What does a session look like?
Coming to a session with a psychologist for the first time can sometimes be daunting.
Just booking the appointment can be hard, let alone attending and not knowing what to expect.
The First APPOINTMENT
In the first part of the appointment, your psychologist will go through the paperwork with you, paying particular attention to the consent form to make sure that you understand things like confidentiality really well. If you are coming in with someone else it may be good to discuss with them before the first appointment whether or not you would like them in the room with you.
Now, just some notes on the first appointment (called it the initial appointment). It’s structured a bit differently to the other (we call them subsequent) appointments you will attend. In this session, your psychologist will get a lot of information from you about what brought you to the appointment, what sort of things you might get up to day-to-day, a bit about yourself, your interests and hobbies. They will also ask you the nitty gritty essentials, how you are feeling, what’s going wrong and any history which could be related to how you are feeling. This is their chance to get to know you better and to find out all the things which are impacting on you feeling the way you are feeling. It’s during this part of the session people usually become emotional. People who come to treatment are usually going through a lot, so they might get angry, stressed or upset. Your psychologist is used to this – it’s our job! You do not have to be sorry for feeling the way you feel. It is very normal to feel this way and actually, it is often better to be able to express emotion in session as this can lead to progress and relationship development between you and your psychologist.
It is important to remember that this initial session is not like the normal session. This session focuses on getting the information so your Psychologist knows you better and so they are able to plan your treatment with what they think will work best for YOU. Because of this, there is not normally any treatment in the first session. Once they talk to you, your psychologist will go away and look at the information you have provided and work out the ways they can help, which will be best for you. They will also factor in what your goals are and what you want from treatment of course! It is so important for your psychologist to get a good picture of what is going on and sometimes they may need to do further assessment for this at the next session, especially if your situation is really complicated or long standing. Understandably, sometimes we want strategies as soon as possible but without a sound picture of what is happening, it is hard to provide these strategies.
What to do after the initial session…
After your initial session with a Psychologist, you may feel mentally exhausted. It can be really hard to go through everything that has been going on over the last few weeks, months and sometimes even years in one 50 minute session! Because of this, make sure you look after yourself.
If you can it a good idea to do the following:
- Take the rest of the afternoon off work if you can. When we are emotionally exhausted we don’t often perform well!
- Do something that looks after you – this might be going and having a cup of tea or coffee, having a shower or taking the dog for a walk. Whatever helps you to feel better – do it! (As long as it’s helpful!).
- If you have someone you can have a de-brief with – do this. This could be a close friend, a family member or partner. It can sometimes be helpful to go through how you felt after the appointment and having someone there for support can be helpful.
- Rest and recuperate – take the time out to rest and recover.