This plant was given to us about 10 years ago, and over the years it has gradually reached about 9' in height. Unfortunately I don't know what it is, maybe identifying it is the first step.
(I looked through some lists of "palms" and houseplants (1, 2) but didn't recognize it. Probably "palm" is completely wrong...)
For most of that time all the leaves were at the top, but in the last few years the lower bunch of leaves sprouted for some reason as well. Maybe this is fortuitous...
We're thinking of cutting it back just above that lower leaf bunch - but I'm unsure if that would be harmful to the plant. Or if not necessarily harmful, how to do it safely?