Questions to Ask When Starting Therapy

I’m a therapist. I can probably give you some more specific things to ask if you tell me a bit about what you are looking for in a therapist/in therapy. But I absolutely echo what was said above about whether or not they have or have had a therapist. It’s a little sketchy if not in my opinion.

I brought a list of all my symptoms/thoughts/actions and was completely open my first session and they got me to a therapist who specialized in what my biggest concern was

like if something comes up that i need to think about before we talk abt more or that i think will lead to me full on spiraling at that point in time i just say something abt how we come back in another session or if i just need to say something and i just need someone to listen. its important to sometimes be like this is something you dont have to gve me advice for i need help with this type thing

setting boundaries about what youre ready to deal with at the moment

For me, I had to share that my last therapist had almost over-validated my trauma to the point where it made me feel worse and like my life was a lot worse than I already thought. I asked my therapist to be straight up with me, call me on my bs if he sees something I'm doing that's not healthy, and not sugar coat things. Creating boundaries with your therapist can help a lot.

I think it's important to tell them what you want and need from therapy. Tell them what didn't work with other therapists, and what did work. Ask them how they typically approach a session. How they typically approach trauma or certain things that you might need help with.

The types of therapy the therapist specialized in, any specific topics they typically research, if they have a therapist of their own, if they can personally relate to aspects of your issues, or if they’ve treated a lot of patients with your symptoms before.