Diary of a Therapist

By SK Mason and Debra Scacciaferro

The case notes behind the women's thriller State of Innocence.

What happens when standing up for social justice could risk the lives of a young family?

• Language: English
• Publisher: SK Mason
• Release date: May 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393966401

SK Mason and Debra Scacciaferro

Behind the pen name, S.K. Mason is a real-life therapist, with years of practice working with families. However, when she isn’t working as a professional, she is writing fiction stories about her experiences, and translating these into out-of-this-world thought provoking accounts. With a gift for setting scenes in health and medical settings, her books aim to be intense, adventurous and thrilling novels. She lives in Australia with her five children. Debra Scacciaferro is a former newspaper reporter and arts critic, who lives in the Hudson Valley of New York, where State of Innocence is set. After leaving the newspaper business, she worked as a researcher and assistant to her husband, bestselling author Jim DeFelice, and raised her son, Robert. In between, she joined several writers groups, finished three unpublished novels, and began helping other writers polish their books and novels through her business Debra S Novel Services.

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Diary of a Therapist

The case notes -A State Of Innocence

** Spoiler alert**

This magnet may spoil the ending of State of Innocence for you. The authors recommend reading after having read the full novel for a better experience.

SK Mason and Debra Scacciaferro

The case notes -State of Innocence

I’D ALWAYS WANTED TO work in mental health. Even as a little girl, I would sit with children in the playground and listen to their childhood dramas. Very consciously and after considering their problems, I would provide them with a list of potential solutions and facilitate my young peers’ emotional release.  As I grew up, my affinity for counseling developed further as I associated exclusively with the unhappy and distressed attending my local High School.  The few friends I made were children of broken homes, who didn’t know their parents or despised their evil stepmothers. My other friends, many of whom had picked up drug or alcohol habits from relatives, seemed fun in comparison. The challenge was to ensure that the friends who had access to sparkling remedies never met up with those who dreamt of carving happy smiles on their siblings’ faces while they slept. Even then, I understood the need for confidentiality, and the two worlds never collided.

Over the years, many people asked how I found such a job appealing. The few cases I would describe anonymously to friends included serial rapists and pedophiles, recidivists in graphic suicide attempts, young people who would self-harm, binge drink or had been terribly abused.  Some days I did ask myself whether teaching preschoolers wouldn’t seem brighter. But the truth was, I was good at what I did. I found the human mind excitingly complex and intriguing. Knowing that I could play a small part in transforming a self-harming young woman into a self-loving individual was rewarding in many ways.  I got quite a thrill from pulling diagnoses out of the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual (also known as the DSM IV, the Bible of Mental Health Practitioners) and actioning treatment plans. More to the point, I did care for the people I met and as our friend the famous American psychologist Carl Rogers would lecture, I too believed humankind was good in essence. Yep, although it had never occurred to me whether I’d still preach this if ever threatened by one.  Naively, I’d always believed I’d be prepared to die for my values.