Therapy

Part 2

Ok, so this chapter isn't super intense either.  There are mentions of verbal abuse (similar to what we see in the show) and other than that, I think that's it for this chapter.  

________________________________________________________________________________"How did it go the last week?" Dr. Lewis asked as she settled into Maya's desk.

The two of them agreed that it was easier for this to work if Maya was sitting in her chairs and Dr. Lewis was at the desk.

"It went ok," Maya said, fiddling with the side of her notebook, "I did what you said. Well, actually. That's kind of a lie."

"What do you mean?" Dr. Lewis asked as she pulled out her notebook.

"Well, most days I couldn't stop at five minutes," Maya said, opening her notebook and reveling about fifteen pages full of writings, "Well, except one day when we had non stop fires, but even that day, I did my writing instead of showering."

"Wow," Dr. Lewis said, pulling out her pen, "That is impressive. It's sometimes like pulling teeth to get firefighters to do my assignments."

Maya just shrugged, looking down at her paper.

"Do you want to talk about anything you wrote down?" Dr. Lewis asked.

"It's just simple stuff mostly," Maya said, "Like her favorite coffee and her best friend when she was a kid and where she likes to go on vacation. And some other stuff like that her brother and dad have Bipolar 1 and that her dad was abusive like mine."

"How does that make you feel?" Dr. Lewis asked.

"How does what make me feel?" Maya asked, "That she is honest with me about all this stuff? It makes me feel like I can trust what she tells me and trust that she loves me when she tells me."

"Good," Dr. Lewis said, smiling.

She took a beat, seeing if Maya would fill the silence. This time, the fire captain did.

"It makes me mad that her dad abused her," Maya said, gritting her teeth a little, "She is one of the nicest most wonderful people I have ever met, and it makes me want to scream that she had to endure what she did."

"What kind of abuse did she go through?" Dr. Lewis asked, "If you feel comfortable sharing about something so personal to her."

"Emotional abuse," Maya said, biting on her lip a little, "Her father never thought she was good enough. He has bipolar disorder, and her mother left her when she was 7 and came to America with her brother leaving her to deal with her father and his drastic mood swings and short tempers and screaming. He doesn't value her work, and all he does is put her down."

"Does she still see him?" Dr. Lewis asked, "Have you ever met him?"

"He lives in Italy," Maya said, shaking her head, "He hasn't been here in two years, and I've never been there. She talks to him on the phone every once in a while, but not often."

"How does she handle it?" Dr. Lewis asked.

"Most of the time, she's fine," Maya said, "Sometimes after she talks to him, she gets a little moody, but she knows how to handle it. She's been in therapy since she was a teenager because of it and her own stuff too. She honestly handles it better than me."

"Better than you handle how he treats her?" Dr. Lewis said, "Or better than you handle you own father's abuse?"

Maya looked up, a little confused.

"You mentioned last week that your dad was abusive and that you were in denial about it," Dr. Lewis said, looking at her notes, "I'm curious about how you are handling that. It's kinda a big thing to accept. So how are you handling it?"