What if I could try it first?

Some sessions end and keep following you home. Mine was a Thursday, with a client I'll call Chris. A pseudonym, of course.

The moment

Whenever we reached something uncertain, Chris would look at me and ask: "I'm thinking about this the right way, aren't I?" And I felt pressure to answer. The first time I did. The second time I did again, a little more hesitantly. By the end of the session I realised I had become the person who confirms his decisions, and I wasn't sure that was helping him.

Notes first

That evening I created a case with a pseudonym in My Cases and wrote down what happened, freely, without worrying about the wording. Then I pressed "Save & organise".

What interested me was that my original notes stayed exactly as I wrote them. Next to them I saw an organised version with a summary, main themes and open issues. The AI's hypotheses were marked "AI hypothesis" and kept apart from my own observations. I find that separation important: the AI suggests, I decide.

Among the open issues was a thought I hadn't put into words myself: that my answering might be part of the reassurance cycle.

Talking it through with the Mentor

In the Mentor tab I wrote down what was on my mind, as if thinking aloud: "I don't know whether I should answer or stay silent." I wasn't expecting a ready-made solution. I wanted to look at the question from another angle: what an answer would mean for Chris, what my silence would mean, what need sits behind "aren't I?".

It did not replace supervision. It helped me arrive at supervision clearer.

The phrase I wrote before I said it

Before the next session I wrote down, in my own words, two or three alternatives. The first: "I can see you want to be sure before we move on. What happens when you stay with the uncertainty?"

My first drafts sounded mechanical. I read them aloud, changed words, and kept the one that sounded like me. I brought it to supervision too.

What I took away

I don't know how the next session will go. No tool promises an outcome, for the client or for me. But I took away three things:

• I wrote the tension down instead of carrying it.
• I saw a pattern I hadn't seen during the session.
• I walked into the next session with an alternative ready, not hoping to find one in the moment.

A note on privacy

If you work with a real case, use a pseudonym and avoid identifiable details. TheraMentor is a training and practice environment, not clinical care.

Want to try something similar? In My Cases you can start with one case and a few notes.