How's Your Head?

Dr. Hauser greets her new patient with a professional smile. Natalia stares, eyes wide, shock flashing across her face at how youthful the doctor looks. She shakes her head, mutters an apology, embarrassed at being caught. Dr. Hauser waves it off with a quiet laugh. She is used to that kind of double-take. After all, she knows she looks younger than most therapists. Natalia admits it caught her off guard—she is nineteen, and Dr. Hauser appears even younger. The doctor says she is also nineteen. They exchange a few words about how anyone that age could practice therapy; Dr. Hauser calls herself something of a prodigy. Natalia still looks slightly off-balance when Dr. Hauser suggests they begin. Natalia explains she wants help with commitment. She talks about her single past relationship, her tone growing uncertain. Dr. Hauser listens, an edge of her youth creeping into her responses, but she asks sharp questions that keep Natalia talking. Finally, Natalia snaps. She blurts that someone barely out of high school cannot possibly guide her. Dr. Hauser answers with one quiet, precise observation about avoidance. It stops Natalia cold. The words land. Natalia softens, her trust shifting into place. Dr. Hauser leans forward and says the trouble might not be men at all. Natalia starts to deny it, then goes still. She concedes. Dr. Hauser offers help—the kind that reaches past talk. Her palm comes to rest on Natalia’s thigh, warm and certain. A hands-on approach, she calls it.