Robbie

Robbie is Gideon’s therapist and a steady presence across several years of treatment. His importance lies not in offering easy answers but in making a relationship possible: he meets Gideon without assumptions, uses humor and ordinary conversation to build trust, and helps turn difficult feelings into something Gideon can discuss and navigate.

Identity and First Sessions

Gideon began seeing Robbie after his family moved, and Robbie was the fourth therapist he had tried. The previous three had seemed old, frustrating, or patronizing; Robbie struck him as different. He did not resemble Gideon’s idea of a typical therapist: he was heavyset, bearded, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, and holding on to a ponytail despite going bald. Gideon’s description is affectionate and comic, but the contrast matters: Robbie does not make professional authority feel remote or intimidating.

At their first meeting, Robbie asked quick, everyday questions about Gideon’s favorite movie, food, and school subject. He also asked whether Gideon had a girlfriend or boyfriend rather than presuming his sexuality. Gideon was embarrassed, but appreciated that Robbie did not make assumptions based on what he said or wore, his mothers’ relationship, or his scars. Robbie explicitly left room for Gideon not to like him or return, treating fit and choice as part of the relationship rather than demanding compliance.

Robbie’s small gestures helped that openness take root. He brought two cans of Coke from a small fridge and set them between them, a welcome break from the strict no-sugar phase Gideon’s mothers had imposed, which even extended to homemade toothpaste. The first session then moved into talk about celebrities and television rather than beginning with antidepressants, self-harm, depression, hospitals, bullying, or an interrogation about feelings. Robbie and Gideon joked about whether The Simpsons or South Park was better; Robbie chose The Simpsons and teased that he owned T-shirts older than Gideon. The humor gave their first meeting a texture of ordinary company, and Robbie became the person who introduced Gideon to poetry. Four years later, he was still Gideon’s therapist.

A Practical, Collaborative Approach

Robbie’s work with Gideon joins emotional discussion to manageable action. When Gideon describes himself as someone who misses job interviews because of lateness, panic attacks, or getting stuck in a toilet cubicle thinking about what kind of person he is, Robbie returns to the unfinished thought about what life means. Gideon answers that life is the same, but that he is over it. Their familiar exchange is not presented as a sudden cure; it is a way of taking stock together, including the difficulty of saying anything conclusive.

Robbie encourages Gideon to try small, safe risks that might push him beyond his comfort zone. He frames small steps as potentially opening a new direction, and Gideon responds that he needs to get a job. The suggestion connects therapeutic work to an immediate objective: rather than demanding a dramatic transformation, Robbie makes room for actions that feel possible while still requiring effort.

He also attends to what is going well, not only to distress. After Gideon has talked about a freak-out and parallel parking, Robbie asks about the good things. Gideon tells him he has been writing letters, prompting Robbie to joke that he had imagined politically motivated threats to television. The exchange lets a new, meaningful activity enter the session without stripping away their playful rapport. Gideon also describes his depression as something that can creep back in: not always its full force, but days or afternoons when everything feels muffled and the unpleasant feelings seem to fester. Since beginning work with Robbie and taking medication, he has not been in its full throes, though the recurrence remains part of his experience.

Making Feelings Speakable

For Gideon, talking is not simply a report on recovery; it is one of the ways he finds his bearings. He explains that naming what is happening makes strategies possible, and strategies make forward movement possible. He is not always able to identify an emotion immediately. At one point, he struggles to describe a state that is not dark but feels flat: he cannot think clearly, make decisions, or distinguish his actual thoughts from thoughts shaped by how he feels. He compares it to a fog. Robbie listens and asks what else, allowing Gideon to work toward a description rather than supplying one for him.

That practice also gives the sessions room for mixed feelings. Gideon is frustrated that he feels bad when things in his life are going well, and initially resists having to explain an experience he cannot readily put into words. Robbie’s questions keep the conversation open. Their work does not depend on treating every difficult feeling as proof of failure; it gives Gideon a way to notice changes, describe them, and consider how to respond. When Gideon does not want to change his medication, Robbie asks whether they should discuss strategies instead. The exchange preserves Gideon’s stated preference while keeping practical support available.

Relationships, Care, and Boundaries

Robbie’s sessions also become a place where Gideon can examine his relationship with Ava Spirini. After Ava Spirini leaves, Robbie asks how Gideon felt. Gideon says he believed he had made a mistake by reading his poem and going too far after an honest conversation, while also saying he did not blame her for leaving. Talking about it brings relief, but he worries that discussing their private exchange with Robbie makes it less sacred. That discomfort shows both his trust in the therapist and his awareness that the conversation with Ava Spirini had felt distinctly private.

When Gideon says he thinks he is helping Ava Spirini, Robbie asks whether he wants to help her. Gideon says that he does; Robbie names the implication plainly: it is a responsibility. The moment does not turn Gideon’s wish to care into a promise that he can fix another person. Instead, Robbie helps him recognize the weight involved in wanting to help, a distinction consistent with the wider emphasis on strategies and limits rather than effortless solutions.

Change and Narrative Significance

Gideon’s confidence in Robbie becomes unusually important to him. When Robbie reassures him that he believes Gideon will be okay, Gideon admits that he does not really believe it himself, but values the reassurance and may care about Robbie’s opinion more than anyone else’s, including his own. This dependence makes the therapist’s presence emotionally consequential, even as Robbie’s manner remains calm and ungrandiose.

That significance sharpens when Robbie says he has something difficult to tell Gideon and then reveals that he is moving. Gideon’s mind races during the pause, imagining the worst before learning what Robbie means. The announcement introduces a possible change to a relationship that has lasted four years; the scene establishes its emotional stakes without specifying what happens afterward. Robbie’s role in the story is therefore both practical and relational: he helps Gideon develop ways to live with recurring distress, while the trust built through ordinary conversation makes the prospect of losing his therapist’s familiar presence matter.