“I was going to book a session, but I need to get my thoughts together first.”
What would you need to organise?
The decision you keep postponing? The three possibilities that all sound interesting? The situation you can explain perfectly until somebody asks what you want to do about it?
You can bring those.
You can also bring the version that starts with, “This might take a moment to explain.”
I would rather begin there than ask you to prepare a polished account that leaves out the part you actually need help with.
Start with something that happened
If you don’t know where to begin, choose a recent moment.
You opened an email and closed it without answering.
Someone asked about your plans, and you heard yourself giving an answer you weren’t sure you meant.
You looked at your week and realised that the thing you wanted to work on had no place in it.
A specific moment gives us somewhere to start asking questions.
What needed your attention? What did you do? Which part is still occupying your thoughts?
We can work from what you remember. You do not need to arrive with an explanation for all of it.
Give me your words
Perhaps you describe yourself as “stuck.”
I would like to understand what that means in your day.
Are you choosing between options? Unsure how to begin? Trying to make room for something alongside existing commitments?
Those situations may feel similar when you are thinking about them alone. They give us different things to explore.
You can say, “I keep changing my mind,” without deciding in advance that you lack confidence.
You can say, “I don’t want to continue doing this,” even if you have no replacement plan yet.
Your own description is a useful starting point. We can examine it together.
What would make the conversation useful?
You may want to leave with a decision.
You may need to understand your options well enough to investigate one of them.
Perhaps there is a conversation to prepare, a question to answer or a first attempt to organise.
We can discuss that at the beginning of the session. It gives the work a purpose without expecting you to know the outcome before we have started.
Sometimes the useful result is quite specific: knowing what information you need and how you will get it.
That can change what you do tomorrow.
A few notes are enough
If you like preparing, write down three things:
What keeps coming back to mind?
What have you already tried?
What would you like help thinking through?
A sentence for each is enough. Leave room for the details that occur to you while we talk.
And if your opening sentence is still, “I’m not sure where to start,” we can start with that.
Silvia
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