[bluemountains]

I am curious about when or if you start preparing for your t visit with thoughts of what you need to talk about? I find that on Sunday nights I have a very hard time going to sleep because I begin to go over in my mind what I would like to talk with the t about during my Tuesday appt. These feelings and thoughts tend to overtake me all day on Monday through Tuesday until I finally have my appt. My point is that I feel like I am obsessing too much once I get my thoughts going and this can't be healthy for my mental health. Before Sunday, though, I don't give the upcoming meeting a lot of unnecessary thought.

Bluemountains

I'm quite the opposite. I really don't think about my appointments in advance much at all. (Drives my T crazy.) He'd like to see me doing a bit more introspection during the week. It is definitely a defense mechanism/avoidance technique. I have an appointment this afternoon and I haven't the foggiest what I want to talk about. Not necessarily a routine I'd recommend.

[mixedup_emotions]

I find myself thinking about the next T session a day or two before as well.....and then get very anxious if I can't figure out something to address during the session. And the morning of the session, I get very panicky....I have a T session today, and I feel mute....sooooo....ACK!

I don't know that I mentally 'prepare', but I can be very introspective, so I'll often contemplate about something to do with therapy - whether something we've discussed before/last week or that I might want to mention or discuss next week/in future. Some of these things I get to in session, some of them I don't - I don't have any plan of what to say, the conversation just goes where it goes. My T will often surprise me by asking me about something I've never even thought about... I don't think there's a way to prepare for that!

Therapy does set me thinking a lot, and I'm always trying to figure out or understand something... The whole process kinda fascinates me...

[delicatefade26]

Originally Posted by mixedup_emotions

I find myself thinking about the next T session a day or two before as well.....and then get very anxious if I can't figure out something to address during the session. And the morning of the session, I get very panicky....I have a T session today, and I feel mute....sooooo....ACK!

I hope your session goes well mue!!! I know that panicky feeling well!!

[Chopin99]

Since OCPD is one of my diagnoses, I tend to start thinking about it...oh, the day after the last session. Plus my T gives lots of homework. In 9 months, she's had me read as many books, watch a series of four sermons from her church, read other materials she's copied for me, journal, and track moods if I'm feeling depressed. Do I do it all on her time frame? No; most of the time RL gets in the way.

[pbutton]

Annoyingly enough I generally have an ongoing conversation with T happening in my head practically all the freaking time.... blahhhh. So my sessions are just a real-life extension of that. It's not a route I'd recommend.

[sweepy62]

Originally Posted by bluemountains

I am curious about when or if you start preparing for your t visit with thoughts of what you need to talk about? I find that on Sunday nights I have a very hard time going to sleep because I begin to go over in my mind what I would like to talk with the t about during my Tuesday appt. These feelings and thoughts tend to overtake me all day on Monday through Tuesday until I finally have my appt. My point is that I feel like I am obsessing too much once I get my thoughts going and this can't be healthy for my mental health. Before Sunday, though, I don't give the upcoming meeting a lot of unnecessary thought.

Bluemountains

well i keep a journal, so usually 2 days or a day before i write down topics i want to discuss that are safe to avoid real issues , but its like a shopping list u go in there with a list and usually u end up getting stuff that was not on the list, so if i get stuck or something she always helps me out and knows when i am avoiding stuff, also she does not let me change the subject anymore which i found funny i use to talk about the weather and birds everytime a subject would come up good luck

[mcl6136]

This has changed for me over time....I'm happy to say that I've gone "down" from preparing all week long (sigh) to having some time alone to kind of "set up" for my T appointment...I do make an effort to do this on the morning of the appointment. Then, I make some time that evening to kind of review.

This keeps my therapy ticking along in a more sustainable way. Previously, my moods were so chaotic, and if my appointment was bad, it kinda wrecked my week, and if it was good, everything was sun-shine colored for the next six days, and issues that should have been dealt with weren't cause I was kinda blissed out. I realized that therapy was running my life, instead of me running my therapy. Now, I feel things are more sustainable and real and my progress feels like it's good, orderly direction....rather than a roller coaster that sometimes kicked my a@##.

Blessings,
MCL

[purple_fins]

It varies sooooo much for me.
If there are emergencies going on, during that week with an emergency I don't have time to think about the upcoming session much--head's too dizzy and kinda numb.
If there were arguments or had to deal with some kind of abuse-- then I think about the session a couple days ahead, to try to better describe what went on-- so I can get some insight into how I can fend off such offense in the future.
If I have some real difficult homework(I don't have all the time, just sometimes I have homework) then I tend to think of the session a lot-- never thought of this before-- but-- wonder if that's my OCD coming through-- the dire NEED to do A+ on everything.

thanks for asking this bluemountains-- it's got me thinking some more.

