Erica Clarke

Disclaimer: While place descriptions and news events may coincide with the real world, all characters and the plot are fictional. 
== Biography ==
=== OHSU Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic ===
==== Book 1: Stories We Tell ====
Dr Erica Clarke is a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University (OSHU) hospital.
Dr Clarke treated Ryan Matthews in 2017 when Cage took him to OHSU following a drug overdose, and then convinced him to undergo rehabilitation. Ryan credits her with saving his life.
On Tuesday June 2, 2020, Ryan asks Joel Parkinson if he knows anything about Ryan's adoption, or about his birth family. Joel gives Ryan the contact details for Dr Clarke, but asks him not to discuss this with his parents - it's way outside the boundaries for a financial advisor.
==== Book 2: Choose ====
Dr Clarke is on duty at 2am on Sunday October 18, 2020 when Cage and Sarah arrive with J.J.
The following morning, Dr Clarke walks out to the waiting room to find Cage Washington asleep and Ryan Matthews just arriving. She asks why Ryan is there, is he OK? Ryan explains he's EIC of EWN, and she's treating one of his videographers. He asks about J.J. and Sarah. She assures him Sarah mostly just needs rest, and will need to use a wheelchair for a week or so, until she can see her own doctor. Cage wakes and says he'll look after Sarah. Dr Clarke says J.J. is more difficult, he's on a 72hour psych hold and is still not really coherent. Sarah seems able to deal with him better than Dr Clarke can. Cage says his father has offered to let J.J. live there, and Dr Clarke says she would be happy to release J.J. to Rev Washington. Dr Clarke says she had to inform J.J.'s parents he was at OHSU, as he's still on their insurance. She talked to his mother, who was hysterical with relief, as J.J. hadn't been home since Friday afternoon. J.J. refuses to talk to them, or about them, so Dr Clarke knows very little about what's happened. J.J.'s parents are expected to arrive at 9am. Cage tells Ryan that J.J's dad won't have arrived home from work yet. He tells Dr Clarke she may need to watch EWN's live feed from the previous night - the cop who shot J.J. was his own father. He tells Dr Clarke he will leave and return at 2pm for Sarah, and can take her home then if she's ready for release. Ryan suggests that Dr Clarke put Sarah in a wheelchair in the waiting room when J.J.'s parents arrive, then take Mrs Jones into her office to talk. Let Sarah talk to Lt Jones, she's tough enough to handle him. Dr Clarke says that gives her a place to start. As Ryan leaves, she tells him to come back to see her soon.
When Mr & Mrs Jones arrive at 9am, Dr Clarke introduces herself, assures them J.J. is in no present danger, and tells them she wants to talk to them one at a time. She says she has to respect that J.J. doesn't want them given any information, but they can become acquainted. Lt Jones protests, but Dr Clarke says that J.J. is an adult and has a legal right to privacy if he chooses. She invites Mrs Jones into her office, and Mrs Jones doesn't look back. When Mrs Jones goes back to the waiting room with Dr Clarke, she listens to Sarah King and weeps. Mrs Jones asks Sarah to take good care of J.J. for her, and walks out, not looking at her husband who follows her out. Dr Clarke tells Sarah she did a good job, and hopes it will break through Mr Jones defenses. Sarah could say things that Dr Clarke is not cleared to. When Sarah returns to bed, Dr Clarke tells her Cage will return at 2pm - she'll need a wheelchair for the foreseeable future and if taking pain medication will needs to have someone with her.
On Monday morning, Dr Clarke monitors Carroll's visit with J.J. at OHSU, and gives permission for Carroll to have access to him if they return.
