Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Meeting the Counsellor for Boarding Psych Eval

Posted by Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security) in Meeting the Counsellor for Boarding Psych Eval

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Meeting the Counsellor for Boarding Psych Eval
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Good morning,” said Kastarak. While he was initially taken aback that there was a whole reception and not one counsellor’s office, he quickly realized that it was only logical for a ship with so many non-Vulcans requiring a whole department of counsellors. “I am here for the required psychological evaluation before going on active duty. I am lieutenant Shock, assigned chief of security.”

– Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security)

The woman smiled. “Hello, Lieutenant.” Her fingers danced over her console. “Yes, you have an appointment with Doctor Kingston. You can go right on in. Red door.”

Shock nodded, “thank you,” and walked to red door.

Stepping through the red door, Janna’s office was a modest space rather fitting the petite woman. She didn’t go to great lengths to decorate, but it was definitely more than the standard grey furniture and carpet. On the wall above the couch was an image of an ocean scene that could be almost anywhere and the standard grey slim arm chairs had been replaced with softer larger armchairs in a dark blue that looked inviting to curl up into. On top of the standard carpet, the sitting area was covered in a plush rug in different shades of blues that matched the ocean in the photo. On the other side of the room where she mostly worked, there was a tall leafy plant near her desk and a single silver photo frame on the corner of the desk where she could easily see it when she worked at the computer terminal. Overall, the place was warm but practical and uncluttered- much like Janna.

As he entered the room, he thought of the blueness in it. The picture of a blue sea. The sea back home on Vulcan was not blue, it was more wine-coloured. The sky was not blue, except sometimes during dusk and dawn. As such, the room took Shock back to his childhood by the sea, where sometimes around sunset, he would walk with his older brother (7 years his senior, in Earth years), and talk. The brother, Lavel, would help Shock rehearse his homework and other schoolwork, and it gave them some time for one another, that Shock would otherwise not get, since Lavel spent much time studying.

It was this memory that the blueness of the room brought to Shock. He let the memory linger, and the feeling of fondness for his brother – a sense of shared identity – stay for a moment, before Shock cleared his mind, and pushed the emotion aside. He decided that he’d meditate on his relationship with his brother tonight.

The petite psychologist was sitting in one of the arm chairs, reading a PaDD. She looked up and smiled. “Come on in and make yourself comfortable, Lieutenant. Welcome to the Athena.”

~Janna Kington, CNS

The psychologist was Dr Kingston, just as Shock had imagined before entering the counselling department. She looked a lot smaller than he had imagined, but humans came in all shapes and sizes, so it was only logical… He noticed that she simply looked up and smile to greet him. Was not the usual behaviour to stand up to greet one’s guest? Was he though a guest? Then, another thought came, why did he think this important to notice?

“Thank you, doctor Kingston,” he said, bowed his head ever so slightly, and took a seat in the armchair next to hers. “How do we begin?”

– Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security)

Janna grinned and set down the PaDD, turning slightly to face him more. “However you like. Normally I’d ask about a new crewmember’s first impressions about the ship they just boarded, and where they had left from, since it establishes a frame of reference for us both. I don’t always get the opportunity to, but I do try to read a person’s personnel file ahead of time. I find it allows me an opportunity to see how the events of a person’s life result in the person before me. But at the end of the day the only things that are truly relevant are the details you believe are relevant. So, tell me what you is important to know about you, our new Chief of Security.”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

While the example questions that Kingston gave were questions that Shock could easily and readily answer, the final question was harder to reply to. What was relevant was what Shock believed was relevant. But what did he really believe was relevant for himself?

If Janna looked at Shock, she would now see the pupils of his eyes moving up slightly and then to the side, as if Shock was searching in his brain for a memory file that would give him the answer. While for him, the pause between hearing the question and formulating a response was long, it was perhaps not perceived as long for the seasoned counsellor: they were a mere few seconds.

He began speaking, in a clear voice, devoid of emotion, but with prosody that made what he said seem engaging to the listener. It was a rhetorical skill he had learnt – it was logical, after all, to manipulate his voice to keep the attention of his non-Vulcan listener intact.

“What I believe is relevant for a psychologist to know about me? That is a question I have never had posed to me before,” he answered, honestly. “I believe that I am psychologically sound. I am Vulcan, in both biology and culture, and I meditate to keep a lid on the experience of emotions within me. Still, I sense the emotion as it is coming, and my meditation has allowed me to tune in and try and understand the message of that emotion, before I quickly suppress it, and I can be restored to a state of serenity.”

He paused. What else might it be relevant for a counsellor to know? He remember reading on attachment theory, and the way John Bowlby’s and Mary Ainsworth’s work on childhood attachment influenced centuries of paedagogical and psychological changes in society – bringing Earth, and the Federation, at the point where they were now. It would probably be logical to include a snippet on his attachment too, even if he had not considered it much before:

“I grew up in a family consisting of my mother, my father, and my elder brother by seven years. We were geographically closer to my maternal grandparents than my paternal ones, and thus my maternal grandparents had a bigger influence on my life than my paternal ones. My brother was a patient guide for me as I was young and learning to regulate my emotional suppression. I consider him my mentor. My parents were often busy with work – but I do remember them as good as they are. I’ve always been fascinated by emotion, and the interaction between emotion and logic, which I found most pronounced in human cultures. That brought my interest for humanity at large and the history and cultures and religions of Earth.”

Speaking of the religions of Earth made him realize that he had not mentioned anything of his own religion. It was best he continued with that:

“I do not consider myself a religious person, but I partake in rituals for the sake of tradition and sense of identity. However, I have chosen not to take a mate. I was betrothed to a third cousin of my own age, and upon my first pon farr, at the age of 13 Earth years, we found…”

He stopped himself. He leaned forward to the counsellor, and spoke softly yet flatly: “I will stop here, I have spoken enough already without respecting turn-taking. Perhaps you would like to ask some questions on the material I have orally produced so far?”

– Lieutenant Shock (Security Chief)