Preparing for Your First Talk Therapy Session

When you’re accepted into one of the clinical trials that Precise Research Centers runs to evaluate the effectiveness of new psychiatric medications, you receive free mental health counseling. Whether you’ve had counseling before or not, you may be nervous about your first talk therapy session with us.

What can you expect? Do you have to come prepared, such as identifying what your main issues are? Will the process unleash emotions you’re not ready to deal with? Will you feel worse before you feel better? Will you feel better?

At Precise Research Centers, our team — guided by Joseph Kwentus, MD — wants you to feel comfortable with your talk therapy and ask all the questions you may have about the process. At our offices in Flowood, Mississippi, we help you adjust to therapy and to any new medications you receive.

What should you expect from your first talk therapy session? Following are a few facts to note that may lessen your anxiety.

You set your goals

If the word “goals” triggers panic, don’t worry. Your therapist helps you identify what you want to get from therapy, and how to translate that into an actionable goal.

They also help you break a large goal into smaller parts so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. For instance, your overall wish might be to alleviate your social anxiety. That’s a big goal. So big, in fact, that just contemplating its enormity might shut you down before you can find ways to achieve it.

Instead, your therapist may guide you to a smaller goal. For instance, what’s most pressing to you right now is how your anxiety disorder affects the way you interact at work. Maybe your first goal, therefore, is simply to write down a question you’d like to ask at your next meeting.

You and your therapist work on small, achievable goals that match your needs and diagnosis.

You don't get judged

While you may feel ostracized due to your mental health issues, or feel alone with them, you’re not alone at all. Think about this figure the next time you’re in a public gathering: About 1 in 5 women and men in the United States struggles with some type of mental health issue. In most crowds, you literally won’t be alone.

Your therapist doesn’t act as a judge or admonish you for how you think, act, or feel. In fact, their job is to listen neutrally and then ask you questions that help you understand your inner life in a new way. 

You have a safe space

Some of the issues you’d like to bring up may be deeply troubling or even embarrassing to you. You don’t have to discuss anything you’re not ready to talk about, but once you are ready, your therapist holds a space for you.

Because there’s no judgment, you can feel free to share anything, whether it’s from your past or present. Unless someone committed a crime, your therapist doesn’t share this information with anyone else, not even your significant other. 

You learn new ways to talk to yourself

Talk therapy can take many forms. However, most of them — including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) — help you reframe your thoughts so you don’t overpower yourself with negative thinking.

By transforming your thoughts from negative to positive, you gradually change the way you feel and how you interact with others, too. In fact, the better you are at talking to yourself, the better you become at handling conflicts and challenging situations in all aspects of your life. 

You might get some homework

Depending on your goal, your therapist may ask you to complete homework that’s related to your goals: for instance, preparing yourself to talk at a meeting. 

The homework helps you practice in the real world some of the skills you learn in therapy. As with your goals, you and your therapist work together to find homework that meets your needs and comfort level.

Just show up

The main way you can prepare for your first talk therapy session is simply to show up. We don’t require that you do homework before your first session or that you know exactly what you want out of the process. That evolves as you and your counselor develop your program.

Talk therapy is an important part of testing new medications you’re given during the clinical trial. Your therapist can objectively evaluate how well the medications manage your symptoms.

Are you ready for a new chapter in your life? Either call us today at 601-685-3457, book an appointment online or send a message to our team to see if you qualify for a mental health clinical trial and talk therapy — at no charge to you at all.