“Even the cynic within me finally believes in you, and trusts in it.”

H. is an analyst by temperament — a man who likes to predict, to simulate every moment before it arrives. Before our first session he googled me, researched the session specifics, and tried to work out in advance how to please me.

He’d also say he arrived the way many men do: “A lot of the time, men don’t go for guidance. They just try to tough it out. And when it doesn’t work out, you wonder if there’s a better way — but often you are in a wilderness, and you don’t know.”

He knew there could be a better way to lead a life he enjoyed living more. He was curious. And he was, by his own account, resistant.

The first session began with a glass of water. I asked if he wanted one, and he realized he was thirsty — “in my busyness of trying to predict what’s going to happen, I don’t think I drank water all day.” I had him pour it himself.

What followed was somatic inquiry — his first word for it was “bizarre,” his second was “surprising.” Later he found his own language for what it does: “I wanted to talk to myself. And you helped me establish the protocol on which to communicate.”

And I didn’t mince words with him — his phrase. When I named the “mad genius trope” he used to justify his behaviors: “It could be just a single statement, but the impact that unfolds from that statement into awareness was multitudes.”

The clearest shift is in his marriage. “Even yesterday, there was a remark that normally should have resulted in my feeling offended. I saw that comment from the time it reached my ear, to my brain, and then it talked to my heart — and the words that came out were completely different.”

The practices hold in the hard moments too: “It’s like you have a winch that you can engage in emergencies, that pulls you out — and you don’t have to keep digging.”

And the reach goes past him: “Whatever improvements I have had in my quality of life — equally significant is the quality of life that has improved for everyone around me.”

He’d be the first to say none of this was his natural territory: “I’m very dismissive of most of these practices — it’s just programmed into me. But even the cynic within me finally believes in you, and trusts in it.”

Who is it for? “Somebody who wants to be shown a path towards greater well-being — a person in a position where leadership is required, self-awareness is required. They don’t just need talk. They need practices. They need tools. The impact is immediate: from the first time through, there is unlocking, and you’re left with tools that you polish over time.”