==== Book 3: Don't Go ====
At Ryan Matthews' first therapy appointment on Thursday, October 22, 2020 he tells Dr Clarke that he's still clean and sober, but worries that he's substituted sex instead. He's not been looking for a relationship or connection, or even really enjoying it, but it's like he can't stop. He tells her what Mrs Washington had said about Rafael being at the age when he needs to learn to attach, and wonders if perhaps that happened to him? Dr Clarke asks Ryan for his earliest memory, and Ryan tells her of the day he was adopted at 10-years-old. Dr Clarke is quietly horrified - she knows no others without memories before the age of 10. Ryan says he realized that day how much he compartmentalizes things, boxing them up and setting them aside to deal with later, and wonders how many of those boxes he just erased. He doesn't think he's erased any boxes since he was adopted though. 
Dr Clarke asks why he stayed in Portland when his parents moved. He says that he was in the party scene from the age of 16, and his parents were worried and angry. When it came time to apply for college he was accepted to Stanford, Harvard and University of Washington, but he wanted to stay in Portland for the party scene, so he enrolled at Portland Community College. His parents were angry, and his mom told him that she and his dad were retiring and going on a year-long cruise, and not returning to Portland. They had set up a trust fund for Ryan, but only if he went to a 'four-year' school like Reed College. He chose PSU instead. They now live in San Diego, as they like the climate. Dr Clarke asks if he goes for holidays, and Ryan says he's not invited. He knows they have older kids of their own, and he'd be out of place. Dr Clarke asks if those older children had ever come to Portland for holidays while he was growing up? Ryan says he's not sure he's even met them, were they that ashamed of him? Ryan says he looked like someone's boytoy in those days, his mom was horrified. 
The session ends with Dr Clarke suggesting a further appointment in 2 days time, with appointments every 2nd day for the following week. When Ryan leaves her office, Dr Clarke calls Janet Matthews in San Diego, and asks why she never told Ryan that they were his biological grandparents. Ryan inadvertently overhears this from outside the room, and returns. He says he didn't know that Dr Clarke knew his parents. Dr Clarke says she's never lied to him, but agrees she's also not told him everything. When Cage brought him to OHSU in 2017, she didn't realize that she'd seen him before until all his medical records arrived. By then, Ryan was making good progress and acting as if he didn't remember, so she didn't bring it up. She was the doctor that did the psychological assessment of Ryan and his adoptive parents for CPS when he was a child. But she hadn't been aware that Ryan didn't know his true relationship to them, and wanted to check in with them and then discuss it at the next appointment. Dr Clarke tells Ryan that his adoptive parents are the parents of his mother, and that both parents are serving life in prison for the death of his younger brother, and the multiple assaults on Ryan. Ryan is stunned. Dr Clarke offers to have Ryan's case file ready at the next appointment.
When Ryan arrives at OHSU on Saturday evening for his next appointment, Dr Clarke has his file on her desk, and tells Ryan they can take the therapy as fast or slow as he needs. Dr Clarke says she called Janet Matthews back, and she 'sends her regards'. While Janet has given verbal permission for Ryan to see the files, he's an adult and is entitled to see them anyway. 
Ryan asks why his grandparents retired to San Diego, and have never included him in their lives since? He tells her he talked to Martha Washington after their session on Thursday, as she'd worked at CPS and knew some of it. Mrs Washington had told him of his parents' convictions for murder, attempted murder, and other charges, and recommended he not google it. Dr Clarke says CPS had received reports from a teacher, a neighbor, and a doctor, but money talks. Ryan asks why he doesn't remember what happened between the age of 6 and 10. Dr Clarke says it's partly the way the system works, and is designed to protect parental rights over the safety and welfare of the children. Ryan could not be adopted while his parents trial played out, so after he was released from hospital, he was placed in the foster care system. There were 3 homes: the first was only a short stay as they had other children in care, and Ryan's nightmares made it impossible for him to stay; the second was also short, the home was inspected after Ryan regressed, all the children were removed and the foster parents jailed; the third family was working out, but the father was laid off then offered a job in the Midwest, and while they were willing to adopt Ryan, his mother refused to terminate her parental rights while her conviction was still on appeal. After that, Ryan was in a group home for about 6 months, until all appeals were exhausted and his mother allowed him to be adopted by her parents. Dr Clarke found him to be nearly catatonic when she evaluated him then. Dr Clarke had recommended that the state terminate Ryan's mother's rights so he could be adopted by the foster family, but was overruled. She was unhappy about him being adopted by his grandparents, but hoped they would allow her to see him regularly. His files don't show any therapy though. Ryan asks why he was cut out of their lives when they retired? Dr Clarke says that she's seen some photos, and Ryan has cousins who look just like him. Also, his mother was released on good behavior the year Ryan turned 18. She went with them on the cruise, and on the only occasion that his grandparents visited after they retired, she was in Portland for a parole visit and was sitting at another table in the restaurant. Ryan is stunned, thinking that his grandparents chose his mother over him.
