Your First Therapy Session
For the week before you first sit down with a therapist. It helps you work out what you want to say, what you want to ask them, and how to get through the first hour without feeling you have to perform.
Therapy · Life Transitions · Anxiety · 8 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Write the one thing you most want to change — a single starting point is easier than a whole history.
- Jot down when it started and what you have already tried — it saves you telling the story twice.
- Check how you get there and leave ten minutes spare — arriving rushed costs you the start of the hour.
- Ask what their approach is and how long it usually takes — you are allowed to understand the plan you are in.
- Say at the start if you find it hard to talk — a therapist can work with that once they know.
- Decide what you would rather not cover yet — you set the pace, and saying so is part of the work.
- Keep the hour after it free — what comes up often lands once you are back outside.
- Note one thing afterward that felt useful or off — it tells you whether this is the right fit.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.