When visiting a counselor for the first time it is helpful to know what to expect and we’d like to help you understand this process when visiting Reflecting Hope.
What to know before the first visit:
Write out Ideas: Think through the reasons why you are seeking therapy and how a counselor might help you. Write down your ideas and bring them to the first session.
Ask Questions: When you are unsure of the process or what will happen next, please ask! The more you are able to understand the counseling process and what happens in counseling, the more comfortable you will feel and the better off you will be in reaching your goals.
Be Open: Even though we wish our counselor to be a mind reader, you will need to be open and honest with them. This will help them formulate an understanding of who you are and complete a mental health assessment. They understand that it can be uncomfortable and painful to share the deepest parts of yourself with a complete stranger. The counselor will do their best to put you at ease and provide empathy through the process.
Understand the Process: Counseling does not provide a quick fix your problem but is instead a process to be worked at overtime. The process isn’t simple and can also be risky because the information you share may be painful. Despite these challenges, counseling does provide a number of potential benefits, like healing and growth.
What to Do before the first visit:
You will be asked to fill out some documentation before meeting with your counselor. The documentation can either be emailed to you prior to the first session, for you to print and bring with you filled out, or you can arrive a half-hour prior to your first appointment to fill out this documentation.
This documentation will ask you to share your reasons for counseling, a general personal and family history, physical symptoms, strengths, ways you have coped through difficult times in your life, and goals you hope to reach at the end of the counseling process.
Don’t have any idea on how to reach your goals? Don’t worry, your counselor will help you during the first few sessions make a plan for the counseling process.
During the first visit, we will :
Provide you with information about what to expect from the counseling process and what future sessions will look like.
Address our ethical standards through talking about our informed consent and privacy policy.
Talk with you about confidentiality and it’s limitations. To understand more about confidentiality, please visit our page here.
Start building a bond with you to form a strong therapeutic relationship and help you understand your role in the process. It takes time to build trust in your counselor, so we will make an extra effort to build repour with the individual, couple, or family coming in for counseling.
Review your intake documentation, ask questions regarding the information you provided, and work to understand your presenting concerns.
Typical questions asked: Why are you seeking counseling? Are you taking any medication or seen a counselor before? How have you coped with the problem so far or in what things do you do to make the problem better? What would life look like if your presenting concern didn’t exist? What are you hoping to gain from the counseling process? Do other relationships contribute or help the problem?
Complete a mental health assessment to gain a complete picture of what is going on with you looking at all physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects contributing to your concerns. This assessment will help find your strengths, areas you desire to change or improve, and the ways you’ve coped along the way. Please note: It may take several sessions to gain a complete picture of the client and complete this assessment.
Evaluate our findings, review any significant findings with you, and share any significant mental health diagnosis found.
Design goals around your presenting concerns and information found in your assessment to help you reach your mental health goals. This will become our road map for the counseling process and how we will know when we’ve reached our goals.
Form a collaborative relationship with you to achieve your counseling goals. To understand more about the collaborative relationship, click here.
Common differences between the first session and future sessions:
The first visit is a time for you and your counselor to become comfortable with each other and make a plan on how to proceed in future sessions.
A counselor will complete an initial mental health assessment of the individual(s) seeking counseling. They will want to know your reasons for counseling, a history of the problem, your background, and any relating symptoms you have.
Typically, a counselor will talk more during the first session than in future sessions because they will ask questions and tell you what you can expect from the counseling process.
The first session may last longer than future sessions. A session is usually 50 minutes in length but the first visit a session can last up to 90 minutes. If you have a time restrain, please let the person know when you schedule your first visit.