5 tips for your first sessions as a psychotherapist

One of the most difficult moments in the professional career of psychotherapists, whether in the clinical or health field, is the completion of the EPS (Supervised Professional Exercise). With this in mind, you may be interested in these little tips for your first session as a psychotherapist. Helps to relieve the nerves of the first sessions with your patients or clients.

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Tips for your first sessions as a psychotherapist

Follow these guidelines to get through this process as productively as possible.

1. Nerves are not your enemy

Every first step is scary, and the first meeting with a patient or client calls into question everything you have learned during the 4 or 5 years of undergraduate degree. Nothing happens, nerves are something natural and will be present to a greater or lesser degree regardless of the passage of time and all the experience you accumulate. It is normal, since you do not know what type of individual will be sitting in front of you and what their life story is.

You must remember that, despite your nerves, if you are offering your help at a professional level it is for something: you have gotten there because your skills have made it possible.

2. Have all the necessary stationery on hand

This is an extremely important part, as having all that stationery that helps you collect patient information is key to providing the appropriate service. This includes:

Commitment sheet

Having a commitment sheet is relevant within the professional practice, especially if you are in your supervised professional practice (EPS), since you still do not have the official degrees and the collegiate active. This commitment will be the guarantee in which the patient or client gives their consent to start the data collection stage (anamnesis), evaluation and of course the treatment.

Important fact: you must have a sheet for adults and one for children and adolescents that the parents must sign.

Clinical files

This document is like the “cover letter” of your patient / client, it collects: the general data, the reason for consultation, the date of initiation of therapy and the end date, if you feel the need, you can include: when the problem started, if there is any stimulus or stressor that is aggravating the situation or symptoms.

Clinical histories

A type of document key to making a good diagnosis and along with it, a good treatment. This document collects all the life information of the patient / client, that includes:

• General information (name, surname, age, sex, etc).
• Reason for consultation.
• Onset and factors that aggravate symptoms and signs.
• Brief history of the problem (important to find out all the details).
• Family history.
• Prenatal, perinatal and postnatal history.
• The history of adolescence.
• Adult data.
• Medical history and family history related to emotional problems or mental disorders.
• Etc.

Collecting all of the aforementioned information takes time. As an advice, try not to rush in the collection of this data, sometimes patients / clients in their first session cry half of it and complain what remains, therefore you should take notes of everything you can take "in the air". If necessary, ask direct questions.

Mental examination

This document is also key to a good diagnosis. In it you will write down or cross out everything related to the patient's or client's signs, for example: his appearance (he looks careless, disorganized, has scars), his perception (has hallucinations, illusions, etc.), his thoughts (has delusions, ideas of reference, flight of ideas, etc.). You must have it on hand since you see him arrive at the office or you see him in the waiting room.

Evolution sheets

If you want to be a good therapist, you must keep a record of all the progress of your patients or clients, from the first session to the last. In the evolution sheets you will write down the changes that occur during the sessions, for example: “SESSION # 7: Juanita has a reduction in depressive symptoms, she has done homework and enjoys her activities more with her family".

Appointment control

As a matter of order and good management of your patients, you can keep track of appointments in physical or digital form (for example, with some app). In this way, you will know which appointments were missed and which appointments were not, if they have done their pending tasks, if you should unsubscribe ...

Field diary

East it will be essential if you are a practitioner. Even so, I also suggest it to all professionals, you will keep notes of everything you do in the sessions with each patient / client, could be key to discovering if the treatment is being effective or if perhaps if you have made a mistake in carrying out some technique.

Therapeutic Plan

Something that makes the patient feel very safe is having everything ready, notice that you wait for them with a whole assortment of activities that they will carry out in the short 45 or 60 minutes of the session. This will not only give a good image of you, but also the patient will have very significant advances, especially if they are coming to you for a short therapy.

Data bank

This is at the discretion of the practitioner or professional. Keep a bank with all the data of the clients you have attended during the year It will help you to know how you have done and if it is necessary to improve your marketing plan.

Extras: teacher interviews and cheat sheets

Sometimes children referred by the school come to the consultation. For your personal control, ** requesting that the teacher provide information ** is very useful or anyone who is making the referral of the patient / client to your office.

3. The evaluation and the first stumbles

Something key and very supportive in the therapy processes is undoubtedly the evaluation. It is important that you know and assemble your own “standard” batteries of psychological tests.. It is not necessary that you be a "machine" and know by heart and to the letter the instructions of all the tests. That is why I suggest you choose 2 to 4 basic tests

Choose those psychological tests that you master and that can provide auxiliary information for the diagnosis of your patient. In some cases, personality tests are very useful as well, so I invite you to investigate further which tests are best suited to the population you will serve.

4. Ethics

As professionals or future professionals, we must follow the rules proposed by our code of ethics.

The people who come to the consultation are just that... people, who are requesting not only help but also a professional service. That is why it is good to take care of some details such as clothing, fill out the corresponding paperwork mentioned above, evaluate and deliver results and to finalize the diagnosis.

It is important to also take into account the therapeutic approach you will use: the one that is based on the most scientific evidence is the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, although there are different interventions proposed for each of the psychological problems.

5. Empathy

I believe that this is the key for the client to make significant progress. Establishing a good therapeutic relationship, always within a frame of reference, is essential. The problem is that at the beginning there is a severe emotional burden, as patients come to vent and manage to resolve their conflicts, and many times this emotional charge begins to affect our lives private. It is necessary that the therapeutic relationship be a combination of empathy and professionalism.

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Never forget...

Finally, always remember that it is not only important to use techniques. In my experience, I have met practitioners and professionals who consider techniques to be the center of therapy, I must admit that it is partly true that they are very important, but do not forget that you are dealing with a person. Always keep empathy and compassion within the framework of therapy.

Author: Hary Winther