21/02/2025
You walk into the therapy room, exhaling as you settle onto the couch. Maybe you adjust a cushion, shift in your seat, take a breath that doesnât quite land the way you want it to. The room is quiet in that way therapy rooms areâsoft, steady, waiting.
You thought youâd talk about work stress, or how you havenât been sleeping well. But somewhere in between, you pause. A name slips out. A story you havenât told in years. A memory arrives uninvited, like an old song playing in the background of a moment that was supposed to be about something else.
And suddenly, the room feels more crowded than it is.
Itâs strange, isnât it? How certain people stay with you, even when theyâre long gone. How their absence still takes up space. How unfinished conversations follow you into places they donât belongâmornings in the shower, late nights when you should be asleep, therapy sessions where you thought you had other things to talk about.
You hesitate. Glance down. Shift in your seat.
"I donât even know why Iâm talking about this."
But we both know thatâs not true.
Because this is the conversation youâve been having for yearsâjust never out loud. In sleepless nights. In the texts you almost send. In the way your body tenses when something reminds you of a person you claim not to think about anymore.
So, we slow down.
Sometimes, you laugh, half-annoyed at yourself for still feeling something. Sometimes, you explain it awayâ"Itâs just a random thought." Sometimes, you go quiet.
Not all conversations need words.
Because this isnât about why the memory showed upâitâs about what it feels like to sit with it. To notice how it lingers. To feel the weight of what was left unsaid.
The hardest conversations are often with the people who arenât in the room.
And sometimes, in this space, something shifts. Not in a grand, life-changing way. But maybe, for the first time, you notice how tightly youâve been holding on. Maybe you say something youâve never said before. Maybe you just sit with it, instead of pushing it away.
And that, sometimes, is enough.