#((Ed came in strong so Imogen's gonna match him))

[personae-obscura]

Dutifully, everything was noted down to be properly transferred to a formal file. Imogen had been doing her reading since being hired in Gotham originally in Arkham and then settling into a private practice on the outskirts of the troubled city. She was aware of the vigilantes and the various rogues, what to do in attacks were some kind of mind altering substance was involved, had learned to walk around with mace and a gas mask no matter the time of day and how to recognise the uniforms of the hired help of the various rogues. Far from a true Gothamite, she'd only been in the States for a few months, but she was learning fast.

"There are quite a few options but first let me say, I'm impressed. You have clearly been through many ordeals in your life and yet, here you are with the courage to seek help." She smiled, small and soft, matching her appearance.

It was a miracle this city hadn't eaten her alive yet. She wasn't physically strong but damn, she was stern and could be incredibly stubborn.

"I'm hearing a great deal of pain and with how quickly you jumped to the point, that tells me that this has been haunting you and you are at the end of your rope. And that you are choosing very quickly to trust me a great deal to freely share all of that. I suggest we start building coping skills so that you can get through flashbacks and once you have the beginnings of a toolbox of healthy coping mechanisms, we can start looking at help helping your process everything."

Her writing slowed, the smile fading into something much more serious. "This will not be a quick or easy solution even with medication which, we will be discussing by the way. There is no ending to this where you are cured. This is a process and a journey that you will be on for the rest of your life, developing more tools and learning to coexist with everything your mind and the world tries to throw at you. You will have good days, bad days and God awful days. There will be times where you want to fall back into bad habits that bring a feeling of comfort and control and sometimes you will backslide. Maybe a little, maybe go right back to square one. There will be sessions where you won't be able to stand me, where your symptoms will get worse before they get better. But I implore you to keep at it even it feels like you can't. "

Edward came in, soul bared and word vomitting blatant painful truths so Imogen chose to meet him with the equally blatant reality of therapy and healing. He did good work, he was a pragmatic man from what she'd seen in the papers. She just hoped this approach didn't scare him away.

@personae-obscura cont. from here

Edward sat down in one of the arm chairs that was facing Imogen. “Thanks, Ms. Caldwell. My name is Edward, Edward Nigma. I’ve been dealing with some problems. Been suffering with them for years.” He placed his hands on his legs, and was quickly tapping one of his feet on the floor. He was feeling somewhat nervous, since this was the first time he was visiting a therapist.

After Edward looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, he then looked at Imogen and said, “I’ll start from the beginning. Basically my mother died when I was young, and my father was abusive. He would constantly beat me and call me an idiot, it was terrible.” He then looked down at the floor. “But I did have my grandparents, my nonna and nonno. They were the only ones who I was close to…well the only adults I was close to. Then they died when I was a teenager….”

Edward then placed his hands on his face. “I would...and still struggle with traumatic nightmares and flashbacks. It’s been happening since I think I was 18 years old…that’s when I moved out to go to college. It’s been very agonizing, because there’s times where I can’t sleep and it feels so painful. When it happens, I start shaking and crying. Is there anything you can do to help me with this?”