Im sorry Im so very late coming back to this thread, but I wanted to thank you all for your support and insight! I greatly appreciate it and it made all the difference in gathering the courage to start therapy. I started therapy last week and have my second session tonight.

The distinction between being emotional and trusting deeply is very helpful, and makes perfect sense. Knowing that I could just go with the flow and cry if I needed to really helped. And that I could open up as little or as much as I was comfortable with. Leah123, I took your advice and asked the (prospective, at the time) T if she was comfortable with a client who cried a lot. She emailed back that she was. I demonstrated my concern when I called her to set up an appointment--she asked what my main issues were and I started crying on the phone. Didn't expect to cry at that moment, but she handled it well.

At my first session, I just babbled and cried on and off for the whole session. I could tell she was trying really hard to keep up with all that I was saying. I think I overwhelmed her a bit, but she was trying not to let show.

At the end, I apologized for all the crying. I don't remember what she said, but it was supportive and decent. The fifty-minute session felt so short! I was able to go into one major issue I have, and only said a sentence or two about the other major issue, but Im going to bring that up tonight. This is the biggie, the real reason Im there, so Im quite nervous.

Again, thank you all, and I hope therapy is going well for each of you.
PS. please forgive the lack of apostrophes--keyboard problems.