Jacqueline Sheehan Character Analysis

Jacqueline Sheehan, a New York Times best selling author and psychologist from Florence Massachusetts, was born on January 8th. When she was young, her father died of a heart attack and later in her life her ex-husband was killed in a motorcycling accident. During college Sheehan studied anthropology and art, and then after the birth of her daughter she went and got a Phd in psychology and worked at counseling centers. She started to write around the same time she starting becoming a counselor ("Jacqueline Sheehan”).
Although she spent 20 years of her life living in western states, hiking, climbing, and spending lots of time out in the wilderness, she will always be a die-hard New Englander. During her time out west she met her husband and

Rocky’s neighbor on the island was a girl and her mother. The girl, Melissa, was a high school track and cross country runner. In Rocky’s life before the death of her husband she was a psychologist, so right from the second she saw melissa she knew she was anorexic. Sheehan once wrote: "My training in psychology is integral to my writing in understanding motivation, which is at the core of character development," the author observed. "I use this knowledge with every single character, but one example is Melissa, a teenage girl in Lost & Found. She was struggling with anorexia and was successful at keeping it a secret until Rocky arrived on Peaks Island. I worked with hundreds of girls with eating disorders over the last 20 years, and they taught me about the power of eating disorders." (Jacqueline Sheehan)
Because Sheehan is a psychologist she was able to use her knowledge and work in people like Melissa. Melissa began to take Cooper on walks when Rocky needed her to. She became so fond to the dog that she took time off from running just to be with the dog. Seeing how determined and hopeful he was helped her realize she needed to quit being anorexic. With the help of a friend, Melissa was able to heal in a different way than Rocky. Companions, especially dogs, help heal