Notes From the In-Between

career coaching

A Workbook for Reflection

This is not a journal for healing.
It’s for the time when healing language doesn’t fit… yet.

Notes From the In-Between was created for the moments when the body interrupts life. It was written with hospitalization and acute medical disruption in mind. Thus, it does not ask you to find meaning.
It does not push you toward gratitude or growth.
It explicitly allows feelings of unfinishedness and a place to put what is happening.

Inside the Journal

It moves through eight themes. It is designed like territories you return to as needed:

When Everything Shifted — naming what changed
Body, Space, and Sensory Noise — what your body is experiencing, without analysis
Autonomy, Dignity, and Boundaries — what you still get to decide
Waiting, Fear, and the Unknown — the emotional weight of not knowing
Who I Am in the Middle of This — your identity when your roles disappear
Support, Dependence, and Presence — the complicated reality of needing others
Advocacy, Needs, and Small Orientations — what you need, and how to ask for it
What Remains — a closing space, not a conclusion

You can write one word. You can draw a line across the page and stop. You can close it mid-sentence.

The Origin

In between 2025 and 2026, Ariel was admitted to the hospital. Not once, but twice in the midst of the holidays. Navigating a mysterious internal bleeding, medical uncertainty, and the internal noise (worry, fear, frustration…) that naturally followed.

But what she needed (and didn’t have) was somewhere to put the thoughts that weren’t yet ready to be shared. A space that could hold her in that moment, without demanding anything in return.

Notes From the In-Between is what she would have wanted beside her.

It was completed with the help of her nursing family members — Tita Patti and her aunt Deb — and offered now in the hope that it becomes that soft landing for someone else.

Who Is This For?

Anyone whose body has interrupted their life.

Anyone sitting in a waiting room, a hospital bed, a treatment chair, or a quiet room at home waiting for the reality of a sudden medical change to land.

Anyone who needs a place to put what is already happening — without being told what to do with it.

This journal was also created with caregivers in mind. If someone you love is going through something, this is something you can offer.