What to expect during your first therapy appointment
What to expect during your first therapy appointment
Your first therapy appointment will likely look different than your subsequent appointments. Sometimes, clients can leave disappointed after the first session if it isn’t shared that this first appointment will probably not look like what we might expect a typical session to look like. My hope is that this summary will allow you to be more prepared to share during that initial session and also give you some ideas of some questions that you can ask your therapist as well.
The Intake
The overall goal of this first session is to understand the big picture of your life and how your life is being impacted by what you are coming to therapy for. I personally want to know in the first session about who you are as a person, who is important in your life, what is important in your life, and overall, how are you coping and functioning. I often ask questions about the following things in my intake sessions with clients:
Who do you consider your family to be?
Who are your supporters?
How do you spend your time?
That are the things in your life that may contribute to your mental health?
What currently is not working well for you and what is working well for you?
Symptoms and Impact
The symptoms you are experiencing and the impact on your life is probably why you are seeking counseling, so this information is vital. Some of the questions you might be asked about are:
What are you experiencing physically that may not be typical or may be worse than usual for you?
What are you experiencing emotionally?
Have your thoughts, beliefs, outlook on life changed at all?
How are you sleeping?
Any big life events or changes recently?
Do you have any history of significant loss or trauma?
Any thoughts of suicide or self-harm?
Goal Setting
During your first session, we will start looking at therapeutic goals for you. I like these goals to be client-driven based on your life and your needs. Sometimes clients will come to therapy knowing what they would like to work on or what they feel like needs to shift in their life. Other times, it is a little more complicated and possibly abstract, so we will work together to determine what you might need and possible some concrete steps towards achieving your goals.
If you are reading this and are not sure what your goals for yourself might be, consider the following question:
If you went to sleep tonight and woke up tomorrow and things were just better, what exactly would be better?
Questions to Ask
Your therapist should always be willing to answer any questions or concerns you have. Part of the therapeutic alliance and trust building with your provider is being able to trust them to ask hard questions and receive transparent responses. Here are some questions that you could ask your therapist to determine if they are a good fit for you, but also just things that would be valuable to know about the therapy process.
Do you have a diagnosis in mind based on what I shared today?
Is your experience and expertise a good match for what needs I have?
Do you have any thoughts about how many sessions I need to see you for?
Do you give “homework” or other strategies to work on between sessions?
Do you have any goals for me that we might not have discussed yet?
What other information would you like to know about that first therapy appointment? Are there any questions that you wish you would have asked your therapist during that initial appointment?
