If you have read this far you are probably weighing up whether to send the email. I know that part is the hardest, so let me take a few unknowns off the table.

You do not need to arrive with the story organised. You do not need a diagnosis, a reason that sounds serious enough, or a plan for what you want out of it. Plenty of people start with nothing more precise than something is off.

I will not be taking notes at you across a desk. The first call is fifteen minutes, it is free, and its only job is to work out whether I am the right person. If I am not — because of what you need, or my availability, or the fit — I will say so on that call and send you two or three names I would trust with someone I love.

And if you decide, after all this, that now is not the time: that is a legitimate answer. The door does not close.