Nine Questions to Ask When Starting Therapy

I'm going to my first appointment with my new therapist today, and of course I am super anxious about it. I thought this might help some other people that are considering starting therapy, so here are the nine questions that I ask when I start seeing a new therapist. How often would you anticipate seeing me? And for how long? How do you set up counseling goals? What are these goals like? What does the typical session look like? What kind of homework or reading can I expect? Are you also qualified to prescribe and manage medications? What is your philosophical approach to therapy? What methods do you use, and which are you most comfortable with? Are you religious? If so, how does this affect your approach to therapy? What do you look for to determine if therapy is effective? It may be worth going more in depth on questions about prescription management if you don't already see someone for prescriptions. I do, but I like to ask a question to see if I could have one doctor instead of two. I also don't ask any financial questions because I know what the cost of my sessions will be with my insurance. Obviously these questions will differ from person to person, but these are the most useful ones for me to ask.