My first session was very similar - housekeeping (policies, pricing, scheduling, a bit about him, how he likes to work things, etc), and then he asked what brought me in. It was very gentle, and he did what he could to make it easy to talk to him.

One of the biggest things was my T reinforcing that there are no timelines. I Can open up when I'm ready and talk about what I want to, when I want to, and that while he would challenge me at times, he wouldn't push. This seems pretty common among therapists.