I received this email from Mara awhile back, and have been compiling a list to help her find the books she’s looking for. I’m hoping you have some suggestions:
I’m not looking for any particular book this is more of a mini rant plus a distant hope that there might be books out there that would stave off this mini rant.
I’ve been reading Maya Banks (specifically books 1 & 2 of the Surrender trilogy) and both heroines, who could clearly use some counseling think to themselves “oh I’d never go to a SHRINK” (only without all caps) and are pretty massively derogatory toward the whole idea of seeking out help for mental health issues or even talking to their doctors.
As someone who has dealt with mental health issues and knows how hard it is to admit even to yourself that help is needed, is there any romance out there with a heroine (or hero) who IS willing to get counseling and isn’t so horribly stigmatizing-ly dismissive of the idea?
Because seriously, having a heroine with major physical/emotional/sexual
abuse in her past… completely dismiss even the
idea of counseling (oh but the magic of the hero’s strong arms and magic
penis can cure her of all her childhood traumas!) really ticks me off.
So, help?
Characters who seek out mental health assistance – should be easy, and of course my mind went blank. That is, unfortunately, normal for my brain. I give it a task, and sometimes it gives me the right answer, and sometimes it says, “You should think about cooking instead. Stew! Stew would be good. Or soup! And bread! Mmm, carbs.”
Which is probably why I had to steer myself away from the pantry and back to my computer.
Fortunately for me, I have excellent smart people to ask!
Carrie: In Caught in Amber, by Cathy Pegau, the main character goes to rehab and gets professional help for an addiction. The story opens with her having had legally mandated treatment, but ultimately she does it voluntarily, with the support of the romantic lead.
In Static, by L.A. Witt, Alex gets treatment for depression. In both books, the professional help is portrayed as essential towards making an HEA possible for both the individual and for the couple.
Sarah: I also asked author and librarian Jennifer Lohmann, whom I know personally, because when I had breakfast with her at RT in New Orleans, she mentioned that her next book features characters seeking counseling. I wanted to know which book (and if it’s out yet!) and if she could recommend any others.
Jennifer Lohmann: The three things I’m working on right now all have at least one character mentioning being in therapy or actually being in therapy. The novella I’m going to self-publish should come out March-ish. The heroine went through therapy after her divorce and mentions it. My 6th book for Superromance (scheduled for December, 2015 right now) also has a heroine that mentions her therapist.
The novel I’m half-done writing is the most therapist-heavy because the hero sees a therapist after the death of his best friend and recommends it to the heroine (hero’s best friend was heroine’s husband). None of these are (nor do I think any reference to counseling in a book should be) hit-you-over-the-head with counseling/therapy. My goal is to have it all presented as a normal course of life, because it is.
Sarah: Jennifer also found people with better book memories than mine to recommend additional titles featuring characters in therapy. Here’s their compiled list, in no particular order:
Lisa Kleypas’ Blue-Eyed Devil —the heroine gets counseling after leaving her abusive marriage. (Recommended by Tweedy Tattersall)
In Robyn Carr’s Virgin River series, there’s a very cool therapist who appears in more than one of the books.
From Lisa Schimmer comes this list of books, which she calls, “a really random assortment… Also, [I’m] convinced more characters/people need counseling.”
Safe Harbour by Danielle Steel ( A | K | G | AB )
Let’s Misbehave by Lisa Plumley ( A | K | G | AB )
One Tiny Lie by K.A. Tucker ( A | K | G | AB )
Sanctuary Island by Lily Everett ( A | K | G | AB )
The Chocolate Touch – Laura Florand ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd )
On Dublin Street – Samantha Young
Reckless by Ruth Wind ( A | K | G | AB )
The Crossfire series by Sylvia Day ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
The Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au )
The Thrill of It by Lauren Blakely ( A | K | G | AB )
This is by no means a complete list, so I’m hoping you can suggest more in the comments. What romances do you recommend wherein the characters seek therapy or counseling?
I don’t remember therapy in Smooth Talking Stranger, though IIRC Ella has been through therapy in the past. I didn’t like how Joss’s therapy was portrayed in On Dublin Street. The one book mentioned in this post which was really good in this regard was Kleypas’s Blue-Eyed Devil.
Laura Nilsson, the heroine of Pamela Clare’s Striking Distance, spent an extended period of time in therapy, but it happens between the prologue and and the main story rather than on the page.
