Before you arrive
There is nothing to prepare. You do not need a summary of your life, a diagnosis, or a clear sense of what you want from therapy. Most people arrive with something closer to a feeling than a sentence, and that is a perfectly good place to start.
If it helps to settle, give yourself ten minutes before we begin. For online sessions, a room where you will not be interrupted and a pair of headphones make a real difference. For in-person sessions, arrive a few minutes early so the first thing you do is sit down, not rush.
The first ten minutes
I will say a little about how I work and what confidentiality means in practice, including the narrow situations where I would have to involve someone else. Then I will ask what brought you here. Some people answer in a few words, some in a long rush, some with a pause. All of those are fine.
You set the pace. If a question lands somewhere you are not ready to go, you can say so, and we will go around it.
There is no test to pass and nothing to prepare.
What I ask, and what you can skip
Mostly I am trying to build a picture: what the difficulty looks like day to day, when it is worse and when it is easier, what you have already tried, and what has helped even a little. I will probably ask about sleep, work, the people around you, and whether anything like this has happened before.
I will not ask you to relive anything. If something painful comes up, we go only as far as you want to that day. There is time.
How it ends
Towards the end I will say what I have understood so far and what I think might help, in plain words. Then we decide together whether to continue, and how often. Weekly is common at the start, but it is a conversation, not a rule.
Most people leave the first session tired and a little lighter. Both are normal.
If you’re still unsure
Booking a first session is not a commitment to therapy. It is a commitment to one conversation. If at the end of it I think someone else would be a better fit for you, I will say so and help you find them.
Written by
Nimisha Shrivastava
RCI Registered Clinical Psychologist (Reg. No. A114126) with an M.Phil. in Clinical Psychology from ABVIMS Dr. RML Hospital, New Delhi, and a PhD scholar at Christ University, Bengaluru. She works with adults and couples, in person and online.
About Nimisha