What to Expect on Your First Visit

Let me begin with what you should NOT encounter: Your therapist should NOT make you feel judged, criticized, or blamed. Here is what good therapy is like:

• You should feel listened to respectfully
• You should feel like the therapist "got it," even with hard-to-explain things that you never told anybody before; that's his/her job
• You should walk out with something to think about, mull over, chew on, some new way of seeing things that gives you that "ah-ha" feeling
• Your therapist may give you a homework assignment: It must make sense to you; it must fit with your style of doing things