Why There's No Second Appointment

Here is the promise underneath everything I do: I am not trying to see you again next month. I know what it costs — years of it, not just money — to leave a room having been soothed rather than actually met, the same ache wrapped a little more prettily each time, guaranteed to loosen again right on schedule. That isn't always intended. Sometimes an entire industry simply grows comfortable keeping women almost well, forever, because almost well keeps returning. I have no interest in almost. Some sessions take an hour. Some unfold over days, because certain things in a woman's life were never going to resolve themselves quickly and deserve the time they ask for — not because I've turned her into something recurring. Either way, she leaves able to hear her own voice again without mine standing in front of it. That's the whole of it. I know I've done it right when she no longer needs me to.

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