Before each session.

1. The day before

The single biggest difference between a session that goes deep and one that doesn't is whether you arrive rested and unrushed. Give yourself room the day before.

Concretely:

• Sleep. Seven to nine hours the night before, ideally without the help of a sleep aid you don't normally take.
• Hydration. Water and electrolytes through the day. Coffee is fine; stop by mid-afternoon.
• Skip alcohol from the night before through the day after — and any recreational substance the day of. Marijuana, psychedelics (including microdosing), and prescribed medications that affect mood, sleep, or attention all belong in your intake disclosures per /policies §13, not in the prep window. If something changed since intake, tell me before we begin.
• Eat well. A real dinner the night before, not just snacks. Lighter food the day of (see §2).
• Don't pack your evening. A quiet evening the night before lets you arrive rested — an early morning the next day is fine, a late night out is not.

2. The hour before

The 60–90 minutes before a session are the hand-off from daily life into session presence. The goal isn't to be empty; it's to be settled.

• Eat a light meal an hour or two before. Heavy food during a long session pulls energy you'll want for the work. Skipping food makes it harder to settle — low blood sugar adds fog to a session that wants clarity.
• Drink water — then use the bathroom right before we start. The session runs three hours.
• Close the laptops, mute the phones. The transition from screen-mode into session-mode benefits from a few minutes without input.
• Arrive in your body. A short walk, some stretching, a few slow breaths with your feet on the floor — anything that brings your attention out of your head and into the body that's going to do the work. Even five minutes helps.
• Don't try to plan the session. The intention work in §5 is enough; arriving with a script tends to close the door I'm hoping you'll open.

3. Setting up your space (remote sessions)

For remote sessions on Google Meet, your space matters as much as mine. The session lasts three hours and the work goes deep, so the place you're in needs to hold you well.

What works:

• A comfortable chair or couch you can stay in for three hours without shifting. A recliner is great. A desk chair is not.
• Privacy. No one walking through; pets confined elsewhere if they're the interrupting kind. A "do not disturb" note on the door if you live with people.
• Room temperature on the cool-warm side. Have a blanket within reach — some clients get cold during the work.
• Soft lighting. Not bright overhead, not a backlit window. A lamp is ideal.
• The device on a stable surface at face level. Not in your lap, not propped on a pillow. Camera framing from chest up.

Tech check:

• Wired internet if possible; if not, sit close to the router. We don't want the connection dropping mid-session.
• Headphones strongly recommended — earbuds or over-ear, your choice. They make my voice land directly and shut out the rest of the room.
• Notifications off. Phone in another room or face-down on do-not-disturb.

If something goes wrong with the tech mid-session, I'll pause and we'll work it out — but the goal is for that not to happen.

4. What to bring (in-person sessions)

For in-person sessions at the studio in Austin, bring less than you'd think:

• Water, with a lid. The studio has water too, but you may want your own.
• Layers. The room sits cool to start and we may adjust during the session; a sweater or light jacket means you can self-regulate.
• Comfortable, loose clothes. Nothing tight at the waist or neck. Socks are fine; shoes off during the session.
• Whatever helps you feel grounded — a small object, a photo, a token. Not required; mentioned because some clients find it useful.

What's already at the studio: a couch you'll settle into for the work, blankets, pillows, an eye mask if you prefer one, tissues, water, and a bathroom. You don't need to bring much.

The address comes with your booking confirmation and is also on the practice website. Come a few minutes early if you'd like to settle before we begin.

5. Setting an intention

An intention is not a goal. A goal is "I want to stop being anxious"; an intention is "I'd like to learn something about why anxiety shows up when it does." The first is something to be solved. The second is something to be in.

Spend a few minutes the day before or the morning of the session — feet on the floor, a few slow breaths, attention down out of your head — and let one or two questions surface:

• What's the thing I'd most want to understand about the way I'm moving through life right now?
• What pattern have I noticed that I can't quite name?
• If something shifted by the end of this work, what would feel different?

Write the answers down or don't; it's the asking that matters, not the artifact. You can also bring nothing — sessions where the client arrives empty and lets what's already underneath surface tend to go just as deep as sessions with a pre-set intention.

What I'd ask you not to do: rehearse what you want the session to be. The work is more interesting than the rehearsal.

From here, the arc continues. /during covers what to expect inside each session — the space, the structure of the three hours, the state, what's normal to notice. /after covers the integration window in the days following. Read in order before your first session; return to either whenever it helps.

6. If something comes up before then

Between now and the session, if something needs sorting out — a question about the recording, a scheduling issue, a change in how you're feeling, anything — reach me.

Email is best for anything that doesn't need an immediate answer: hello@alexnegrete.com. I respond within one to two business days. Text is fine for time-sensitive things: (512) 960-3089.

If you get sick or something significant changes about how you're feeling — flu, a bad cold, a new acute concern — text me and we'll reschedule. Three hours of focused work doesn't go well when your body is fighting something. The reschedule rules in /policies §3 apply, with reasonable flexibility for illness.

If you're running late on the day of, text the practice number. The lateness rules in /policies §2 apply — past 15 minutes the session is forfeit, so the earlier you can flag it, the more options we have.

If something serious comes up — a mental-health crisis, an emergency — please don't wait on me. Call or text 988 (the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room. /policies §10 has the full crisis framing.