Thanks for chiming in, everyone.

It's interesting hearing the different ways people's therapy sessions begin, which seems at least partly due to our very different therapists and how they handle things. Quite a diversity out there, but many people same as me--the T has made it your responsibility for choosing how to start the session. In my case, I don't see it really as my trying to control the session (like what mouse wrote), but maybe just me having to be adult and take responsibility for the direction of my therapy. It made me feel better, like "I'm not alone" to hear some others also have trouble kicking things off at the beginning of a session. Maybe with time I will get over this "shyness" or maybe I won't. SeptemberMorn, I like how your T says "catch me up!" Very inviting. For me, the difficulty is starting out, but once we get started and I settle down, we have no trouble filling the hour.