The session began with a friendly warm greeting, but post that Ritesh was reluctant to share. I tried to reassure him that he was in a safe space where he need not worry about judgement.

He then slowly spoke about a lack of purpose in his life, especially given some of the setbacks he had gone through both professionally and personally. He expressed feelings of frustration and sadness at not being able to turn things around, despite his best efforts. He further went on to share that having a raison d'être (reason for being) might help him avoid thinking about his current predicament.

We delved into his past to try and identify occasions, moments or events where he did feel a sense of purpose.

We discussed his passions to identify how we could help build his sense of purpose around those areas of interest.

We continued to explore possibilities in order to help him step out of his comfort zone and Ritesh seemed excited to push his boundaries.

Despite the excitement however, he also made certain negative statements expressing that he did not have the requisite skills or resources to take up these new activities. So we started to work on the list and find his strengths along the way.