The start of a session

I guess when my T asks me "how are you?" when entering the office, I take it as a normal greeting that just means 'Hi' and I don't take it as a 'real' question. I've only started therapy and have had only about 8 sessions. They go really well. I know exactly what I want to talk about and usually bring in my journal or notes. I think the whole week what exactly I want to share and process and I don't want to waste time so I edit it until it seems like it will fit into a 50 minute session. There is no awkwardness at the beginning. I feel very grateful that I've found a T with whom I feel completely comfortable. And given that this is the first time I've done therapy and reading all of your experiences I know now how lucky I am.

Granite, i don't know if this was supposed to be funny, but i was laughing... thanks for this

it was supose to be funny.i think in the year and three months i have been seeing her i have had maybe 4 conversations with her that i have accually formed sentances and put them together.but truely you should have seen her face when i answered her.but i think she scared me right out of doing that much again by keeping me over and i freaked out.lol

I really liked this thread too. Thanks for starting it. My current t does the chit chat and then, so how are you doing? And it makes me feel awkward now. I say good.

The weird thing is, before I started coming to him I got comfortable bringing up whatever I wanted to bring up at the beginning of the session with my last t. The first few times I came to this t I did that too. I stopped because I worried that I'm too self focused. I felt weird about jumping right in without getting to know him. It turned out, unlike any other t's I've had, he's very open to talking about himself. I've actually felt like he talks about himself too much and takes up my time. And then I felt guilty for being too self focused. Letting him talk and direct the session seems to work for us.

I can hardly believe I'm saying a t talks too much for me. Not too long ago, I had a post on here complaining that one of my recent t's was not directive enough. lol.