Some you speak. Some you write.
All of them count.
Speak the conversations that matter out loud with an AI companion. Write the inner work — slowly, on your own. Stay with one thread for a week or two when you're ready to go deeper.
The conversations with other people
Have the talk, before you have it.
The hard conversation with your partner. The boundary with your mother. The feedback for the colleague who keeps interrupting you. The apology you've been putting off.
Pick a scenario. Speak to an AI companion who responds like a real person — words, tone, expression. They push back when a real person would. They go quiet when you'd want them to.
Afterwards, feedback on more than your words. How you said it. The tone you reached for. What your face did. Where you raced through the part you didn't want to say.
The conversations with yourself
Sit with what you're carrying.
The thought you can't put down. The feeling you can't quite name. The part of yourself you're trying to understand. The grief you keep walking past.
A guided practice walks you through it — sometimes a daily check-in, sometimes a deeper structure (IFS, self-compassion, working with shame). Five or ten minutes. On the train, in bed, at lunch. As quiet or as deep as you need it to be.
Why laddering
Step 3 of 5
And underneath that — what would it mean about you if it were true?
When you're ready
Pick a program and stay with it.
A week or two of small daily sessions, designed to build one thing — knowing yourself, harder conversations, parenting from the parent you want to be. One a day. They build on each other.