Preparation prior to your first psychology session
Preparation for your psychology session
It is not necessary but it is helpful to consider your first psychology session with your new psychologist and do preparation prior to your session. Here are some ideas on what can be done before your first psychology session for those who may be anxious about it. It is, however, fully acceptable to go to sessions as is and go through the process without any prior preparation.
Consider what your main problem or reason for coming to therapy is.
Understanding and comprehending the reason for your choice to start therapy might sound like an easy step but, it can sometimes lead to going in circles during sessions trying to accurately describe what is going on. It is a great idea to comprehend why you are choosing therapy now, what has happened recently to add to this decision and what other factors are affecting it. This is an excellent form of preparation.
2. Consider other things you would like to get off your chest or deal with.
Some clients will remember only after the psychology session that there was important information that they really wanted to discuss but now have to wait until the next psychotherapy session to bring it up. You may even find yourself in between sessions thinking: “Wow I should really discuss this with my therapist” when something significant happens. It is a good practice to note all of these things in preparation so that you do not forget. Even if the psychology session is not long enough for all the concerns, the psychologist may find valuable clues from this or create space in the next session to discuss these.
3. Journaling
For those that like this medium, journaling can be a very valuable tool to record your thoughts and feelings. You may note that something really upset you or find yourself thinking over and over again about particular topics. These are valuable clues in your journey through therapy. In preparation, you can sum up the findings of this journalling and bring the most important or valuable information through to therapy.
4. Mood Journaling
It is very helpful when dealing with mental health conditions to track moods on a daily basis. Just recording what mood you woke up in and what mood you went to bed in can give many valuable clues about mental state shifts, their triggers, their durations and their frequencies. This is invaluable information for understanding mood, depressive, trauma and anxiety disorders. There are many useful apps that assist with this such as Daylio or How we Feel that can assist with such preparation.
5. Dream Journaling
Keeping highly-detailed records of your dreams immediately after you wake up and while you remember them is an amazing way to communicate with the unconscious (see my blog on Dream Interpretation) and engage in preparation prior to your psychology session. Write down the date and the dream recalling people, events, emotions and other important details as specifically as possible. Some clients even benefit from stating what was happening in their life at the time of the dream. This is very useful information in therapy- especially within psychoanalytic approaches.
Conclusion
These are just some of the ways preparation can be done prior to the psychology session to maximise the effectiveness of your therapy. Even if you do not want to do it or forget, trust the therapy process- the combination of your unconscious energy, your conscious participation and your therapist’s engagement will work together to make every psychology session valuable.
