How To Prepare For A Session With A Psychologist?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Do I need to specially prepare for a session with a psychologist? Often people think about it, but in most cases it all ends with only thoughts - "I thought about how to prepare, but did not find a way …".

In general, there is no need to specifically prepare for a psychotherapy session. For a consultation, it is not even necessary to have any request to a psychologist, it is enough just to say: "I feel bad - something is bothering me, but I cannot understand what." Determining the root of the client's problem is a large part of the therapist's job.

If a person knows what exactly bothers him, what needs to be changed in life, the therapist's job is solely in modeling the line of behavior. If the anxiety is inexplicable and disturbs the mental balance - this is a request to a psychologist.

What nuances are important when communicating with a psychotherapist?

1. Convenient and comfortable room where you can relax and talk quietly (open up and tell the most intimate). It is desirable that there is no one behind the door (or the door should be tightly closed).

2. If the consultation takes place via Skype, you should pay attention to the quality of the connection - otherwise, it is impossible to work out the problem with high quality. In some cases, poor communication is an indicator of a person's resistance.

3. You should definitely take a pen and a notebook to the session.

4. Strong desire to work on yourself and change something in your life. A psychologist does not have a magic wand to save each client from problems and instantly deal with his life. The psychologist works with the client's resistance, while the latter does most of the work himself.

To prepare for your first session with a therapist, you can ponder the answers to the following questions:

- What brought you to a therapist?

- Why did you decide to attend psychotherapy sessions right now?

Such questions allow the psychologist at the first stages of communication to partially reveal the deepest need of the client. Immediately at the end of the session (10 minutes), the results of the session are analyzed and the most important aspects of the meeting are discussed - what did the client get? Sometimes, at the end of the session, the client's request may sound completely different (for example, the client turned to a psychotherapist because of problems with her husband; after consulting with the therapist, it turned out that in reality the woman herself is not able to accept love and tenderness).

Also, for preparation, you can formulate a thesis plan for communicating with a psychologist (what to tell, ask). As practice shows, it is not necessary to specially prepare a speech for a psychotherapy session; it is enough to make notes for yourself.

The session should be a creative and interesting process that is built directly in contact with the therapist. And it is not necessary to get hung up on the communication plan - in the end it may turn out that the problem is completely different, in which case the result of the consultation may not meet expectations or, conversely, turn out to be better. In any case, let the Universe arrange the best contact with the psychologist!