A Character Analysis Of Nora From Watchers By Dean Koontz

Nora is a character from Watchers, a novel by Dean Koontz. She is very shy and skeptical of the world because she grew up with her aunt. While growing up, her aunt would constantly tell her things like “you are not pretty”, “the outside world will only let you down”, “men are dangerous and only want one thing”, “you are a ‘mouse’”, and lots of other things to bring her down. Because of what her aunt told her and how she was raised, Nora never left the house or let anyone in and grew up to be very nervous and shy. But, after her aunt died, Nora began trying to get outside more and met a man named Travis Cornell and his dog Einstein. Throughout their interactions in the book, Travis and Einstein unknowingly help Nora with her problems through many different identifiable methods of therapy.

One method he used is client-centered therapy. This is a humanistic therapy in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients’ growth. He also uses exposure therapy. This is when you treat anxieties by exposing the client to the things they fear and avoid. Lastly, Travis uses cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting. You can see an example of client-centered therapy when Travis first meets Nora. He always genuine and accepting and actively listens to what she is saying. An example of when Travis uses exposure therapy is when he takes Nora out into town and slowly exposes her to the outside world. And and example of cognitive therapy would be when Travis reveals to Nora that her aunt had a husband at one point. After she found out, she gained a new perspective on the way she was