March 20, 2022 / / The Creator's Roulette

Lucy McLaren – On the Benefits of Counselling for Protagonists

8 min read

Welcome back to another Creator’s Roulette feature, friends! I have Lucy McLaren here today and this is a fun post about counselling for fictional characters. When we first connected, I was reading The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies and was thrilled to find a counselling session between Lucy and Quinn (my favorite character from the book). That gave us the idea to explore counselling from the fictional side on Creator’s Roulette and here we are for you! Before you meet Lucy, if you are looking for something more personal and not fictional, do check out my interview with Judy Ho about psychology and self-sabotage.

Lucy McLaren is a writer, reader and specialist, sharing about the benefits of counselling for fictional characters, particularly the protagonist.
Lucy McLaren is a writer, reader and specialist, sharing about the benefits of counselling for fictional characters, particularly the protagonist.

Lucy is a writer of fantasy stories. For as long as she can remember, she has been drawn to the magic of storytelling, whether that be via books, video games, TV shows or films.

Fantasy has always been her genre of choice (though she also loves a good horror, psychological thriller or murder mystery). There is something inherently captivating about journeying into another world with a character—though she finds myself most drawn to fantasy stories, characters and worlds that aren’t so different from our own.

Lucy is currently working on a fantasy trilogy called The Commune’s Curse. The first book in this series, Awakening, is due for release in May 2022 via Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP).

The Benefits of Counselling —
and why your fantasy protagonist may need it more than anyone

A guest post by Lucy McLaren

“Counselling changes lives” is the philosophy of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP, 2021). The benefits of counselling are numerous, including becoming more resilient, building self-esteem and communication skills, creating change and improving quality of life (Family Welfare, 2020). With different schools and theories of counselling, the road to these outcomes can be different depending upon the type of therapy pursued. In this post, I’m going to consider two theories of counselling and how these could benefit fantasy protagonists who fit into the popular Chosen One and Reluctant Hero tropes. 

Person-Centred and the Chosen One 

Carl Rogers founded person-centred therapy on the basis of the belief that every individual “has one basic tendency”, to strive towards self-actualisation (Rogers, 1951: 487). Anyone familiar with Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943) will recognise the term “self-actualise” placed at the top of his pyramid, at which point the individual reaches their full potential. A person-centred counsellor will work alongside their clients, listening “without judgement” and allowing the client to explore whatever they want to without steering the conversation (Psychology Today, 2022). The counsellor will utilise the “core conditions” of unconditional positive regard, congruence and empathy (Rogers, 1957) in order to facilitate an environment conducive to change for their client. In this way, the client is encouraged to fully explore themselves, their thoughts, feelings and experiences, in a trusting environment. They may start to realise their own wants and needs (rather than those they may be pursuing because of the expectations of others), and so begin to move towards self-actualisation. The benefits of such therapy include being treated with respect and really listened to, the client being encouraged to make their own decisions and becoming more independent through this process (Regain, 2021). 

So, how might person-centred counselling benefit a fantasy protagonist who has learned themselves to be the Chosen One? A Chosen One protagonist tends to start out in a story believing themselves to be normal. They are generally living their fairly uneventful life until, one day, they learn about their destiny. They may be dubbed the Chosen One due to a prophecy, their bloodline, being picked by a group or person, or because of a prophecy (Pool, 2019). They are “held in esteem for their expected potential” (TV Tropes, 2022) and, ultimately, are the ones who must save their village/town/society/country/world/universe. Now, that’s a lot of pressure for one person to suddenly find themselves under. Add to this the fact that the Chosen One trope is so often see in Young Adult fiction, and therefore is a protagonist who is a teenager or young person, and you really start to gain a sense of the immense stress they could be feeling. 

Having sessions with a Person-Centred counsellor would allow the Chosen One to speak through their thoughts and feelings in a safe, confidential space. They might talk about concerns they otherwise feel unable to voice because of the expectations placed on them by others. This is a key element of Person-Centred counselling; allowing the client to begin to differentiate between the expectations and values that other people place on them (external locus of evaluation) and their own values, beliefs and expectations (internal locus of evaluation) (Rogers, 1951). If the Chosen One is able to distinguish between these, they may begin to work out how they feel about their situation. Do they want to save the world because of the expectations of others, or do they want to do so because it is something they truly believe in themselves? 

