I acknowledge that starting therapy requires significant work. If you are considering contacting a therapist but have not, there are some good reasons. I want to validate your ambivalence.
Ideally, your first session should feel like a good massage, meaning you should feel some immediate benefit. Of course, the issues you are carrying will not disappear in one session. You should feel seen and heard. As a new patient, my goal as your therapist is to set the stage for you to have that experience.
Even logistics can complicate getting started in therapy. You could do a web search, hoping that you find someone who is a good fit. For most people, it is a daunting process to weed through all the possibilities. It may take some back and forth to set an initial appointment. I make every attempt to streamline the process of getting started. Yet, it does take significant effort to make it happen.
For most people, jumping into therapy may involve some bravery and a degree of blind trust. It may feel like blind trust, but there are safety measures to make it less so. There are many rules governing how therapists act. We MUST keep everything confidential. And that is just the bedrock of our expected behavior. There is a purposeful structure that keeps our actions safe and our conversations about you.
If you are allowing yourself to be present in therapy, you will feel vulnerable. For some people, anticipating being vulnerable is threatening. Yet, vulnerability creates a trusting space for healing and change. There is a name for it. It’s called the working alliance. (I did my dissertation on the working alliance, by the way.) It’s a prerequisite for feeling safe enough for the work to get done.
If I haven’t already convinced you, here’s a little secret about therapy: Most people start to feel better once they make an appointment. It’s true. It is the first gift of hope. Engaging in therapy generates hope. For most people, it starts when you contact a therapist, engage in an introduction, and set an appointment.
I hope I have convinced you to start therapy. If this blog and other pieces of this site have given you a sense that I would be a good fit for you, please reach out to me. A brief conversation through Zoom or the phone would be the next step for our work together.