Maybe you’ve never gone to therapy before, or you’re starting with a whole new therapist. Either way, the thought of a first session can be nerve-racking with the unknowns. That’s where this article comes in, to help shed some light on what to expect in that first session!
To start us off, there are some administrative topics that I will need to review with you. You will be sent an intake form before the session, so please have this filled out to the best of your ability beforehand and bring any questions you have about the form with you to our first meeting. This form is also super important for me to be able to review before our session to see if there are any areas I might need some clarification on and what topics might be beneficial for us to focus on in our sessions.
For the majority of our first session, though, we are focusing more on getting to know you and why you’re seeking therapy. Depending on the type of therapy you’re seeking (regularly recurring versus as-needed), we may be able to dig into some treatment in this session, or we may not. This is something that you and I would discuss at the beginning so that we can set the intention for the session ahead. Some of the topics I typically discuss with folks in the first session include:
· Childhood/what it was like growing up,
· Your relationships with people around you then and now,
· What sort of challenges you would like to address in therapy,
· When you started to notice these challenges and what you’ve been doing to manage them until now,
· What your daily life looks like now.
Some topics might feel overwhelming, and that’s okay. At this point in our sessions we can slowly move through these topics at your speed, or take a pause from that topic for another time. This might also sound like a lot of information, and that’s because it is! There is so much that goes into who you are, so if we don’t get through all of this information in the first session, that’s okay! We just aim to cover as much as we can and go from there to discuss the rest another day, depending on our goal for this first session.
This is also the time for questions. I’ll likely be asking you some questions to gain a deeper understanding of you, and I invite you to ask any questions that you have about myself or even therapy in general. I aim to create a safe space for my clients to feel comfortable asking their questions and explore whatever topics are needed for your healing journey to progress.
The last part of our session includes making overall goals for therapy, or what changes you would like to see come from your therapy sessions. If you don’t really have a goal in mind, that’s okay! We can work together to address themes that may have come up in this session. The great thing about this goals list is that it grows with us; we can add to this list as more themes arise, and we can strike items from the list as you reach those goals. This first session would also see us discussing a treatment plan moving forward to help you work toward those goals before the end of the meeting.
Essentially, the first session is mainly about us meeting each other to see if we’ll be a good fit for one another, for me to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that brought you to therapy and of you overall, and for us to make a plan for moving forward from there with goals and a treatment plan. I have heard so many people tell me that they hesitated to start therapy because they were nervous and didn’t know what to expect from that first session. Being nervous about the unknown is completely understandable! Those same people, though, also told me that they would have started therapy a lot sooner if they knew it wasn’t going to be scary and overwhelming, rather than continuing to struggle on their own because therapy was an unknown. If you have been struggling with some challenges on your own for this reason, I hope this article shines a bit of a light on what to expect and encourages you to take that first step in your healing journey by booking an appointment!
