What would you like to see here?

A thread for article ideas

We’re in a massive heat wave at the moment, and I’ve noticed my capacity to brain has diminished significantly. An old friend who visited me yesterday lives in Louisiana, and she told me she’d embraced the idea of siesta: she sleeps 5-6 hours, wakes early, works until it’s too hot, then sleeps a couple hours in the afternoon. I don’t know that Puritan Boston would ever embrace such a custom, but it’s beginning to seem like wisdom if this heat is what we can expect going forward.

Regardless, the point is the heat makes it hard to think. I have plenty of draft seeds in my sidebar: they say wonderful things like “There is no such thing as selective numbing,” and “Narrativizing experience,” and “Repetition compulsion.” I’m terribly interested in all of these subjects, but at the moment they all sound like they expect me to write treatises on particle physics, and I am just not up to that when it’s 90 degrees.

For that reason among others, I would like to solicit you, my readers, as to what you’d like to see in this space.

Since January of this year, this Substack has been largely a place for me to write about my thoughts on therapy and being a therapist, trauma responses, self-care, and self-expression.

In time—that is, when I have what feels like a reasonable draft—I’d like to serialize the novel I’m working on in this space, putting out a chapter a week alongside regular posts. (At that point I would probably also start offering paid subscriptions, for those who want to support me in that way; I likely wouldn’t paywall much, though.)

But for now, I’d love to hear what you would like, and how I can better engage and involve you. Some of my own ideas include:

• Running an occasional advice column

• Answering questions you have about therapy, trauma, or my practice

• Guest posts!

• Flash fiction / essays based on writing prompts from you

Any of this could be done as anonymously or as openly as you wish.

If you have any ideas or burning questions, please go ahead and comment here, or hit up my inbox! If you already receive this newsletter in your email, you can reply to it directly if you’re not comfortable commenting publicly.

And as always, if you like what you see here, please invite a friend to subscribe, and/or share this post. I’d like to continue the slow growth of my readership (perhaps a little less slowly), and you helping me to both shape and share this space is much appreciated!