Healing with fan fic
Reading therapy fics is wild because I can read descriptions of the tri-phasic model of trauma, stop, and go, “huh. Wait a minute.” And think back through my own therapy sessions and track the whole first phase. I can recognize that we’re coming to the end of that now, every time my therapist congratulates me on using the tools we’ve been talking about. I can read the description of the second phase and realize my own therapeutic journey is just starting to shift into this, that we’re right at the cusp of it. I can start to realize what’s coming, and what are likely future steps in my own healing.
I can read the character’s reactions and remember things I forgot that I used to do but don’t anymore. I can read their progress and start to recognize a few pieces of what I have left to heal. Sometimes I can write down a question to bring to my own therapist, or adopt some language that resonated somewhere inside me.
And I can really, truly, feel the character’s frustration because fuck this healing shit is exhausting and hard. But I can also read and remember that it is so completely worth it. I can gather up the pieces of hope I need to keep moving forward.
Thank you every writer who has ever written a trauma-informed fic. They help more than I could possibly express.