dr. em

Therapy has gotten crazy these days. In this mini-comic, Alison enters a futuristic Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy pod and traces her day-to-day stress through her bodily memory back to her original trauma: being abandoned by her birth family in China as a newborn. In this tender space, she offers herself what she needed as a newborn and finds new compassion for her adoptive mother. It was created for Mad Dog Studio’s Chinese Adoptee Cookbook, a collection of recipes and narratives from Madeleine Conover, Jillian Hammer, Katie Mongoven, Ari Zuaro, Allie Carl, Talia Connelly, and Mia Kaplan.

This nine page mini-comic was traditionally drawn and digitally colored in 2025. Click images to enlarge.