What to expect in your first therapy session

Coming to therapy can feel pretty scary the first time, for most people.  So, I thought it would useful to write a little about what that first session is like and what you can expect.

Before your first session, if you are comfortable we will have a phone or video chat for around 15 minutes, to discuss what you are looking for support with.  If you are happy to proceed, then we will book in an appointment.

When you arrive

At the moment, we have a space in Hope Street, in the city Centre of Glasgow.  Keeping a central location, we hope makes The Talking Rooms more accessible.

You will be greeted by your therapist at your allocated time, and you will enter the room featured in this blog.  We have nice herbal teas, water and plenty of tissues.

The first thing we would do together, would be to discuss confidentiality.  In therapy, it’s really important to know that you can say what you need to, without fear of judgement or critisism.

It’s our job, to understand fully what is on your mind, and we can only do that if we provide a safe and confidential space for your issues to be explored.

The only exception to confidentiality is if there is any disclosure that could bring harm to yourself or others, including children.  In this case, I would openly be discussing what the process would be.  This is to keep everyone, including you safe.

We would then start the assessment phase of therapy.  This would be talking around the issues your facing and what you want to achieve in therapy.  The assessment part of therapy can take a number of sessions, depending on what issues you want to work on, and we will explore what’s important to you.  If you feel that you have lots of issues to work through, we will work together to priortise these and focus our work together to help you achieve this.

We will then start working together on a treatment plan based on the assessment and your goals and agree how many sessions this will take to achieve.

One thing you should be prepared for in therapy.  Work.  Change doesn’t come easily – if it did, I would be out of a job!  Each session lasts 50 minutes, and ideally, it’s best if we can see each other weekly.  Each week you will be tasked with work to be carried out, out-with the session.  This is imperative to your treatment. If you are not ready to fully engage in this process, then this might not be the right time for you to be engaging in therapy.

I know that might sound a bit harsh, however, from an ethical point of view, change would take much longer if work isn’t carried out between sessions to improve your issue, and it would cost a considerable amount more to achieve your goals.

The concept behind CBT is to teach you valuable skills and create a tool box for you to dip in and out of to be able to respond to issues you are facing.  I essentially want you to become your own therapist eventually.

Depending on what issues you are bringing, will be dependent on the work that is carried out.  Some therapists may take a ‘one size fits all’ approach, but that’s not what I do.  I believe everyone is an individual, and what works for one doesn’t work for another.  You can be assured that your treatment plan will be tailored to your specific needs.

If you’ve been thinking about making a change, then get in touch today and we can have a 15 minute call to see if CBT can help you.