I’d recommend Pushing the Limits, a YA romance by Katie McGarry, in which both the heroine and the hero are have counseling with a clinical social worker at their school (for very different reasons). Neither of them seeks it or likes the idea at first, but they come around and it’s well-portrayed.
Another book with a character who doesn’t seek therapy but later understands how helpful it is to her is Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes, in which the heroine ends up in rehab due to her drug addiction.
I have two recommendations, both by Kathleen Gilles Seidel. First is More Than You Dreamed, in which the main character goes into group therapy when she realises that she is coming unglued after her father’s death. What she learns about herself is an important component of the story.
The other isn’t a romance, but it’s still a great read: Keep Your Mouth Shut and Wear Beige. Although it takes place before the action of the book, the main character seeks counseling when her marriage breaks up and she is diagnosed with ADD in her forties.
Also by Marian Keyes: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married and Sushi for Beginners deal with depression.
If you read YA, then E. Lockhart’s Ruby Oliver books are amazing. The latest Courtney Milan, Trade Me, has the hero visit a therapist. (Won’t say more to avoid spoilers). The Sarra Manning book about the teenager who is a quirky fashion blogger has a good therapist, which is a refreshing change from the incompetent therapists of her first three books.
It’s not a big part of the book, but at the end of Jessica Bird’s (aka J.R. Ward) SE The Billionaire Next Door, the heroine insists that the hero see a therapist, because as much as she loves him, he needs professional help to deal with a difficult past (major trust issues)…hero gladly agrees. Heroine even thinks his follow-through is admirable and shows how strong he is (because he sticks with therapy even though very painful to deal with past). It’s the first romance I’d run into that suggested that serious mental health issues could not be simply loved/sexed away (published 2007). I also second the recommendation for The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand: hero had been in therapy to deal with terrible childhood, then when becomes interested in heroine resumes seeing therapist because he knows he needs help with being in a relationship.
In Laura Kaye’s Hard Ink novella “Hard to Hold On To”, the hero is a soldier suffering from PTSD and depression. Most of his story is his decision to tell his friends about his suicidal thoughts and ask for help.
I suggest Lydia Michael’s Breaking Perfect. Heroine deals with OCD, helped by therapy and hero(es). Smokin’ hot, too! And hero(es) is a clue, BTW.
I have another vote for Kathleen Gilles Seidel. In the 90’s (I think) she wrote A Soldier’s Heart about a nurse suffering from PTSD years after serving in Viet Nam. A lot of the story was that she didn’t realize she needed help, because she was never wounded, and women weren’t supposed to have that sort of problem. The hero recognizes that she does need help and eventually convinces her to go into therapy. As I read what I’ve written here, it sounds like a damsel in distress story, but it wasn’t. The heroine’s strength kept her functioning long after many would have given up. It was one of the first novels I read that recognized that women and non-soldiers could also suffer from PTSD.
In the Eve Dallas series, Eve sees the police psychologist, Dr. Mira, on a regular basis. Part of the evolution and growth of her character is having her go from grudgingly stopping in for a few minutes and hating talking about her feelings, to willingly scheduling time with her and consulting her when past emotional traumas come back into the light.
Granted, this is a 30+ book series, so it’s a slow and gradual evolution, but it’s one of the continuing plot threads I really enjoy.
I second Blue-eyed Devil and the In Death series.
I don’t think the hero does in the book, but in Whiskey Bay Eli has sought counselling in the past to deal with his (situational, not clinical) depression and actively practices the coping tips given by his therapist (makes himself go outside and walk and stuff).
In Jessica Scott’s BACK TO YOU, the hero is an Army veteran dealing with a court martial and PTSD. He’s required to be evaluated by a therapist as part of his defense, then chooses to keep going because counseling is helping him.
Soooo I’m more into historicals, which makes the “hero(ine) goes to therapy” bit a little harder, but I recently read Sweet Madness by Heather Snow where the heroine essentially becomes a therapist for soldiers suffering from PTSD in order to help her with her own trauma. The hero is her late husband’s cousin who needs her help or he’ll be locked in an asylum forever. It’s pretty entertaining, and well-written.
Is it weird that the first thing that came to mind was a piece of fan-fiction that I love? It’s a little weird, I think.
Another recommendation for Marian Keyes’ RACHEL’S HOLIDAY. Her other books are fabulous as well, for many reasons.
In Amy Lane’s Chase in Shadow, Chase has to see a therapist. Can’t say more, don’t want to spoil things.
