Interesting first session. I got really upset when she was nearly 15 minutes late, until she sent me an email asking if I was still coming.

Here’s what happened:

The complex she’s in has 3 floors. One is at the basement level, and the other two are above ground. I went to 101, which is what her website said. 101 is a therapy office. Her suite is B101, so in the basement. Whoops. She said no big deal, I’m not the first new client she’s had that’s done it.

She asked me first why therapy now? I told her that I recently terminated with another therapist, RoboT, but still want to make progress. She was interested (of course). Who? I didn’t want to tell her. I eventually did and she shrugged. “Don’t know him,” which I’m immensely grateful for. She asked why I terminated, and I said that the attachment vs his retirement was too much to handle. That plus the self-disclosure. “What kind of things did he tell you? Sexual?” I mean he talked about his sex life with his wife once, but in the context of my sex life with my husband. No, it was what he shared about his psychological state and past traumas that did it for me.

Standard intake otherwise. She asked me many more questions about my psychiatric history than any other therapist has. “When was the first time that you noticed any psychological symptoms? You’ve been hospitalized? How many times? Where? How long was your stay?” She also asked about medications. Nothings been helpful. “Okay, so what have you taken?” I told her everything but the kitchen sink.

So toward the end she asked me if I knew any diagnosis that I’d received. I listed all of the different ones (GAD, PDD, MDD, Bipolar) and she asked which one made the most sense to me. I said none of the above, so she asked what I’d given myself. Lol. I said BPD, and she said “well, that makes the whole ‘meds never helped’ thing make more sense.”

She asked at the end if I had any questions. I paused a moment and said, “well, I have one, but it’s kind of unfair. Based on our conversation, first impressions, what do you think our course looks like?”

She leaned back and said it’s a difficult question to answer, and a bit unfair. I laughed and agreed. But I really needed some kind of screener to avoid the debacle that was the rebound after RoboT.

In a nutshell, she said that she means it when she says she’s collaborative. That I’m the expert in me. She mentioned DBT specifically since one of my main goals is emotional regulation. That she expects our course to nonlinear. I’ll make progress and backslide. If something isn’t working I should tell her.

That was about it. I like her overall. Younger than any I’ve seen before, but she seems competent. I scheduled my next appointment for Monday. As I left she said to feel free to some Halloween candy that she had on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Please. I don’t want it here much past Halloween.” I’ll never say no to a Reese’s cup.