What to expect from your therapy journey

Therapy can feel daunting when exploring it for the first time. In early sessions, clients often mention previously attempting therapy, but backing out due to ambivalence, stress, and overwhelm. This delay reinforces the idea that therapy is reactive to a crisis, not a proactive approach to mental health.   

If you’re thinking about seeing a therapist, here are thoughts and tips to ease the ambivalence about picking up the phone and scheduling your first session.

It’s okay to feel nervous in your first session:

Opening up and sharing can feel really uncomfortable in the beginning. Let’s be honest, you’re sharing your thoughts with someone you’ve met for the first time, hoping to build a connection with them. That’s a huge step and one that needs to be applauded!

It can be vulnerable and draining:

Feeling vulnerable and drained after the first session is normal. Be gentle with yourself; it might take a day or two to bounce back to feeling like yourself.

It may take a few goes to find the right therapist:

Your therapist offers a non-judgmental space for your treatment goals and sharing. It might take trying out a couple of therapists (think therapy speed dating) to find the one that suits your needs.

Therapy is driven by your needs:

Therapy is a collaborative experience between you and your therapist. You are in the driver’s seat when it comes to addressing your goals and areas of concern.

Therapy is a space for learning about yourself:

Therapy helps you grasp patterns in thoughts and behaviors, boosting self-awareness. By unraveling the “why” behind our actions, it opens the door for life changes. Therapists provide coping strategies for issues like stress, communication improvement, handling depression and anxiety, and addressing imposter syndrome, among others.

Nothing is too small to bring to sessions:

Many people have the belief that they need to be in crisis, or receive a formal diagnosis to attend therapy. Therapy is a space to discuss all matters that you are looking to change.

Therapy isn’t serious all the time:

There is room for laughter, play, and celebratory moments. We take the opportunity to focus on the highs, as well as the lows, and everything in between.

Therapy takes time:

We cannot sprint a marathon. For some people, their goals may involve coming in for a few sessions to learn some coping strategies to help them with a stressful event. For others, it may start off with a short-term goal, and eventually, they may want to explore others goals following some aha moments in sessions. There is no set period of time with therapy, and you may notice your attendance vary over time depending on the stressors in your life.

If you’re looking to start therapy, and feel this is the right space for you, be sure to contact me to discuss what you’d like to work on and take the opportunity to have a free 15 minute consultation with me.

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