Confused by his attraction to McShane despite his love for Teresa, Ryan goes to see Dr Clarke at OHSU on Monday, October 26, 2020without an appointment. Ryan is surprised when Dr Clarke agrees that McShane is an attractive man, saying just because she's been married for 20 years doesn't mean she can't see, or doesn't look - but she values her commitment to her relationship more than pleasure she might get elsewhere. It's about action, not desire. Ryan says that his previous question about sex addiction was because it was no longer satisfying, but he felt almost desperate to chase it more. Dr Clarke compares it to a hole in his emotional bucket, and nothing can fill it. She observes that 1/ finding McShane attractive is not abnormal; 2/ it may be longer than usual since Ryan last had sex; and 3/ Ryan may have missed developing attachments when he was little, but in his case, it's made him want them to the point he feels needy, and he's used sex as a way to get at least temporary attachments. She tells him that there are other ways to get those attachment other than sex. It's natural to want to be touched, but Ryan could get a massage, go dancing, play touch football, or learn to give and receive hugs with friends, and none of these will violate his commitment to Teresa. It will take therapy to close that 'hole in his bucket'. Before he leaves, Ryan mentions his financial trust, and that he had recalled that the reason the Matthews set up the trust fund was that he wasn't yet 18. Dr Clarke suggests he make a further appointment for the next day to discuss that, and about the lab report that he had asked be sent to the PSU Provost.
The next afternoon, Ryan tells Dr Clarke that he sees the Washingtons as a model of the family he wants, and she reminds him there's a lot of compromise and sacrifice needed to create that. He already has created pieces of that dream though, with his housemates at the Loft, and with the staff at EWN. He's not a loner, he has meaningful attachments to people. Ryan thinks about that and says that even so, he doesn't feel connected - so it's the feeling part that's broken. Dr Clarke is pleased to hear of his thoughts after the previous afternoon's session, and says working on delayed gratification won't hurt.
Dr Clarke arrives at work early on Friday November 6 to begin dealing with a 5-year-old girl so traumatized by witnessing her father kill her mother that she's lost her communication skills. The nurse hands Dr Clarke a postcard from Ryan with his wedding picture, and she smiles thinking that sometimes there is a miracle.
On January 6, 2021, the clinic's supervisory committee inform Dr Clarke that she is not to see patients outside the adolescent purview of the clinic. They ignore that the clinic has always provided emergency services to PSU students regardless of their age. She was instructed to transfer Ryan to another therapist immediately, and hand over his file to the committee for reassessment. Dr Clarke is so furious, she considers quitting, but decides she is needed by the patients who are in crisis. For her to give Ryan's files to the committee would be an unacceptable breach of confidentiality. So, when Ryan arrives for his appointment with Teresa, Dr Clarke asks Teresa to remain in the car, informs Ryan of the committee's decision, then walks him out and gives Ryan his files. She includes a list of therapists she trusts, and has already sent all of them a referral so he won't be put on a waiting list. She also refers him to Rita Morales - Rita, Abigail McShane, Martha Washington and she are all members of the Professional Women's Association which meets regularly. 
== Physical Appearance ==
Erica Clarke is middle aged, of middle height. She wears her grey-streaked dark brown hair in a well-cut bob. 
== Relationships ==
Erica's husband is 50-years-old. 
Category:Character
Category:OHSU