The next morning when Tina arrived at work she was informed that Bette had not come out of her room not even for breakfast this morning. Tina knew it was very important for the patients to eat regularly especially while on large milligram medication dosages multiple times per day.

“Nancy I will take care of it. Ms. Porter and I are scheduled for a session in one hour and I will be sure to head to the cafeteria and pick her up something to snack on during our time together.”

Tina sat in her office waiting for the staff to escort Bette to her office to begin their session. A moment later she heard a knock on the door.

“Come in”

“Good Morning Bette. Please have a seat. Faith could you return in an hour to escort Ms. Porter back to her wing. It can take a while to learn your way around here.” She said more for Bette’s benefit rather than Faith’s.”

“Sure one hour Dr. Kennard” she said quietly as she exited the office, closing the door on her way out.

“Bette I picked up a few snacks on my way in this morning please help your self.”

Bette sat silently not moving a muscle. After a few moments Tina thought…oh boy this is going to be one very long hour. Waiting for Bette to acknowledge that she had said something and realizing that she was not going to Tina began their session.

“Bette as I explained earlier part of your treatment plan is behavioral therapy. That means while here during our sessions together you will learn to recognize, avoid, and how to cope with situations in which you are most likely to use drugs. You and I will begin working on the recognizing phase first. I realize this will be difficult for us because of our past relationship however, for healing to begin this is the first step.”

“Bette how long after I left our relationship did you begin using drugs on a frequent basis? I know in the years that I have known you alcohol was consistently used during social gatherings and I recall you using it frequently to distress after work.”