I welcome you into the Zoom room.
I say hello, check I can hear and see you and you can see and hear me.
I tell you about the confidentiality conditions.
You will have had the opportunity to read over the confidentiality policy ahead of the session as I send it to you by email before we begin. This is just a chance for me to remind you that everything will be confidential between ourselves unless there is a serious or imminent risk to either yourself, another person, a child, or if any criminal activity was disclosed.
I set an agenda and ask if you want to cover anything I’ve not mentioned.
It’s quite natural for you to not have anything to add to the agenda in week one, a lot of people are happy to take my lead. But if you do have something, feel free to add away! The reason an agenda is set is so that you know at the beginning what to expect, there’ll be no hidden surprises. Although the agenda is set in the beginning, things can be added later if something pops up or you forgot at the beginning.
I ask you to tell me what brings you along, what’s happening in your world, and what you’d like to work on.
This is where you get the chance to explain a bit about what it’s like to be you right now. I’ll guide you by asking what you think, how you cope, and how you feel about things. Try not to worry about getting stuck or not knowing what to say; it’s my job to help you find the words. I’ll ask you what it is that you want to work towards, this is also known as therapy goals.
I’ll summarise what you said to make sure I’m hearing you right.
I’ll repeat back to you what I’ve heard either using your own words or a paraphrased version and you’ll be able to confirm if that’s right, if there’s something I’ve missed or misheard, or anything else you’d like to change or add. This helps me to make sure that I’m on your page and can reassure you that I’m really hearing your perspective.
I’ll explain exactly what I offer and what you can broadly expect.
I’ll give you an overview of CBT, how I work, what the expectations are of-and-for you, and how we’ll work together. You can ask any questions you might have, some commonly asked questions can be found here: https://therapywithkirsty.co.uk/faqs/
We can decide on an actionable step for you to take away.
In CBT we call this ‘homework’. It’s not the same as school – I’m not your teacher, I’m not assessing you, you don’t need to feel guilty if you don’t do it. The aim of the homework is to help you move forward, so it’s completely up to you whether or not you commit to it. We have 168 hours in a week, we’re together for 1, so it’s something you can do outside of our session to continue helping yourself along.
We book in our next appointment.
Appointments are usually on the same day, at the same time each week but we can firm this up as I appreciate that sometimes life gets in the way.
And that’s it!
You’ve just completed your first therapy session! That wasn’t so bad, was it?
Therapy with Kirsty 