times like these, naming the dynamic can help. You put on the table as a topic for discussion what you see happening in the conversation itself. In a sense, you are acting as your own “conversation doctor,” diagnosing the problem and prescribing a way back to health. These kind of diagnoses, and suggestions, sound like this: I’ve noticed that we keep running out of time whenever we start talking about this. Maybe we should designate an hour when we can both really focus on this and address it then.
