If you’re new to psychotherapy, you may not know what to expect during your first appointment. Maybe you are considering starting therapy and have no idea where to begin.
Your first session will definitely be different from future ones. The initial visit is meant for us- the client and therapist- to get to know each other and form a basis for future visits, which will be more therapeutic in nature.
Psychotherapy often requires multiple visits. You should not expect resolutions after the first day of therapy. Instead, it is about creating life-long solutions.
A few questions that may be asked during the first session:
- What are your symptoms?
- What brought you to therapy?
- What do you feel is wrong in your life?
- Some questions about your history, including your childhood, education, relationships (family, romantic, friends), your current living situation, and your career
What is Therapy/Counseling?
When you first come to therapy this is what you can expect:
You will get relief from what is most troubling you, although the problems are not gone or resolved; you will leave with a renewed sense of hope.
After being in therapy for a while this is what you can expect:
- It’s a place where you explore and discover your life more thoroughly and while doing this you develop more control over your life.
- During therapy you and your therapist will talk, but therapy is more about your thoughts, feelings and actions – looking at new perspectives, trying new ways of doing things, and making different choices.
- A therapist’s job is to work with you to examine your problems and help you understand what the underlying issue is, so that you learn new ways to think about things and as a result grow as an individual, couple or family.
- If in a major life crisis, a therapist will address that issue and support you through it providing direction and guidance.
- You will learn how to cope with life difficulties more effectively.
- You will be provided tools to help you learn to respond and act differently resulting in more rewarding outcomes.
- You will be challenged at times to sit with your feelings (i.e. anger, grief, sadness, fear) in order to learn more about yourself.
- You will learn that you need to determine your own worth and not allow other people’s judgments or criticisms to undermine you or your opinions.
- Therapy is a business relationship – I am not your friend, your lover, your partner, your mother, your child, etc. A therapist is a professional who is trained to listen to your thoughts/feelings, assist you to assess your circumstances, your beliefs and support you while you grow and change.
- The relationship is focused with direction, from the therapist to you. It is not a mutual relationship like a friendship would be, although if a therapist doesn’t have caring feelings towards you she won’t be effective in working with you.
- A therapeutic relationship is one where the therapist is there to support you, not to share their own personal information with you, although at times if it relates to the issue at hand it can be helpful and therapeutic in the form of exhibiting understanding and empathy
