Set and setting
Set and setting are the two conditions around a session: your inner state, and the environment you are in.
Set and setting is a phrase for the two things that shape a session beyond the treatment itself. Set is what you bring: your mood, your expectations, your intention, what happened that morning, how safe you feel. Setting is where it happens: the room, the people, the sound, the sense of privacy.
The phrase is old and widely used, and its usefulness is that it names the conditions as conditions. They are not the active ingredient, and they are not irrelevant either.
Between sessions, set and setting is the part you can actually prepare. You cannot decide what a session will produce. You can decide whether you arrive rushed, and whether the room you are in is one you can speak in.
It is worth being honest about the limits. Attending to set and setting can improve the odds and the comfort. It does not determine the outcome, and a difficult session in good conditions is not evidence that something was done wrong.