Seems to me your situation is quite healthy-- you don't obsess about it all week, every day-- yet you DO give it enough thought so that progress has a chance to happen. If I were a T. I'd like your kind as a client.

inner-peace to you
fins

[skysblue]

For me, seeing my T is kinda like my weekly 'report' to her. My issues do not disappear just because I'm not talking to my T every day. So, I'd say I'm 'preparing' for my next session immediately after the current session. It's a process and the process continues as I work on myself and practice what I've learned. And during the week, I will note anything that comes up and depending on how long my list is, will discuss it in session.

[stopdog]

I usually start feeling sick the night before and then it takes two days after to get back to normal.

[EverythingCanWait]

About two or three days before the session... I'm usless at talking without a plan

[googley]

For me it depends. If I get some insight after I walk out from therapy (this is so annoying that it doesn't happen in the session) then I start thinking about the next session right away. If this doesn't happen (most of the time) then I spend a couple of days "recovering/rehashing in my mind" the previous session and then the next couple of days before session thinking about the next session. Sometimes something will pop up in my head in between session at a random time and I will think about it and then it will go away. Not always to come up in the next session. However, if my T gives me homework then I usually end up thinking about it the whole next week.

[bluemountains]

I really like the idea of keeping a journal. I have done so in the past when not working with a t. So far, I have had homework, but the worksheets didn't fit what was on my mind. Hopefully in writing my thoughts down, I will not have to continually keep topics in my thoughts.

Bluemountains

[CantExplain]

I don't prepare as much as I used to, and I think T is pleased with that.

When do I start mentally preparing for my next T visit? On my way to the parking lot after my previous appt

Seriously ... I am basically in therapy 24/7 these days. Since I spend a lot of time alone (work at home), and my social life is nil, I'm pretty much working on issues all the time. I've wasted too many years being messed up, and I've had it. JUST HAD IT!!!!!! I'm going to get myself straightened out if it's the last thing I do ....... and it very well might be And the sooner the better.

So when I see T once a week I've always got plenty to talk about. The day before an appt, I start to prioritize what's most important, because we almost never get through everything. The nerves & anxiety usually don't start until the day before either, although in a bad week it can be 3 or even 4 days before.

[FourRedheads]

For me, the panic starts 2 days before session. It builds and the day of T I'm panicked.

[Flooded]

Originally Posted by bluemountains

I am curious about when or if you start preparing for your t visit with thoughts of what you need to talk about? I find that on Sunday nights I have a very hard time going to sleep because I begin to go over in my mind what I would like to talk with the t about during my Tuesday appt. These feelings and thoughts tend to overtake me all day on Monday through Tuesday until I finally have my appt. My point is that I feel like I am obsessing too much once I get my thoughts going and this can't be healthy for my mental health. Before Sunday, though, I don't give the upcoming meeting a lot of unnecessary thought.

Bluemountains

I have Tuesday appts too and usually start feeling nauseous on a Friday night

I haven't been for a few weeks and won't be going for another 6 weeks so it's a nice change

[crazycanbegood]

hmm i dont and every time i thought ahead of something to discuss i forgot about it when in session

[nicoleb2]

I don't really prepare anything physically - i don't write anything down, I don't journal because my t thinks I feel worse when I do.

Mentally though I think I am always preparing. Before, during, after, between sessions.. always thinking of something I should talk to t about (part of it could be that I forget what I was thinking of, then remember, then forget....)

[KazzaX]

I go to T on fridays, and I have to start preparing on about Tuesday. I have to prepare (ie think of topics to discuss, research things, etc) otherwise if I go in there with nothing, i will go into a rage right at the start and thus waste the session.

Wednesdays and thursday nights I normally can't sleep much.

During the week, lots of stuff comes up that I want to share with T...but with 7 days between appts, it's constantly changing. What I wanted to talk about on Monday is usually replaced by something else on Wednesday (I see T on Friday).

Thursday night when I go to bed, I say a little prayer...to myself, to the universe, to God...that I be shown what I need to do to heal. Sometimes I will have a dream that I bring to T, and that's where we start. Sometimes, I'll get triggered and that's where we'll start. Sometimes I just show up and sit down and allow whatever wants to to bubble to the surface.

I think in some ways I'm *always* preparing, and in some ways, I'm never really preparing.

[dizgirl2011]

I actually almost start as soon as my last session ends as thinking about the next session helps me to cope with the immediate disappointment that my session is over, so often I think about my next session quite a bit in the hours after my last session......then after that day I may think about it on and off until the next session comes around or not much at all, so for me its something that helps me with the ending of the last session...oddly enough!

[Silent_tsol]

At this point I start as soon as I book the appointment. I usually email her on monday and end up seeing her thursday. But as soon as the email is sent "ack! Now I can't go back. Ok what do I talk about? How about x. Ya I really do need to tell her about x. No no no not yet. Ok I'll tell her that it rained yesterday? Why the heck am I doing this? Ok focus, this time I will actually tell her what happened (x). Oh and I can talk about a, b, c and d". By the time thursday comes "hi..ya my week was good". *cricket cricket*