Nailing Those First Therapy Sessions: Tips for Early Career Practitioners
The first few therapy sessions can make or break the therapeutic relationship, impacting whether clients feel supported enough to continue. In this episode, I join Dr. Bronwyn Milkins on The Mental Works to share strategies for structuring the initial three sessions of therapy, helping early-career therapists, across all disciplines, build rapport, establish trust, and enhance client retention.
As someone who loves both learning and teaching, I’m passionate about breaking down what’s often an overwhelming process for new practitioners. Over the years, I’ve gathered key insights that I now share in workshops to help therapists feel more confident in those critical early sessions. These workshops, available online, cover practical skills that every therapist, not just psychologists, can apply, whether in private practice, agency settings, or elsewhere.
In our conversation, we dive into specific actions therapists can take from the first moments of meeting a client, discussing everything from consent forms to setting realistic expectations. Here’s a glimpse of what we cover:
- Getting it Right from the Start: Practical tips on managing first-session topics like consent, session frequency, fees, and cancellation policies, ensuring clients know what to expect.
- Talking About the Talking: The importance of discussing the therapy process itself and creating a shared understanding, helping clients feel safe and well-informed.
- Structured Session Flow: Ideas on how to create flow across the first three sessions, including grounding exercises, feedback check-ins, and prompts to help clients open up about their progress and goals.
For early-career therapists of all backgrounds, I hope this episode provides actionable ideas you can bring into your next session. Building a strong client-therapist relationship is foundational to effective therapy, and I’m thrilled to share the tools that have helped me and many others along the way.
