I know you think you are joking, but as a mental health
professional who reads SFF, I do this for real. :) (It's called
"bibliotherapy" in some circles.)
For adult women dealing with reconciling themselves to their
mothers' complicity in their fathers' physical abuse, McCaffrey's
Dragonsong and Dragonsinger can be a useful point
of departure.
Issues around being "high-potential", "underperforming" and abused:
The Merro Tree (Waitman).
A variety of issues, such as those of the construct of femininity,
the role of trust in platonic intimacy, coming out, etc., can be
touched on from Gossamer Axe (Baudino).
That's three off the top of my head. I'm somewhat more likely to
recommend short stories and movies, actually. Regardless, I don't
generally recommend stories just based on broad issues (Ender's
Game being as close to an exception as you can get), but on a
sense that the way a story captures or explores an issue is a close
match for the personality and perspective of the client.
And the clients do it too, invoking books they've read, movies
they've seen, which they identify with. I had one young client tell
me he really identified with "Bridge to Terebithia" (the movie). I
made a link to another through his love of Harry Potter.
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