Therapy is without a doubt an amazing tool and a gift from the heavens. But it’s important to make sure your mindset, expectations, and perspective are all in check before diving into finding a therapist or heading to your first few sessions. 

Before you begin your road to and through therapy, there are two important steps to take. These first two steps shouldn’t be skipped as you learn how to prepare for a therapy session. Though they are often overlooked, they’re crucial for setting yourself and your therapist up for success. 

Most people who are looking for mental health support often want to immediately dive into searching for a therapist on Google because it feels like they’re taking action.

But the truth is, you need to take inventory of yourself before you can start looking for a match. How could you know what you are looking for if you aren’t in tune with where you’re at and what you need at this moment?

Let’s check in and help reset your expectations and shift your perspective.

Therapy is a unique experience. If you haven’t been before, it’s important to not expect it to feel like a doctor’s visit or a school lesson. Going to therapy is a very different experience than your typical primary care visit. Generally, unlike going to the doctors, there’s no specific list of symptoms that you communicate that are paired with physical sickness and then in turn a potential medical treatment. The same goes for the school lesson analogy. Going to therapy isn’t like seeing a math tutor for help on your homework. You won’t leave with the exact steps and formulas you need to solve the problem after one session.

This is where shifting your perspective and setting expectations to come into play. 

Ready?

~Make the promise and commitment to yourself to set no expectations for yourself. Go in with an open-minded perspective, and you’re off to a fabulous start.~

There’s no quick fix, friends. It’s going to take time to unpack, unlearn, and untangle that web of your past, your trauma, your patterns, your triggers, and all of those complicated emotions. 

The person you are today is a reflection and compilation of all of your previous life experiences. Both the ones you remember and the ones you don’t. This includes your early childhood, preteen years, teenage years, and adulthood. You’ve experienced so much from childhood to adulthood, like woah! It’s unrealistic to expect the emotions and feelings you consciously or unconsciously carry from childhood and adolescence to be “fixed” in a few sessions. This self-work takes time, so finding grace, patience, and acceptance for yourself and the process is key. 

And most importantly, be compassionate with yourself just like you would to a friend. After all, we are our own best friends and we’re not going anywhere. 😉

Now that you’ve taken the time to refocus your mindset on therapy and now that you’ve dabbled at setting expectations, it’ll be helpful to head to the sister post to this one, How to Prepare for Therapy: Self-Reflection. The self-reflection questions within the post have you covered on gaining internal insights to you! You’ve got this, hunny!