What do therapists ask in your first session?
In your first therapy session, you can expect to have an opportunity to share your concerns, challenges, and desired goals with a trained therapist. The therapist will likely ask you a series of questions to better understand your unique situation and gain insight into your personal history, including any past experiences that may be contributing to your current mental health state.
While it can be intimidating to open up to a stranger, it’s important to remember that therapists are trained to create a safe and non-judgmental space where you can feel comfortable expressing yourself, your experiences, and your fears. You can expect the therapist to actively listen to you and offer validation and empathy as you share your thoughts and feelings while also recommending ways to cope, heal, and progress in your mental health journey.
Your therapist may also provide you with some initial feedback and insights into your situation, along with some practical tools and techniques to help you manage your concerns, such as, if you struggle with anxiety attacks your therapist can provide tools to work through anxiety attacks, like breathing techniques. It’s important to be open-minded and willing to try new strategies, even if they feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable at first because you never know what healing might look like for you and your situation.
Ultimately, your first therapy session is just the beginning of a larger process of self-discovery and growth, as well as an opportunity for you to see if this therapist will be a good fit for you. It may take several sessions to develop a strong therapeutic relationship with your therapist, and to begin to see meaningful changes in your life, so give the process time. However, with patience, commitment, and a willingness to explore new perspectives and approaches, (like EMDR) therapy can be a powerful tool for healing, personal transformation, and achieving your mental health goals.
What this will practically look like is, in your first therapy session, therapists typically aim is to establish a rapport with their clients and gain an understanding of why they are seeking therapy in the first place.
Some commonly asked questions within your first session are:
- What brings you to therapy today, and what are you hoping to address?
- Can you tell me a little bit about who you are?
- Have you ever been in therapy before, if yes, telling me a little bit about it?
- What are your current challenges, mental health concerns, or symptoms?
- Have you experienced any traumatic events lately in life?
- What are some questions you have about therapy?
These are some typical questions, but also you usually fill out a form to start therapy which will also help the therapist more directly guide that first session. Usually the first question a therapist will ask, as it sets the stage for the rest of the session and helps give a road map of where they are aiming to take that specific time. This allows the client to express their main concerns and address the main issues as most therapy sessions are only an hour long.
As your therapist gets to know you as a person and gain insight into your background, experiences, and values they can then better help you find your desired outcome from therapy. Also, this is why knowing whether a client has had previous therapy experience with a therapist can help them gain better understanding the clients expectations and any potential barriers to treatment that has stopped them from seeing a therapist before.
Also, the purpose of the therapist asking questions about a client’s current symptoms or challenges, such as anxiety, depression, relationship issues, or work-related stress, is to gain a better understanding of their needs as well as how to treat these needs within therapy. Their goal within the first session is to gain understanding of who you are, so that they can best help you achieve your mental health goals. This first session really provides space for you to share some of your story as well as find clarity if this therapist will be a suitable fit for you and your needs, establish a relationship, and begin your healing process.
