How often do we meet? How long does the meeting last? What's going on there? Let's figure it out. Let's start with the name. 😉 A meeting with a psychologist or consultation is most often called a session. I do not know why. 🤷‍♀️ Just a fact.❓️How often do the sessions take place? The standard meeting frequency is once a week. Sometimes (for example, with severe depression) it is recommended to meet 2 times a week.❓️How long does the session last? The first meeting usually lasts an hour, all subsequent ones last 50 minutes.❓️When do the sessions take place? The day and time of meetings are fixed: the psychologist and the client agree in advance when it is more convenient for them to meet and every week the meetings take place on the same day and at the same time. This day and time are considered “yours” and the psychologist cannot accept another client during your time. This is very convenient: this way you can plan your life.❗️Important: since during the sessions you will talk with a psychologist about things that are important to you, anxious/sad/painful issues, it will be more convenient to be in a secluded, quiet place during the session. It’s not so important what kind of place it will be, the main thing is that it allows you to talk comfortably.❗️Important 2: during the sessions you will learn a lot about your problem / its solution / your characteristics / ways of coping with difficulties. To do this, you will need paper and a pen - put them next to you before meeting with a psychologist. Even better, keep a separate notebook/notebook for therapy. Your notes will be useful to you. We have sorted out the general questions. Let's move on to what happens in the session. The first one to three sessions are different from all the others because they are considered diagnostic. 🧐 On them you discuss what exactly brought you to psychotherapy, what difficulties you face. How does your problem work? And what supports this problem and does not allow it to disappear? And also set therapy goals, i.e. what you want to achieve as a result of therapy. Sometimes one session is enough for this, sometimes three. That is why the first meeting lasts a little longer than the others. All other sessions after the diagnostic ones also have a simple and understandable structure. 🥳1️⃣ Beginning In this rather short part of the meeting, the psychologist will ask you how you feel, about your mood. Have there been any events in the past week since the last meeting that he definitely needs to know about? Then together you will create an agenda for the session: a list of issues that you want to discuss at the session. And talk about the homework that you had (what?! Yes!). Homework (now called an action plan) are things that you and your counselor have agreed upon that you can complete between appointments. Essentially, these are different exercises that help you achieve your therapy goals. There is nothing terrible or something that you would not agree to in them. I will write more about them later. 2️⃣ The main part of the meeting Here you and the psychologist will analyze the issues that were identified on the agenda. It is in this part that work is being done on your problems/difficulties. 3️⃣ Completion In this part of the session, you and the psychologist will summarize the results of the meeting. He will ask you what was important/useful during the session. You will also discuss and agree on new homework. And also... a good psychologist will definitely ask you for feedback: ask if you were comfortable at the meeting? Did any of his words make you uncomfortable? Here, tell everything as it is: this will help make therapy more pleasant and effective.❓️ “Why is all this structure needed?”, you ask me. “For your own convenience and comfort,” I will answer you. Well, also because this format has shown its effectiveness in scientific research🙂. Agree, it is much more pleasant when you know in advance what will happen at the session and what to expect from it. You can plan in advance what and when to discuss and make the most of the time allotted for the meeting.❓️What about talking? What to do if the condition does not allow you to work on problems and is so bad that you want a psychologist to just. ❤️