I do what Sunrise suggested every session.

I usually just say, "I want to talk about X". And then I'll start talking about x. T will chime in shortly.

It's really not very hard. When I "allow" her to say something at the start of session she always asks how I've been or how I've been feeling. Those questions don't do anything for me. But my T is old school client-centered, strengths-based approach, which means that they believe clients are empowered by taking charge of a session, and anything else is patronizing/putting the T in the "expert" role.