Rebuild the missing context
Assume the recipient will not remember every date, promise, or earlier conversation. For a message about how to ask your partner to try couples counseling, use this factual base: name the current pattern, concrete impact, and decision that needs both partners' attention.
Say what needs to happen next
State the decision, information, or practical action you need and include a real deadline only when one exists. Ask for a time and format to discuss one issue, then identify any outside support that could help. Make the immediate next step clear enough that the recipient can answer without reconstructing the entire history.
Avoid making urgency into pressure
Do not threaten abandonment, use intimacy as leverage, or demand an answer during an unsafe or heated moment. Use specialist domestic abuse or emergency support when coercion, violence, stalking, or immediate danger is present. Do not make the other person responsible for reducing the discomfort that prompted you to write.