Step Into My Sessions: Sitting with Ideas a Little Longer

Sometimes the pause is where the thinking happens.

Over the past 11+ years, these weekly newsletters have often been a place where I share whatever I’ve been thinking about or trying in my sessions.

Lately, I’ve been noticing a shift.

There are certain ideas I keep returning to: ideas around social cognition, language, and how our understanding continues to evolve. 🪴 About mental state verbs and play.

I’ll introduce something in a newsletter and then find myself thinking, there’s so much more here…

💡 I’m realizing that I want to stay with those ideas a little longer. To follow them over time. To see how they show up across different students. To connect these thoughts to other work in our and related fields, and to what we’re noticing every day in sessions.

I’m not exactly sure what this will look like yet, but it feels like an important direction for me.

My therapy observation this week struck a similar chord.

A student gave a quick answer, and another immediately said, “No, that’s not right.” 🙅‍♂️

🤔 I slowed down the exchange: “Hold on…Let’s stay with that idea for a second.”

At first, it felt a little uncertain—like we were hovering without a clear direction. But then the student added to his original thought. And then adjusted it. Another student chimed in. It wasn’t about getting to the “right” answer. It was about giving the idea a little more time to take shape. 🧠✨

👉 And I found myself thinking… this is the same kind of shift I’ve been noticing in my own work lately. Coming back to an idea. Looking at it again. Letting it expand a bit before deciding what I think.

Reflective moment

Are there ideas in your own work that might be worth returning to—and sitting with a little longer?

I’m sensing summer creeping up – are you? 🌞