Vulnerability and winter. What the short days open in children.

Vulnerability isn't weakness — it is the gateway to connection. In my clinic in Vienna, the months of February and March produce the most emotionally open conversations with children and families. The short days, the cold, the contained domestic life — these create the conditions for the interior conversation that summer's expansion doesn't allow.

My children are more willing to talk about difficult things in February than in July. I have watched this consistently enough that I now treat February as a clinical window.

The February window for the interior conversation is not indefinite. By April, the spring energy has returned and the inwardness has lifted. What is available in February — the particular openness that comes from reduced external stimulation — is a seasonal resource. Use it now. This is the specific thing that produces the change. The change comes from the practice. The practice comes from the decision to try it once, this week, in the ordinary moment that is already available. This is the specific thing that produces the change. The change comes from the practice. The practice comes from the decision to try it once, this week, in the ordinary moment that is already available. This is the specific thing that produces the change. The change