The Midnight Swan

Graphic Lives is a series of highly engaging graphic novels for young people who may need counselling and psychotherapy. Each book introduces the difficulties faced by a teenage character and follows them as they travel on their therapeutic journey with a skilled and creative therapist.

The key aims of these books are:

• to demystify counselling and psychotherapy so that it is more appealing and accessible to young people
• to destigmatise emotional and mental health problems so that young people are better able to accept help
• to encourage young people to embark upon their own healing journeys, equipped with the sense that there is a way forward.

As fifteen year-old Hari approaches his mock-GCSEs, he begins to experience anxiety attacks aggravated by his fears of failure to meet his own and his family's expectations. When intermittent feigned illness escalates to the point where he runs out of an exam and hides in a cupboard, Hari agrees to see Steph, the school counsellor. Together they explore ways for Hari to manage his own anxiety and be less critical of himself.