Another historical, Mary Balogh’s The Survivors’ Club series is about a small group who basically all need therapy after their various experiences in the war. There’s no actual therapy and what is mentioned is not professional help but more like a support group. I think she did a really good job of showing the process and slow progression without belaboring the point. She’s had similar characters before, learning to cope and moving on, but this is more structured.
There’s therapy and psychology in Allison Brennan’s Lucy Kincaid series (and many of the preceding stories that all connect) but mostly as back story or asides. Lucy is a survivor and major trigger warnings for assult, rape, children and people and maybe even animals in peril.
It is so wrong that there is STILL a stigma attached to seeking help for our mental health! I’m the only person in my family who has sought out help (willingly anyway…) and my family will often try to use that as some evidence of a lack on my part. Of course the truth is that the people who recognize a need and pursue a solution are the sane ones.
@ppyajunebug – the best historical romance suggestion I can come up with is Liz Carlyle’s Beauty Like the Night, in which the heroine Helene is a governess/teacher who specializes in working with children with emotional issues. In some ways she’s an early version of a child psychologist, and she is hired to work with the hero’s daughter, who hasn’t spoken since her mother’s death.
In Kristen Ashley’s A Fire Inside the hero urges the heroine to get counseling, which she does & it helps her.
Not a traditional romance, but this is a 1930’s vintage mystery featuring a couple that meet and fall in love during the course of the stories.
Patrick Quentin’s “Puzzle for Fools”, is set in a mental hospital, and both of the couple are patients. The H is drying out after a long slide into alcoholism after witnessing his wife’s death in a fire. The h is suffering from “melancholia”, committed by her family who are totally unable to deal with her mood swings.
Although the psychiatric treatments and theories are dated, they are portrayed positively, and the primary psychiatrist becomes a trusted friend and advisor of the pair in subsequent books after their release.
Not romance, but possibly worth noting: later books in Diane Duane’s “Young Wizards” fantasy series introduce school psychologist Robert Millman, who is not a wizard but is aware of wizardry and its practitioners. He first appears in A Wizard Alone, and from then on we regularly see various of the teen protagonists meet with him for counseling. He’s an interesting and well-drawn secondary character, and I like Duane’s portrayal of both the person and his work.
In Janice Kay Johnson’s “Snowbound,” the hero is an Iraq war veteran who sees a therapist to help him deal with PTSD. He’s initially reluctant, but what he thinks of as “healing naturally” hasn’t worked.
In Sister in Love Book 1: Love in Bloom by Melissa Foster, the heroine is a therapist who councils the hero before they fall in love. Not exactly what you are looking for, but therapy is looked on pretty positively, from what I remember. Nora Robert’s Chesapeake Bay series deals with sexual assault and trauma throughout the series, but one of the main heroines is a social worker who is *not having* people’s dismissal of recovery and survivor based health. I don’t recall that there is explicit mention of therapy, but Anna is definitely not cured by magical penises and the men are also working through histories of trauma.
In Shiloh Walker’s Fragile (The Rafferty Brothers) The heroine is a social worker that grew up in a bad way and credits a good social worker, good adoptive parents, and therapy with her being able to cope.
Full on trigger warnings for assault, stalking, rape, children in peril, animal cruelty, post war ptsd, etc, etc, and so on. It’s chock full of all the good stuff.
In Jill Shalvis’ “Rescue My Heart” (Book 3 in the Animal Magnetism series) the H (and why does the Hero get the capital H instead of the heroine?) has gone thru therapy for PTSD after coming back from Afghanistan.
And in JAK’s new book, “Trust No One”, both the H and h have gone thru therapy for different causes. In one great scene, the H tells the h he understands her nightmares and difficulty with sleeping over with someone, since he also has nightmares.
Oh, in “Cold, Cold Heart” by Tami Hoag (more suspense than romance), the therapy the h goes thru after a brutal assault leaves her with a TBI is discussed, as well as how she needs to document her life in order to approximate “normal.” The H also has issues. This book is not for everyone – there is a serial killer, rape and attempted rape, and a brooding undertone of violence. But it is a very interesting and engaging book.
Sorry for the double entry!
Thank you everyone for the recommendations! It’s so nice to know that there are books out there where people who need counseling get it even if it happens off screen. I’ll definitely be checking these out!
And thanks again, Sarah for setting up this rec league for me!
Thank you all for all these suggestions! I loved this thread.
I read the first five in Virgin River series and I don’t remember a “shrink” Character. I do that some of the characters suffer from mental illness and I thought it was handled well.
Even though it’s Inspirational I highly recommend My Foolish Heart by Susan May Warren. I thought the therapy was very handled. It’s one of the best therapy books ever. It is very Inspy, but I still recommend it. You can read my review here.
