No story content in this chapter, so feel free to skip over if you fancy. The story picks up next chapter. The issue about Rhodri having relationships with her clients has been weighing on my mind for a bit, so I'm putting it here in case the same thought occurred to anyone else.
Let me make it absolutely clear that I do not think it is appropriate for clinicians to have multiple relationships if they can possibly avoid it.
Perhaps the most fantastical part of this fanfiction is the fact that Rhodri is even entertaining the notion of being in any sort of relationship with any of the other characters. In real life, clinicians are strictly forbidden both by law and their registration body's codes of conduct and ethics from what is called 'multiple relations', i.e. getting into anything personal or even accepting professional favours (e.g. your client is an electrician and offers to fix the blinking bulb in the office) with clients, or clients' close friends/relatives.
This means that things like friendship, romance, or even accepting occupational favours (e.g. your client is an electrician and offers to fix the blinking light in the office), is unacceptable. Professional and ethical bodies have these rules in place because of the large power differential that exists between clinician and client. Clients arrive at their most vulnerable, and will often divulge things that absolutely nobody else in their life is privy to, often only after building up a relationship with the clinician where they feel safe to do so.
It makes sense to forbid multiple relationships because of how badly things can go for the client and for the clinician. The electrician feeling obliged to fix more things in exchange for the mental health help they're already entitled to receive, the friend who feels less inclined to speak now that they know the clinician like a friend, or perhaps the lover who is afraid that all that has been divulged could be used against them in an argument. And on the clinician's end, it becomes much harder to be objective, or to be able to step away from the problem, because when a loved one is affected, it begins to hurt on a personal level and can be very resource and time-intensive for the clinician. Nobody wins. Despite their best efforts, many clinicians do feel a personal affinity for a client or two at some point in their career, and they often have to speak with another psychologist to de-brief and process these feelings so that the therapeutic relationship with the client can continue. If the clinician feels it cannot because those feelings are too strong, the client is then referred to another psychologist.
With all this in mind, Rhodri would have lost her licence many times over by now had she done any of the stuff she does in Middle-Earth while she was still in London. She never did, of course, and was never tempted to. That it is happening in this fanfiction is because, unfortunately for Rhodri, multiple relationships are completely unavoidable in Middle-Earth. In her new world, the old codes and laws she followed aren't entirely relevant. The three main reasons for this are: the population size of Imladris (at least what it is assumed to be in this fanfiction), the Elves and their culture being what they are, and Rhodri being who she is.
The population in Imladris is really very small. Various conjectures put the size of the settlement as anything between 3 000-6 000—I, personally, guess it's tiny, as the area looks to be minuscule on the maps I've seen. It's very possible that the settled population was only 1 000-2 000 and that there were large influxes of soldiers from outside, which is what I've based my version of Rivendell on. In such a small settlement, everybody knows and relies on each other, so multiple relationships are unavoidable. Duties and personal lives are intimately connected, and in the case of the Eldar, over their incredibly long lives, this only becomes more pronounced. Living in a small town is a very real problem for a lot of health professions in this regard, as many rural and remote doctors, nurses, psychs, and social workers can attest to.
Thankfully, the Elves, not being known to be small-minded gossips or being very hierarchical, seem (imo) more than able to make the necessary boundaries between their personal and professional lives by having a keen sense of privacy, tact, and an understanding of the 'time and place for everything' concept. They are not keen to fight or be manipulative, so it's a sort of utopia for honesty and sensible behaviour (for the most part). You can see an example of this when Glorfindel, despite having manifold opportunity to speak with Rhodri at various times of the day, only spoke to Rhodri about the progress of his nightmares in her office. Thankfully, Rhodri's a quick learner and is similarly disinclined to meanness, manipulation, or dishonesty, so she adapted quite well, when all is said and done.
Elves are not prone to mental illness in Valinor, and are by nature far more immune to many of these issues even in Middle-Earth, where Valinor's protection cannot reach them. That's why you're not going to catch me writing about Elves that with anything that requires medication to manage. Not that it leaves me wanting for variety in what to write about :P The power differential is also somewhat different here, as Rhodri basically turned up in Middle-Earth totally bereft of anything besides the clothes she stood up in and the contents of her backpack. The other odd thing is that Elves are able to enter into each other's minds to some degree, which I'm sure has a strict etiquette code all its own. That would shake up the practice of psychology to an impressive extent.
What makes this situation particularly unique is that Rhodri is the first- and only- psychologist in Imladris. This dramatically changes the context in which multiple relationships occur, because she has to offer her services to anyone who asks it of her. There is absolutely no escaping it for her. She handles it all quite well, though, I think. She prioritises client wellbeing first and foremost.
