A mental health counselor in Enumclaw is trying to help troubled teens with a novel about a high school girl going through dark times of her own.
Susan Thode, a licensed mental health professional, wrote a story about Sara Mitchell — an average teenage girl who loves horses — to try to reach teenagers who are struggling with problems like bullying, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.
“I thought using a fiction vehicle to talk about some of these problems would likely be more productive than doing talks,” Thode said. “When you’re up and you’re talking, you can tell how engaged people are, and teens are not typically engaged.”
Thode saw the message she was giving to teens had been going in one ear and out the other.
“Fiction is the way to try to sneak a message in if I can because most teens are avid readers,” Thode said. “If I can make the story interesting enough that a teen is going to want to read it and I can slip in some mental health stuff, then that might make a difference.”
Thode said she started out as a high school English teacher.
“I’ve worked with teens off and on my whole life. I always, even as a teacher and doing other things, did volunteer things with teens, whether it was through church groups or social organizations,” Thode said. “Then I discovered I really hated teaching because you can’t really teach anymore. It’s very different than it used to be.”
Still interested in helping people, Thode became a licensed mental health counselor and did the national training for trauma therapy. She has been working in private practice since 2012.
“I don’t see teens very much anymore. Mostly because I think at my age, teens are likely not wanting to talk to me,” Thode said. “I think that is partly why I picked up the writing again because I still felt really strongly about the main issues that teens really suffer from are the same as when I was in high school in the ‘60s.”
Thode said kids today struggle with the same issues she did when she was young: whether they fit in and whether they matter to anyone. Thode said bullying is also something that was a problem when she was in school.
“That can really destroy a teen if they are the target of a bully,” Thode said.
Thode said suicide is the most concerning of the isses that teens are struggling with now.
“The percentages and the numbers are really alarming. Even in our small town, I have younger friends who are parents and friends who are grandparents whose teens have committed suicide,” Thode said. “It just breaks my heart.”
To try to better reach the kids today, Thode wrote a book that features a younger protagonist.
“The things she goes through are the same things I remember going through and the same things as all the work I’ve done with teens in the past years,” Thode said. “‘I don’t matter. I’m a loser. I don’t fit in. I might as well be dead.’ All these thoughts that go through a lot of teens’ minds.”
Sara, the main character of the book titled “Riptide,” is bullied and believes what the other kids are saying about her. Thode said Sara doesn’t have the self confidence to stand up to what the bullies say.
“It is a lot my story. That’s where the horses come in because I had horses through junior high and high school and they really became my salvation,” Thode said. “Horses are very empathetic and they are very tuned in to people’s emotions. That’s why they are so good as therapy animals.”
Thode said she spent a lot of time with her horses when she was struggling at school and it was an area where she knew she could be successful.
“I could do the horse shows and I could be successful there. I had good relationships with horses, which not a lot of kids had,” Thode said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to carry over to give me the confidence I needed to ignore the bullies and ignore my own self-esteem but at least I made it through and my depression did not go as far as trying to commit suicide.”
Sometimes the teens who struggle with these thoughts the most are the ones people would least suspect, according to Thode.
“It’s interesting that a lot of the suicide numbers, a lot of the individuals, the kids, they’re ones you would never ever suspect. They have a lot going for them,” Thode said. “They have college scholarships. They’re on the honor roll. They are the it kids, yet their lives inside, from what they see, they can put on a good show, but inside they still struggle with these insufficiencies of self-esteem.”
Thode said when she brought the book to the publishers, she was asked what was out there on the market that was similar to her book. She replied there were very few books like hers.
“There are books that mention suicide, there are some the story comes after the suicide has happened,” Thode said. “There weren’t any in either secular or Christian genres that actually dealt with a young person’s experience and process of going from depression into despair to ‘there’s no point in me living anymore’ and actually making a suicide attempt.”
Thode said there are many books that deal with the after effects of a loved one committing suicide, but she wanted to write a different kind of story.
“I am much more invested in prevention,” Thode said. “Trying to interrupt the downward progression, the mental process that gets any person to the point where they decide they don’t matter enough to even live anymore.”
Thode incorporated some of the mental health tools she would use into the novel hoping that teens reading the book can use the techniques for themselves.
“Our feelings lie all the time and it’s a good idea to challenge our feelings if you are feeling like you don’t matter,” said. “Instead of letting that feeling sit there and grow until it overwhelms your whole emotional viewpoint, challenge it. Is that really the truth?”
“Riptide” is the first of what Thode plans as a three-book series, called “Do I Matter,” following Sara as she grows up. “Riptide” was published in July 2024 and Thode said she is currently writing book two and has book three outlined.
“Sara starts out as a junior in high school. In the second book, she is a senior in high school so she and her friends are figuring out what they want to do,” said. “The third book she has started college. Each book has the same core characters.”
Thode said her third book is about sexual abuse. She said she has saved it for last because she thinks it is going to be hard to write because she has been through sexual abuse herself.
“The percentages of teens who either are going through sexual abuse of some kind or have as a young child are staggering,” Thode said.
The “Do I Matter” series is set in modern times, but 73-year-old Thode has enlisted the help of others to better write for a younger audience.
“I have a niece who is a high school teacher in Issaquah and she is my slang advisor,” said. “I’ve tried to keep it as contemporary as I can because that’s my audience I want to reach, the kids now.”
“Riptide” is available on Amazon as either an e-book or paperback. Thode also has a website for the series, doimatter.org, which has resources for parents and teens who are struggling.
Her website also touches on equine therapy and its benefits. Thode said she wishes she had been younger when the therapy technique was developed to be trained as an equine therapist herself.
“If I still had a horse and I was younger, I would definitely do that,” Thode said. “There are equine therapist groups around Enumclaw that are available. I would recommend any teen go that route.”
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