Listening

The mental health treatments of Xyvener

Discovery

After a local uprising in the Aesean Empire a tavern maid noted that many of the people who had fought in the battles came to her tavern not only to drink but rather to talk about their traumatic experiences with her. Realizing that she could make money of it, she started offering paid “conversation hours“ where she would just ask a few questions and offer a little advice - but mostly just sat there and listened. She soon realized that it seemed to actually help the people and it made her feel less guilty about the concept. It also earned her more than the tavern job, so she decided to try making it her full-time profession.

Expanding on this idea as an advisor for the common, she worked together with her clients to create tactics to stop excessive drinking and strategies for helping people going through panic attacks. When the current emperor heared of a girl that could cure war-poisoned minds without magic, they invited her to the capital to work with the army. Spending her life helping people and note-taking on conditions, she wrote a book on her theories. The emperor funded for her research gladly, so she passed her knowledge onto a group of students around 1050CY and called them the listeners.

Access & Availability

Listening is fairly common job in the Aesean Empire, so that members of the upper middleclass could possibly afford it. Though it is also offered by many laymen the most educated listeners known are usually with the The Calassarae or at the emperors court.

Compexity

Originally, listening was mainly used to treat nightmares, panic attacks, addictions and depression related to battle trauma. But since then it has evolved into a more structured approach considering many possible origins for a variety of different mental conditions too. It has also started to branch out into a (mostly philosophical) study of the humanoid mind.