives to the neighbourhood to school. And she would ask Tim if it would be ok to speak with some members of his immediate family.

Tim gave his all in trying to burst through the pain of gender dysphoria, in trying to chase away the nightmares. Still, something told her he was holding back, consciously or otherwise. There was far more to be found beyond the walls, and Dolores was, in this moment, at a loss for what might lurk in the deepest shadows of her client’s mind.

A session every two weeks seemed hardly enough. So long as Tim was not inclined to self-harm, that was sufficient, if frustratingly slow in the quest for a solution.