[ibujari]

I got next Wednesday for my first appointment with the Psych. What should I expect?

[pegasus]

Psychiatrist or psychologist?

[Crystal88]

my first appointment with any therapy people is always answering their questions and filling in the paperwork - name address phone number why am I there kind of stuff.

the hard stuff doesn't start for a couple sessions after that.

[sunrise]

If you are talking about a psychologist/therapist, there is an article here on PsychCentral that may be helpful:
What to expect in your first counseling session

[lauren_helene]

My first session was testing and results discussed. One of the posters here had a great point about finding out early on if your T is about brief therapy or long term.

I don't know if you know yet what you are looking for but you might want to find this out. Good luck

[ibujari]

Went well. She kinda dove right in. I liked her well enough to see her again. So I guess we'll see where it gose from here.

[sidony]

Sounds great! That's how it started for me. We just dove in. I didn't even really know what I was doing at all. Never even filled out any paperwork -- we just started talking. And I only gave him the vaguest idea what I wanted or expected. I just kind of freaked out and showed up in his office one day. On a whim because somebody said therapy was helpful. It's awesome. Good luck!

Sidony

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sidony said:
Sounds great! That's how it started for me. We just dove in. I didn't even really know what I was doing at all. Never even filled out any paperwork -- we just started talking. And I only gave him the vaguest idea what I wanted or expected. I just kind of freaked out and showed up in his office one day. On a whim because somebody said therapy was helpful. It's awesome. Good luck!

Sidony

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OK THAT'S IT. We are the same person, lol. Same thing with my T-- no paperwork, no outline of policies, nothing. We just started talking. And we have been ever since.

[sidony]

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pinksoil said:
OK THAT'S IT. We are the same person, lol. Same thing with my T-- no paperwork, no outline of policies, nothing. We just started talking. And we have been ever since.

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Dang but we are frighteningly similar. I bet our therapists are similar too. I never filled out one form. I could have been lying to him about my name all this time (though why would I?). I loved that air of trust that we began with where he assumed I would be trustworthy. I appreciated that. It's part of why I liked him so much to start.



Sidony

[sunrise]

I started with my T much the same way. I didn't fill out any forms (only the consent form later at home) and he didn't ask me any questions about stuff like my first counselor did ad nauseum (addictions, symptoms, diet, exercise, etc.). I loved how we just got started. I felt he didn't need to know my life story and all these extraneous details to begin therapy with me. He knew that what I chose to tell him was what was important at that moment. I realized a couple of months later that he didn't even know my last name, lol. He just knew my first name and my cell phone number. He never asked what I did for a living either. About 4 months later, it somehow came out that I had a Ph.D. and he was so surprised, like "how could I not know that?" My job just had never come up before and I didn't feel like bringing up anything that wasn't relevant. I have LOVED that about us. We are focused on ME, therapy, and US, not unimportant stuff.

Here's a site I just love. It has a great question and answer section.. www.guidetopsychology.com.

I hope you like it.

And I hope your first appointment witll be great, although expect to be nervous--it's okay and not a problem!

[ibujari]

Thanks Echoes.

I was a little nervous just before I went in there. I just took a deep breath and shook my head.

I get to go back at 9 am next wednesday.