First appointments are unique and interesting. The following are some suggestions and useful information for your first session that you may wish to take on board.
First impressions are important so pay particular attention to how you are affected in the first moments of the appointment. Actually this starts considerably before arrival and meeting face to face for the first time. There are prior thoughts, emotions and feelings that arise in advance of actually setting off on the journey to, and arriving at the appointment. It’s worth paying attention to everything.
Coming into a new place and meeting a new person brings particular and individual things up. Without any assumptions about this material it can all be very useful in self-understanding. Try with a kind and gentle observation to notice how it all is for you.
As we start to talk it’s worth acknowledging that it is not possible to tell the detail of all the years of your life in the first appointment and yet the whole of you will be present in the room. So relax, bring what feels important, and keep feeling into what needs to come out. In particular, apart from basic details of your life (which may seem a little bit mundane to tell), I will be interested in what you want from sessions, how you see things going, if you have any particular goals or end points in mind and any particular changes you think need to happen, want to happen or are struggling with.
Depending on how we set about the work we can talk about hopes and dreams, ideal scenarios, potential outcomes and maybe what you feel is in the way of those things happening.
It’s worth noting that the first session is a unique opportunity to ask any questions that arise about whatever you want to know or occurs to you. This may not quite be the same in later sessions so I really encourage you to ask away whatever it is that you need to know and I will answer as fully as feels possible.
The sessions are yours – you are paying for the time – and I want you to feel free to use them as you see fit. In particular in the first session if you notice anything that feels difficult, troubling or even worrying about anything at all please feel free to bring it up. There’s something in counselling and psychotherapy about being able to say what might in normal life be unsayable or unthinkable and it’s actually often quite important material to bring up. So think of it as the ‘normal rules’ not really applying in the space we share.
Of course I emphasize and remind you that everything is 100% confidential. If for any reason we happen to meet outside of the sessions I will not acknowledge you unless you acknowledge me first, and then communication will be polite and perfunctory. This is not being rude but simply observing boundaries, please do not be offended. For obvious reasons there can not be any interaction of any sort whatsoever between us besides the therapy sessions.
There’s a lot more that could be said and much has been written about first consultations in counselling and psychotherapy, but that’s probably enough for now. I look forward to meeting you soon.