Private · for Tannoz

Sean Chi — therapy brief

A living, one-page brief. Scan the 5-minute summary and the agenda up top; the rest is depth if you want it.

Updated Jun 28, 2026 · refreshes each session · next session: Fri Jul 3, 11:00am

The 5-minute brief
Where he's at this week. Everything below is reference.
Cover this session: the slow-grind / motivation dip first, then the accelerating Karla loop, who reopens it (both of them), insight vs behaviour, the mutual wall, and the body cost. Full agenda right below.

Since last session — Jun 16

The Karla close decided on Jun 16 was executed Jun 22, then collapsed within days; they're now functionally back together. The new thing since: a slow-grind, low-motivation dip (progress feels slow, no early wins) that's pulling sleep down hard, three nights up past 2–4am. On the plus side, a back-to-back prom + wedding gig weekend got delivered.

Last 2 weeks — Jun 16–28

The concrete stretch since the last session (sessions run about every 2 weeks): the close, the reopen, a back-to-back gig weekend, with sleep the casualty.

Last session's homework — did it land?

Session agenda — Jul 3

Next session: not booked yet

Roughly how he'd like to spend the 50 minutes (his own split). The aim this time is to not let Karla take the whole hour the way she takes his days, so she's the first thing to handle but capped at about 40%, with the money and body work getting the other ~60%. About 5 minutes up top just to reconnect before diving in.

  1. Reconnect — ~5 min (10%). A few minutes to land and set the frame before the work.
  2. Karla, the accelerating loop — ~18 min (36%). ★ the priority to handle, but boxed. The June 22 close held about a day, then reopened through faster and faster laps (≈28h, then ≈16h, then continuous); now functionally back together, pulled by both of them, no status talk. He can narrate the loop perfectly from inside it and still run it; she has named that they both wall up the second they feel something. Wants: what an accelerating cycle means, and one rule aimed at the shared loop, since neither of them holds the close.
  3. Execute or escape + the money — ~14 min (28%). The keystone: keep the money work consistent. The engine has shifted to his own web agency (warm closes) over cold sales, and the real remaining wall is smaller than it feels (about $7,300), a few web closes clear it. The slow-grind dip is what pulls him off it. Wants: how to keep the work first and steady when wins are slow and the dip and Karla both pull.
  4. Body + baseline — ~8 min (16%). Three nights up past 2–4am across the gig weekend wiped a sleep trend that had been climbing. Wants her read on how the wrecked baseline amplifies the Karla pull, and one sleep-floor move that actually holds this week.
  5. Re-aim + the win — ~5 min (10%). The Oct 10 win as he feels it (a real savings cushion, clarity on Karla, a baseline above average), one next step per area, and locking a standing weekly slot so he stops no-showing.

What's working

Snapshot

Season
Ottawa, Jun–OctThe "offense window." Winters in Medellin, Colombia.
North star
Debt cleared by Oct 10Fly back to Medellin able to choose, not survive.
The engine
Web agency + wedding DJDJ is the floor and on its own clears most of the debt as balances land; his own web-design agency is now the new-money lever. Commission sales reordered down to opt-in upside.
Right now
Karla reopened, grinding slowThe close didn't hold; slow progress, no early wins, up late.

Road to zero — the "why"

Total debt today vs the Oct 10 goal, the whole point of the Ottawa season. Paid down as wedding income and web-agency closes land.

$19.3k Jun 28 · today $0 Oct 10 · the goal Your balance clears ~Aug 15

11 creditors, 9 of them clear on booked DJ income alone; the last two (about $7,300) land as web-agency closes come in.

Body data — WHOOP (week of Jun 15–21)

From his fitIQ weekly report. This is the most recent week, so the rough Jun 25–28 nights aren't in it yet (the next report lands ~Jun 29).

Recovery
62%up from 50%
Sleep performance
76%up from 66%
Sleep consistency
65%up from 63%
Sleep debt
1h22mdown from 1h55m
HRV
49 msup from 46
Resting HR
56 bpmdown from 58

WHOOP trend — last 10 reported weeks

Recovery and sleep performance, week over week, from his fitIQ weekly reports (mid-March to now). Higher is better; both rise and dip with sleep and training load. A few weeks have no report and are simply skipped.

Where Sean is now — the detail

About a month back in Ottawa after wintering in Medellin. The early re-entry "video-game-tier" dissociation has eased, but the body floor has not held. Sleep has slid badly, three straight nights up past 2–4am over the last week, and he names the mechanism plainly: he stays up late and games when he doesn't think there's something good waiting tomorrow. He's clear it isn't real hopelessness, it's that everything feels grindingly slow with no early wins, which saps the motivation and the sleep. The gym is still lapsed, the family home (his dad's friction with his brother) is a background trigger, and the deeper "nothing to look forward to" dip is a pattern he can describe precisely.

The biggest shift since the last session is Karla. The clean, definitive close he had decided on did happen on June 22, and then it did not hold. In the days since it reopened and ran through several fast breakup-then-reconnect laps, pulled by both of them (he texted first one day, she called first the next, she messaged first the one after), and he is now functionally back in near-daily contact with her (mutual "I love you," shared gaming calls, no status conversation). The striking part, in his own words, is that he can narrate the loop accurately while he is inside it and still not change it.

