What does your first therapy appointment looks like?



You have A step-by-step guide to your first therapy appointment:

1. Make an appointment

    You usually make an appointment through text because therapists are generally in between sessions and won't take calls, so for people who are too anxious to make that call, good news! you have an option to fix your appointment through text. You ask for the availability and confirm it, some therapists take the session for 30 minutes and some take 50 minutes, so you can ask for the timing if you want to be fully prepared.

2. Reach 10 minutes before the appointment

    All the therapists usually recommend you to reach 10 minutes before the appointment time to fill out some paperwork which includes your basic information and some may even ask about your family history.

3. Actual meeting time!

    Let's just put one thing out of the way first, it's not necessary to lie down on the couch, you can just SIT. In India, most therapists have sitting arrangement only. If you don't know where to begin or what to talk about, it's okay! Therapist anyway begins with some basic questions about your work, family, friends and life (depends on how much you're willing to talk), basically to just get to know you better. In case, you have any questions, you can definitely ask as many questions as you want, ask about qualifications, experience and specialities to clear all your doubts, no therapist will refuse to answer these questions. and keep in mind that we are humans too. So, it takes 2-3 sessions to understand the client-therapist relationship. At the end of the session, the therapist might share a plan of action or the goals of your therapy and they may or may not give you the diagnosis. Although, it's hard to give an exact diagnosis in the first meeting.

Remember we are not that scary, you don't have to make up different scenarios (about your first sentences or our reactions) in your head before the meeting. We are friendly guys!

4. Everything is confidential

    Only in the case where your therapist thinks that your life is in danger, they might disclose a piece of certain information, otherwise, you can be assured that anything you tell your therapist is definitely confidential and if this is something that is bothering you then you can certainly bring this up in the meeting.

4. At last, you pay.

It's not necessary for you to go back to the therapist if you didn't feel the connection or that comfort to open up. You can just simply say it. There's this term called "Therapy shopping" where you can shop around and take your time to choose "your" therapist. 

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