She had listened to her patient’s complaints, suggesting courses of action they might take that could prove helpful. No matter the case or intriguing details she heard, Hallie Walker was foremost in her mind. Treating her could be difficult if she took the wrong approach and Natalie wondered how she should tackle the case, keeping in mind that should she step on one of Hallie’s invisible boundaries a mental barrier would immediately appear and she would be screwed. Which made her job extremely hard since everything about Hallie’s condition involved her parents, a subject clearly out of bounds. In the days since that first meeting she had allowed Hallie to steer the conversation where she wanted it to go, gradually building a relationship with her patient. Hallie needed to trust that Natalie only had Hallie’s best interests at heart and that everything she did was solely in helping Hallie. It was a slow process but well worth the effort in the end. Natalie understood Hallie’s recalcitrance.