The deliberate frame over all of it is unchanged: this Ottawa stretch funds his return to Medellin on October 10 with the debt cleared, landing able to choose instead of survive. Income runs on two engines, and the second one was just reordered. Wedding DJ work is the floor (largely booked, a back-to-back prom + wedding weekend just done) and on its own it clears most of the debt as balances land, so the only piece left to solve is a smaller wall (about $7,300). The new-money lever for that is now his own web-design agency, the same high-ticket skill he actually enjoys and will run, where a few small closes clear what DJ can't reach. Commission sales has been reordered down to opt-in upside, since the cold-calling version of it never fit him and produced nothing. The avoidance pattern is the usual one: he builds and organizes (the fun dopamine) instead of the scary-simple money task, which is now closing the warm web deals in front of him. He already knows his "higher self"; the gap isn't knowing, it's falling out of it when the wins are slow to come.

People you'll hear about

Session history

Leave Sean a note

Anything between sessions, a reflection, a piece of homework, a nudge. It's emailed to Sean so it reaches his inbox.

After our session — clinical note

Jun 16, 2026 · draft for your review

1. What we talked about

First in-person session after the client's return to Ottawa (~2 weeks back from Medellin, where he winters). Presented mildly dissociated, "video-game-tier" unreal, low sleep. He set the agenda himself: a relationship piece and an identity / purpose piece for his personal operating document.

  • Relationship (Karla): long-distance on-again-off-again, highly conflictual. The recent Colombia trip ran on repeated arguments alongside intimacy, then a steady cycle of block / unblock / break up / apologize / re-contact. Named a fearful-avoidant push-pull: she withdraws when she doesn't get her way, he tolerates poor treatment, each relies on the other for regulation rather than healing. Recognizes it as toxic and unsustainable across distance, but reports difficulty letting go, partly jealousy and fear of her connecting with others.
  • Identity / purpose: questioning the "why" of the Ottawa chapter and the identity needed to hit his October goals, zero debt with a cushion, health at baseline, a settled relationship. Worked it from strengths first rather than deficit.
  • Mood / functional: sleep sliding (2–3am), late-night gaming as dopamine-seeking, gym lapsed, inconsistent work motivation. Described a recurring low dip ("fuck it, nothing to look forward to") that lands specifically when progress is slow and Medellin feels far off. Named his living environment (family home, father–brother conflict) as the same setup that preceded a hard prior summer.
  • Strengths he named: better out-of-work productivity, more organized space, non-zero work output, improved self-talk around the family negativity, earning more than he did abroad.

No safety concerns noted at this June 16 session: no suicidal ideation, intent, or plan expressed or implied. (Note for next session: between sessions he has named frustration with slow progress and no early wins, sapping motivation; he is clear it is not hopelessness. Flagged in the agenda to revisit Jul 3.)

2. Methods and techniques

  • Psychoeducation on codependency and enmeshment (the "umbilical cord / band-aid over a wound" metaphor; the supervised-detox analogy, you don't sober someone in a room full of the substance, for why separation must precede any reconciliation).
  • Strengths-first reframe: started from "what are you happy with" before examining what needs to change.
  • Values / purpose clarification via Socratic questioning (why Ottawa, why the money) to surface purpose before any behavioral planning.
  • Externalizing / parts-informed framing (the known "higher self" vs the protective coping part driving the avoidance).
  • Reframe of the current circumstance as purposeful and time-limited (booked income, low overhead, a hard October end date) rather than a regression.
  • Environmental / behavioral design, environment as the lever over willpower, with a concrete guardrail plus a contingency.

3. Plan and next steps

  • Relationship: agreed to move toward a respectful, definitive close; separation as the precondition for either to heal, even if reconciliation is the long-game hope. (Update: executed Jun 22, did not hold, now the live thread for Jul 3.)
  • Sleep / screen guardrail: hard computer cut-off at 11pm, then a treadmill walk with a video, then bed. Self-monitor whether he can disengage at the cut-off.
  • Contingency: if the cut-off fails, swap to a two-step alternative (planned social or the gym) over relying on willpower.
  • Work: keep it the clear first priority, protect it from health-hyperfocus, do the first dial block first, drop the elaborate morning routine that builds resistance.
  • Environment (revisit ~1 month): a co-working office once finances allow; interim, ask his father about using his St. Laurent office as a daytime workspace.
  • Body: pick a gym and start (knows how, just hasn't set it up).
  • Repayment: pay the balance in $170 chunks as money lands so receipts line up; target late July if commissions land, locked by late August on booked weddings.
  • Follow-up: next session reviews the guardrail, the relationship close, the office plan, and the slow-progress dip named since.

Clinical judgment stays yours. This note is auto-drafted from the session as a starting point for your records, not a substitute for your own assessment.

Repayment & forecast

The outstanding session balance, paid in steady chunks as money lands, with an update each time.

Paid so far—
Updates here as each chunk lands.
Fast path
—
if his sales commissions land
Safe path
—
booked wedding income alone

A good-faith chunk goes first to keep the in-person relationship clean, with the bulk clearing late July if commissions land and locked by late August on booked weddings alone. It sits inside the bigger arc: debt to zero by October 10.