Starting therapy is often harder than the therapy itself — mostly because nobody quite knows what's supposed to happen in that first meeting or how to be vulnerable in front of a complete stranger. Where to start and what to say, so here’s a brief guide to understanding what to expect from your first session and what to look out for.
The first session is for you to analyse if you like the therapist’s approach towards you. The relationship you form with the therapist is of utmost importance to your progress and it’s imperative that you find a therapist that you feel comfortable with. You’ll feel nervous in your first session, and you’ll have to see how seen or comforted you feel by the therapist. Some clients know what they want to talk about, some want direction with what to talk about first, you're also welcome to ask me anything too — about how I work, my experience with a particular issue, or what a typical course of therapy looks like.
In the first session, we discuss the issues that are bringing you to therapy, and what areas of your life concern you. In the last 15 minutes of the session we together collaborate to finalise a few therapy goals that we’d want to work on. This practice helps us to streamline our work and your progress. Setting goals in the first session is not a mandatory practice, if clients require the outcome of our work to be more open ended, it’s an option that I prefer as well.
At the end, we'll talk honestly about fit. Not every therapist is right for every person, and that's fine — if it doesn't feel right, I'm glad to point you toward someone who might be a better match.
We'll agree on a rhythm, usually weekly to start, and set a loose sense of what we're working toward, what our therapy goals are— even if that shifts as we go. The rest unfolds session by session.
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