My new therapist's office sets a recurring bi-weekly appointment for their patients, which I find fantastic, and it's been a great start, but it's still relatively new and we're getting familiarized enough to work out a specific treatment plan, so every two weeks, she'll open with a genuine: "How are you?" and it's a toss-up in my head between: "Are you sure you wanna know? Or should we get shit done..."
It's both. It's an invitation to bring up anything recent, but you can also treat it like a normal greeting if you'd rather not go there right now.
It's also open ended enough that you can say "I'm doing well, I've been thinking about my childhood a lot lately" and take the session wherever you want organically. It could also just lead into small talk while you get comfortable
Glad to hear it...I also found it helpful to know about the "pregnant pause". It's when they just look at you silently, waiting for you to continue. It makes you want to keep talking out of awkwardness
It helps me to think of that like an invitation, I'll think if anything else comes to mind and if I've got nothing left to say I'll just wait it out
Sometimes you can get therapy covered through health insurance. It’s worth checking, because therapy can be really helpful, even just for having someone to share stresses with. I hope you’re able to find someone!
