Caleb Michaels

A possible profile of Caleb by vlasdygoth

**Caleb William Michaels** is an atypical with an empathic ability which manifested in his early teens. He has trouble controlling his own emotions, due, at least partially, to his abilities. Throughout *The Bright Sessions* he is in high school, plays football, and was sent to Dr. Joan Bright after getting into a serious fight with another student. As of *The College Tapes* he is a psychology major at Boston University. Caleb's sexuality is not defined but he is currently dating Adam Hayes.

## Biography

### Episode 2

Caleb comes in for his ninth session with Dr. Bright. He hasn't been making much progress in previous sessions. Dr. Bright greets him kindly, asking about how football is going for him. He replies indifferently and almost curtly. The topic shifts to school and leads to a discussion on Macbeth, eventually changing tone because Caleb reveals that he feels as if he's "made something worse" for someone. From here, he begins to talk about an "emo" boy in his class named Adam whose sadness is quite overpowering for his empathy. Caleb stopped some of his teammates from being cruel to Adam but seemed to have said the wrong thing in doing so, causing Adam to be more upset and angry. Dr. Bright decides that an acceptable way of trying to help Adam would be by first becoming his friend. Reluctantly, he agrees and seems to be more focused during his meditation exercises because of it.

## Abilities

***(Warning: This section contains spoilers for The College Tapes.)***

Caleb starts off the series with class A-7 empathy. He has the ability to feel the emotions of others and, the better he knows someone, the more precisely he can sense their feelings.

However, as of *The College Tapes* he also has the ability to project emotions onto those around him. He is still in the process of learning how to control what he refers to as his "Pokemon evolution" and has on a few occasions accidentally used his ability to influence people.

## Relationships

#### Adam Hayes

Adam is Caleb's boyfriend. The two met at school and were in the same English class. Caleb felt Adam's emotions more strongly than the emotions of his other classmates. At first he was annoyed by how much Adam's feelings stood out, especially given that his emotions were usually negative (due to the fact that he struggles with depression). But after Caleb defended Adam to a group of bullies, he began to pursue a friendship with Adam (with encouragement from Dr. Bright). Their friendship eventually led to both of them developing romantic feelings that they believed to be unrequited until episode 15 of The Bright Sessions, in which Caleb confesses his feelings to Adam over the phone in the middle of a therapy session.

#### Dr. Joan Bright

Caleb is her patient. He often comes to her for advice ranging from school to relationships.

## Trivia

* I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson was a huge influence on Caleb's character.
* Caleb is Christian.
* Caleb's Myers-Briggs personality type is INFP.
* Caleb is the tallest person in the main cast.

## References

1. ↑ Retrieved from http://thebrightsessions.tumblr.com/post/154678191369/heeey-im-the-girl-who-harasses-you-and-lauren-on
2. ↑ The Bright Sessions Tumblr
3. ↑ http://www.thebrightsessions.com/episode-2
4. ↑ Fictitious Podcast with Lauren Shippen, writer/creator of “The Bright Sessions” Audio Drama
5. ↑ Retrieved from http://thebrightsessions.tumblr.com/post/156568053344/whos-religious-out-of-the-characters-and-for
6. ↑ Retrieved from http://thebrightsessions.tumblr.com/post/152703332129/hey-i-was-wondering-if-you-were-to-assign
7. ↑ Retrieved from http://thebrightsessions.tumblr.com/post/149001065654/do-you-have-canon-heights-for-everyone