[rothfan6]

Do you always know what topic your going to talk about before your session? Is it ok not to know? My t always starts by asking whats on my mind but lately I don’t know how to answer that or whats important to talk about. I feel like i’m wasting his time if I don’t bring up something and he has to.

[RTerroni]

I usually always write down what I plan on talking about at session in my journal, which is usually a lot.

[sailorboy]

Well I like to play it out in my mind all week. What I will say. What T will say. Sometimes in the moment I forget though.

[purplemystery]

I always felt terrified going into a session without having something prepared. In my experience, sessions go much better when I do prepare something. Otherwise I don't know what to say-- I'm not the best at thinking on my feet, and I have a really hard time explaining things unless I think it out beforehand. But I see the value of coming in without a script or a plan, and my T has wanted me to come unprepared.

I rarely have a plan or topic in mind when I go to a session. Generally, we have a bit of a routine where he sort of checks my barometer so to speak, and we move into a topic pretty organically based on what comes up. On some rare occasions I go in with something in mind, or he does, but the ad lib method seems to work best for me. I choose not to spend much time between sessions worrying about the next one.

Most of the time I did in the past; now that we are doing 25 minute sessions instead of 50 minutes, I'll be preparing EVERY time!!

[Yogix]

I usually have a few bullet points that I want to bring up that I prepare throughout the week. But usually my mood on therapy day is incongruent with the mood I was in when I wrote those bullet points.

It's quite frustrating actually.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[someone321]

My previous T was always asking me to not prepare anything and even not think about the sessions outside the office - so every single time I was prepared for the whole 50 min If I hadn't been, we would have sat in the silence as he has never asked any question and wasn't talking much...
My current T said that I can prepare topics for each session if it helps me so somehow I do not prepare much , rather like "oh, probably I'll talk today about this and that" but nothing detailed...

[Freewilled]

I rarely prepare anything but I think about it sometimes. My T has pretty much made it clear he would prefer I don't prepare. I'm not good at thinking up stuff out of the blue but I've gotten better at it. How I feel in session does not match out of session so it seems pointless to prepare. I *hate* it but I'm just not sure who is going to show up when I get in there....I've reconciled that's just the way it is for me right now.

[ScarletPimpernel]

I used to prepare. I made an outline and even sent it to my T before session so she could prepare.

Now we don't prepare. She asks how I'm feeling, what were the high points and low points of my week, and then the conversation kind of just flows.

I told her I was worried that we'd wind up running out of things to talk about. She said to not worry...we will always have something to talk about

[pbutton]

The things I plan are often not what I end up talking about. No idea how that happens.

[tinyrabbit]

I come with things I want to bring up and then we end up in all sorts of other random places.

[phaset]

I sent her a list of things to talk about months ago. If I don't have something immediate to talk about, she picks from that list.

I sometimes prepare, but rarely address the issues I've prepared. Either because I don't see an opening, or because I'm scared to address the issues. Or because I'm embarassed.

I always make a list for my pdoc. I see him roughly every three weeks nowadays (that's a big promotion, I saw him weekly for over four months until late March/early April). I write down bullet points whenever they come up, and the day I see him or the day before I scratch anything I don't think is important.
I also note my PRN oxazepam (Seresta) use and the reason why so he can check I'm not reliant on it. That was my idea. So far he has always said I'm managing it very well, though.

Rarely planned ahead, mostly dealt with the feelings I brought into the room, negative and positive - worked with the transference-countertransference in the room.

[clairelisbeth]

I will sometimes make a list over the course of the week as things come up that feel important that I don't want to forget, but if the conversation ends up going in a different direction, I just let it go there.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, and I'll sometimes e-mail my T to ask if we can talk about a certain thing.