The Chosen One would ultimately be allowed to explore how they are feeling in their own time, without judgement, and with someone who shows them empathy and unconditional positive regard—something they may never have experienced before. As Tolan (2003: 5) noted, “people often judge themselves according to whether others find them acceptable or wanting”. The Chosen One may be particularly prone to such thinking because of the aforementioned stress and pressure to save everyone. Perhaps through Person-Centred counselling, they may be able to grow in self-esteem and understand that they are valued and do not need to live by the expectations of others, no matter how big those expectations may be. 

Transactional Analysis and the Reluctant Hero 

Transactional Analysis (“TA”) was founded by Eric Berne as a means to explore and define the different ways in which people communicate with and act towards each other based on their early childhood experiences. Berne (1957) outlined that each individual has three different ‘ego states’: the child, the adult and the parent. A person’s interactions with others will be determined by which ego state they are in, and the state an individual is in during an interaction will be determined by factors such as “how [they] have been conditioned to act or react from childhood, any past traumas… and how the other person… is treating [them]” (Simply Psychology, 2021).  

In TA counselling, a counsellor will also wish to explore their client’s “life script”, being an unconscious way of living formed during our childhood (e.g. being told to act or not act in a certain way or having certain expectations placed upon us), reinforced by the actions of our parents and strengthened by evidence we seek out to ensure our beliefs (and therefore life script) is justified (Berne, 1972: 46). The life script is built up of several elements (which I won’t go into full detail of here—I’d recommend reading more of Berne’s work if you want to learn more) which work together to ensure it is continuously perpetuated; basically, an individual will keep living by their life script and  will continue to behave in certain ways, hold certain beliefs about themselves and others, and repeat styles of communication with others based upon that script. This can lead to the perpetuation of self-sabotaging or damaging behaviours whilst an individual remains unconscious of their life script and its impact upon their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. 

One aim of TA counselling will be for the client to become aware of their life script and to begin to work towards changing it. This will include recognising any “positive or negative reinforcements” which were placed upon them as a child, and which causes them to act or not act in certain ways (Simply Psychology, 2021). This kind of counselling can promote self-awareness, encourage personal reflection and help people to “eliminate unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and actions” (KlearMinds, 2022). 

This type of counselling may be particularly helpful for the Reluctant Hero, a fantasy protagonist who finds themselves responsible for saving the world, or endowed with incredible powers, or forced into leaving their home and embarking on an epic adventure (TV Tropes, 2022). In the words of Frodo Baggins (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring): “I wish none of this had happened.” 

The perspective from which a counsellor might approach the Reluctant Hero is to consider why they might be reluctant. Do they not consider themselves worthy of the power they suddenly have? Do they not believe they are good enough to embark on an epic adventure? Do they think they are incapable of saving the world? Essentially, what does their life script dictate? In examining the Reluctant Hero’s life script—and making them conscious of that script themselves—the counsellor would be able to gain an understanding of and aid the client in exploring whether any of these doubts, worries or fears form part of it. In doing so, the Reluctant Hero would begin to gain self-awareness, and this is the first step towards amending their life script. They can take responsibility for their own life and make decisions based on their own wants and needs, rather than based upon the experiences of their childhood which dictated their life script. In this way, the Reluctant Hero may come to realise they aren’t so reluctant to take part in that adventure, wield their power, and save the world; perhaps they are worthy, capable and good enough after all. 

Which of your favourite characters do you think would benefit from counselling and why?
Tell us in the comments below!

For me, Quinn’s counselling session was spot on. If I was to send another character for counselling, it would be Taunos from SK’s Let Loose the Fallen, Children of the Nexus series.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us today! Connect with Lucy on Twitter and Instagram. Be sure to check out her website for more counselling sessions for fictional characters.

Head to the homepage of my Creator’s Roulette series for more articles creators have contributed!

References

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Kriti K Written by:

I am Kriti, an avid reader and collector of books. I bring you my thoughts on known and hidden gems of the book world and creators in all domains.

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