I'm a grad student and just started therapy for the 1st time in my life 3 weeks ago, at my campus health center. The point is, I have loads of education debt to pay off, and so it's crucial that I get a job after graduation ASAP. Plus since my mom has nothing saved up for retirement, I'm expected to support her as well. I can't do either unless I get a high-paying job. My lack of confidence, soft-spoken voice, stuttering problem and social anxiety will be my downfall. It's crucial that I deal wtih these problems ASAP. I've tried to deal with them all my life on my own but finally it's at the point where I need professional help. If I can't solve them then how can I pay off that debt and support my mother later in life?

Well my therapist is a doctoral student. She's nice and supportive and understanding, I like her a lot, but I felt like crap after leaving our last session the other day. I was talking about a lot of painful things and spent half the session crying. So far, all 3 of our sessions have been just me talking about my problems with little or no suggestions from her. I mean, she says things to suggest that she understands my feelings and where I'm coming from. She did suggest that I go to an interview skills workshop (which I did), but overall, I feel like she's not giving me any suggestions on what I can actually DO to deal with these social problems. She just sits and listens and reiterates what I'm saying.

At the beginning of every session she asks what I want to talk about. If I say I want to discuss my confidence issues, she'll say ok and then wait for me to continue. It doesn't seem like she has a structure or plan for our sessions. She said that part of her wanted to give me suggestions or do role play, etc, and the other part of her wanted to see if I can work it out on my own. Well if I could do the latter I wouldn't be in therapy! Isn't the point of therapy to get professional help and advice? She's a very nice person, don't get me wrong, but I'm worried that I will go through all 8 sessions with me just talking about my problems without getting any real suggestions from her. I'm not expecting her to SOLVE my problems. I just want professional advice and insights. She's supposed to be the professional, right?! I'm just feeling really confused and ****** right now. I have no one to talk to about this because I only see her once a week and I haven't told my family I'm in therapy (partly because they are part of the reason why I'm there).

What I want to know is, is this how therapy is supposed to be? Also, how do I stop crying during my sessions? I'm such a wreck that I lose control at every session. It really wastes a lot of time. Why do I even bother, really? It looks like therapy isn't going to work for me after all.