Treat Clients
Clients, Grief Layers and Dreams; treating with Insights, Catharsis, Curing, Heart-Shaped Boxes, the Secondary Office Room and drafting new Clients.
Office Rooms
Each Client in your Office comes with:
- a Grief Layer — a clear card over the Client; its red line hides the Client’s effects and tags;
- a Latent Dream with a Manifest Dream laid over it — only the top one can be used;
- a Therapy track above the room, with a Therapy marker on it.
Your Primary Office Room (left) starts with a Client. The Secondary Office Room (right) is blocked by your Office Room card until your first Client reaches Catharsis (below).
Routine Clients (blue 1900–1903 tab) give ongoing effects and tags; Case-Study Clients (red 1904–1907 tab) give end-game scoring conditions. All of them: Cards.
Treating a Client
On a Treat Clients turn, treat one or both of your Clients, once each, in either order:
- Use the Insights shown on the Client’s top Dream to trigger it. Most Dreams give
Therapy points and something else — resolve them in any order. Bonuses you don’t
want can be skipped. - Move the Therapy marker one space left per Therapy point. Apply all the points the Dream gives — you can’t hold some back.
- Discard the Dream you used.
Matching icons
Some Manifest Dreams show 
, 
or 
in the corner.
If it matches the icon on the Client’s Grief Layer, gain a 
Heart-Shaped Box when you
use that Dream to treat the Client (not if the Grief Layer is already gone).
Catharsis
When the marker reaches or passes the 
space, score the points and trigger the
effects on the Grief Layer, then discard it. From now on the Client’s effects and tags (under the
red line) are active — even before it is Cured. The Victory Points printed on the Client itself are
scored only when Cured.
Removing the Grief Layer does not change the marker: the Client still needs the remaining Therapy points on the track.
Secondary Office Room
Every starting Grief Layer shows 
: at its Catharsis, discard your Office Room card.
At the end of this turn you draft a Client into the newly opened room.
Cured Clients
When the marker reaches the leftmost space, the Client is Cured: score the in-game Victory Points on the card and move it face up to your play area (its tags and effects stay active). Discard any Dreams still above its room. You fill the empty room at the end of your turn.
Heart-Shaped Boxes
You hold up to 3. You gain them from matching Dream icons, excess Therapy points,
effects, or by paying a Minor + Median + Major Insight at any time on your turn. At any time on
your turn you may also cash one for 2 VP — handy to make room before gaining more.
Don’t confuse them with Therapy points: those come only from Dreams and from
spending Heart-Shaped Boxes at the end of your turn.
End of turn
Optional: use Heart-Shaped Boxes
At the end of any turn, spend Heart-Shaped Boxes: each moves one Therapy marker one space left, with the usual Victory Points, Catharsis and Cure. Split them between Clients as you like. You can Cure a Client this way even with Dreams left — discard them unused.
Mandatory: draft new Clients
For each empty Office Room:
- Take a face-up Client (Routine or Case-Study) into the room and refill the display from the matching deck, with a random Grief Layer from the dispenser. If one deck runs out, refill from the other.
- Draw a Latent Dream face up above the room.
- Take a Manifest Dream from the display (then refill it) or the top of the deck, and lay it over the Latent Dream with its icons showing.
- Set the Therapy marker at the total Therapy points on the Client and its Grief Layer; score any Victory Points printed on that space.
[Nightmares] In step 3 you may take a Nightmare Dream instead of a Manifest Dream (Nightmare Dreams). [FreeAssoc] In step 2 you may draw an Illusion Dream instead of a Latent Dream (Illusion Dreams).
New Clients can’t receive Heart-Shaped Boxes on the turn they arrive. In the final round you don’t draft at all (End of the game).