What does the first counselling session look like?

The first counselling session can often be the most nerve-wrecking for clients. It’s really common to be uncertain of how the session will go, and there can be fears around what the whole process entails if you’ve never been before.

Some of the fears include being uncertain if the counsellor will like you (or what if you don’t like them??), being afraid of having painful memories or thought-processes come up, being afraid of as being judged as crazy, being vulnerable with a person you’ve only just met and so on and so forth!

As a counsellor, and as someone who has been in therapy myself, all of these fears and concerns are understandable and completely normal. One of the hardest sessions to get to can be the first, simply out of fear of the unknown!

So, let me break down what usually happens in a first session.

First. After welcoming you to the session, most counsellors will go through and explain the necessary and legal requirements of engaging in a counselling session. Usually, this involves discussing the limits of confidentiality and legal duty of care requirements, what you can expect from them in a professional sense (charters and conduct), fees and payments, practice hours, and what the cancellation policies are for the practice. For some of us who work online or via phone (like myself), we will send you an intake form prior to the session where you can read all of our terms, agreements and conditions of engaging in a professional counselling relationship and get you to agree to them. We of course welcome any questions or concerns!

Then after that, we will usually invite you to discuss the reasons why you are coming to counselling. This part is a bit of a “get to know you” discussion. There may be questions about your history with your issue, but also there can be talk about what you’d like to learn, know or gain from your counselling sessions so we can focus on successful outcomes for you. And these outcomes are going to be different for each person!

And so the conversation continues. I always try to make sure that each client out of the first session feels heard and understood, but that you also leave with useful information, or tools/skills to help you in between sessions. And again, this is going to vary depending on what you bring to the session!

A lot can get covered in the first session, but regular or ongoing sessions will continue to explore and uncover what’s going to help you the most.

So there you have it! The first session is a nutshell.

I hope you’ve found this helpful and enlightening.

I look forward to continue helping you through the seasons of your life.

- Karyna