Clara nodded. One of the guys in her hometown had come back from the war with PTSD, it had made him jumpy and plagued with nightmares and nothing seemed to be able to help. He had something called survivor's guilt, too, since his unit had all been killed and he was the only one left. Clara had been able to do little except sit with him, help ease the hurt and pain while she was there, listen to him talk and use her innate abilities to guide him through what he was feeling. She didn't know if it had helped, but she sure hoped it had done.
Then, when she'd gone to college, she'd learned more about PTSD, the way that affected a person. Having studied psychology suddenly made her feel very apt to handle a conversation like this, empathy aside.
"You ain't responsible for what you do in your sleep, Maeve," she pointed out calmly, when the knife-flipping stopped she took a hesitant step closer, laid her hand on Maeve's arm gently. "And even if you've got an old prejudice against it, ain't no shame in havin' a reaction to past trauma. Nothin' like that just goes away and ain't no one expectin' you to just get over it. Least of all you. Puttin' that kind of pressure on yourself just makes things worse."
She took a breath. "I- I get the feelin' you ain't really the talkin' type, but the best way to start processin' and thereby lessenin' the effects of PTSD is talkin' about it." In fact, talking therapies had been proven to be significantly more effective than medication when handling any kind of traumatic experience. "Ain't sayin' you should talk to me, but you can if you wanna. But you should talk to someone, 'bout what you dream about. Best way to take charge of what's goin' on and maybe helpin' lessen the frequency of the nightmares."
Tucking her hair behind her ear, she squeezed Maeve's forearm gently and then leaned back against the bar. "If you ain't never meanin' to hurt him, then you gotta make the steps to start recoverin'. It ain't easy, 'm not gonna lie, but honestly, that first step is the hardest."