Making Hard Choices

"I have to take care of my own things before I can help anyone else."
He isn't the first one to say this.  But my client was entering the office
just at the point of receiving a call from his  s.o., crying on the phone.
He was clearly concerned.  I said, "...you seem pre-occupied, do you want to call her back right now?"
He answered, as written above.
We proceeded and he called her back, immediately, at the conclusion of our session.