Lieutenant Junior Grade Dr. Aaryn Sage McClain

Character Information:

Name: Dr. Aaryn Sage McClain

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Age: 33

Rank:

Post: Assistant Chief of Mental Health Sciences

Home: New York City, New York, Earth

Appearance:

Aaryn has pale skin, auburn hair and hazel eyes. While at work, she likes to wear her hair up, either with a clip or in a ponytail. At five feet, three inches tall and 120 lbs, she is of average build. She is not particularly athletic, but enjoys swimming to stay in shape.

Personality & Traits

General Overview:

Aaryn prides herself on being a down to earth and outgoing young woman who is not at all like the person her background might suggest. She’s always been a hard worker, but it’s only recently that she’s blossomed and found she’s truly passionate about her recent career choices.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Aaryn knows how to relate to a variety of people, regardless of their station in life. She also has a passion for her work that transcends her place in Starfleet, which helps her to keep her objectivity, even when what's right goes against Starfleet's best interests. Although outwardly she is very feminine (thanks to years of “good breeding”), deep down, she’s a bit of a tomboy. She likes to use this to her advantage, as most people don’t expect it based on her appearance and demeanor.

She’s never completely gotten over the insecurities she felt in childhood, but that’s something she’ll admit freely. Her relationship with her parents is more strained, thanks to a secret Aaryn discovered while writing her dissertation. She told no one of her discovery, and she is not sure she ever will, believing it would do no one any good after so much time has passed. The discovery helped to explain why she has always felt like an outsider, and she has been able to move on to a degree, but she is still uneasy. Her parents, when they bother to notice the distance between them, chalk it up to disinterest and a desire for independence.

She’s a straight-forward, no-nonsense woman, and her compassion for people can sometimes blind her to the harsh realities of her job.

Ambitions: Aaryn’s greatest ambitions are personal ones. She would love to marry and have a family someday.

Hobbies & Interests: Federation law, political science, and women’s health issues.


Background:

As far as Aaryn Sage knew, she was born to Vincent and Mara, at the time civilian
merchants who did business frequently with Starfleet. Both parents said they grew up in blue collar families in Boston, but the only thing she was told was they left as soon as they turned eighteen to pursue better lives for themselves in California. Aaryn would come to learn pursuing a better life, to them, actually meant pursuing wealth and prestige, and renouncing the Italian Catholic values they had grown up with. She knows very little about her extended family even today, something that bothers her tremendously.

As an only child, Aaryn wanted for nothing growing up. She attended the best schools and hung out with kids from the most elite social circles. Her parents loved doting on her and showing her off, and outwardly, Aaryn was the perfect daughter: intelligent, cultured, and confident. Inwardly, however, Aaryn felt awkward and shy. While her tall, blonde, and tanned classmates participated in pageants and cotillions, short, red haired, paler Aaryn was more of a tomboy, preferring basketball and reading.

Compounding her uneasiness was the fact that her parents were almost always too busy working to spend time with her. Left to her own devices much of the time, she tried to rebel the way she had seen her peers rebel, but skipping school, using drugs, and drinking were not really her thing, and she imitated her classmates simply to fit in. Unfortunately, her peers sensed this uneasiness and her awkwardness, and she was never really accepted, truly.

Aaryn’s feelings of isolation and feeling out of place ultimately sparked her interest in human nature and psychology. She found a measure of peace in being able to make sense of why people acted as they did in a clinical sense. Aaryn enjoyed studying specific concentrations within clinical psychology, including trauma recovery and forensic psychology, and often day dreamed of doing this sort of work. As much as Aaryn tried to keep herself emotionally detached as a means to cope with her lonely childhood, however, it was her maternal and empathetic nature that fueled her desire to become a therapist.

Her parents were, at best, ambivalent about her interests. They didn’t understand what being a psychologist was all about, let alone why she wanted to be one, but they loved their daughter and wanted to be supportive in the ways they could. She graduated the Pacific Hills Middle School/High School summa cum laude and immediately applied to Starfleet Academy. Her parents were perplexed at first, but then not so subtly eager about the opportunity they might have to increase their bottom line. Although Aaryn craved the approval and support, Aaryn stood firm.

Aaryn was pleased to discover the cliques she had faced in high school were not as prevalent at the Academy, and she thrived there, although she couldn’t help being a little insecure around so many others whose ancestors had been in Starfleet for generations. Her family’s status, on the periphery of Starfleet, but never part of the inner circle, gave her opportunities others did not have, but also made her an outsider and uncomfortable in her own skin.

She graduated from Starfleet Academy summa cum laude as a clinical psychologist with a concentration in forensic psychology. She went on to study psycho-pharmacology (the study of the application of medication to treat mental illness) at Starfleet Medical, where she had the opportunity to study under the best psychiatrists Starfleet Medical had to offer. Aaryn resisted the idea of pursuing medical school because she wanted the freedom to help clients therapeutically as well as with medication.

Building on the interests she first developed as a teen and young adult, Aaryn completed various internships which taught her more about criminal profiling, competency and forensic evaluations, and serving as an expert witness in court. As she learned more about these areas, she also became more exposed to victim’s issues, and providing counseling and advocacy to victims of trauma became a natural, and fitting, area of specialization given her interests and skills.

She has served as a psychologist and victim’s advocate for Starfleet JAG as well as a counselor aboard Heyerdahl Station and the USS Endeavor. When she learned the Academy’s Adjunct ship, the USS Normandie, was looking for an Assistant Chief of Mental Health Sciences to oversee the psychological well-being of the crew and mentor cadets, she quickly applied and was very excited to learn she’d been accepted.

Service Record:

2371 – 2377 Clinical Psychology Studies with a concentration in Forensic Psychology
Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, CA, Earth

2377 -2379 Psychopharmacology Studies
Starfleet Medical Academy, San Francisco, CA, Earth

2379 – 2383
Psychologist, Starfleet JAG Violent Crimes Division

2383 – 2386
Counselor, USS Endeavor

Present
Assistant Chief of Mental Health Sciences, USS Normandie