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/rita-reader-challenge-my-foolish-heart-by-susan-may-warren/
I wish I had more recs for you. As someone who has some mental health struggles and has friends with mental health struggles, it’s really RAGE-triggers me that some author can be so dismissive without realizing how hurtful and discriminatory that is.
In Jesse Hayworth’s latest Firelight at Mustang Ridge the heroine is camping out at the dude range as part of her healing after a harrowing rock-climbing event which hurt her mentally and physically. Danny has been through therapy before the story begins. Of course, a hot cowboy rides up and healing begins. Both the hero and heroine have problems they must work through to get to the HEA.
I’ll second ReneeG’s recs for Rescue My Heart by Jill Shalvis and Trust No One by Jayne Ann Krentz.
As Lara said, Eve gets therapy throughout the In Death series. Nadine Furst, the reporter, also get therapy after being taken hostage.
In Nalini Singh’s Awaken to Pleasure the heroine at first scoffs at the idea of “telling her problems to a stranger,” but she eventually benefits a great deal from seeing a therapist (though it happens off page).
Glad to see that people already listed Jessica Scott, Pamela Clare and the Survivors’ Club – those were the ones that immediately came to my mind.
I sort of feel like Elizabeth Hoyt’s writing, especially the Maiden Lane series, has a fair amount of what might come as close to therapy by modern standards as you might get in Georgian period? The healing feels very grounded in psychology rather than in magic hoo-ah, even though it is the hero/heroine usually working through things, rather than a third party. And it doesn’t always seem to be perfect –
I write characters with off-page therapy (maybe so I’m not violating their therapist/patient privilege?) – in First to Burn the heroine isn’t thrilled about mandatory VA group therapy and is sort of gaming the system, b/c she’s a doctor – so I think it wouldn’t fit what you want. She’s going, but not embracing it.
In His Road Home, however, the hero is taking full advantage of all the therapy he gets – mostly he thinks/talks about all the other therapy, but he makes passing allusions to his psych counseling.
It’s a little off topic but there is a series by Lynda Hillburn. The first book is called The Vampire Shrink (Kismet Knight PhD).
I honestly can’t remember if the therapy that’s in the book is of any quality – sorry – but this might be a quirky diversion if you like paranormal.
In Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian is in therapy. His conversations with therapist are mentioned throughout, and he and Ana go see therapist together.
The heroine in Lia Silver’s paranormal Laura’s Wolf goes to therapy before the book starts. She uses her experience to teach the hero coping mechanisms to handle his PTSD (a secret government agency kidnaps him directly from a helo crash in Afghanistan). The author is a therapist, and how PTSD is treatable is definitely one of her things (along with good romance).
In Bear, Otter and the Kid (m/m, don’t let the title or cover scare you off, it’s an amazing book) the hero and his little brother go to a counselor.
One of my books, “Analysis of Love”, has the heroine, a newspaper reporter, sent by her boss’ boss to pose as someone needing therapy after a suicide attempt. His son actually experienced that, and has made major life changes, for the better, since the therapist helped him through Maslow’s steps to “self-actualization.” The heroine is supposed to seduce the doctor, then discredit him. He’s blind, so she has difficulty figuring out how to attract him. As their therapy progresses, they fall in love, so she’s loathe to write anything bad about him. But her dishonesty with him means as therapy progresses, she becomes LESS herself, instead of more…which confounds the doctor. The steps to self-actualization are discussed as they sit in his office, week after week.
Every time I see the title, Bear, Otter and the Kid I think of “BJ and the Bear” which sounds like it should be related but is very much not related at all. Oh, my brain.
Recently I read “Maybe Maby” by Willow Aster, in which the heroine suffers from severe OCD and depression, especially since her mother’s death. She tries to go to therapy consistently, but the process is depicted with ups and downs, and while the hero supports her unconditionally, his love isn’t the magic cure for her mental health issues.
I really liked the story and found it quite moving (I cried several times) und would recommend this book!
Re #7: A Soldier’s Heart was written by Kathleen Korbel, not Kathleen Gilles Seidel.
JAK’s often writes characters that have been in therapy.
In Jillian Stone’s : A Private Duel With Agent Gunn, Phin seeks all types of relief for his “soldier’s heart”, now know as PTSD, including “talking therapy”.
Well, if we are listing paranormals, in Cynthia Eden’s Hotter After Midnight the heroine is a therapist…for paranormal beings: