Before you book
What actually happens in the first session.
A straight answer, so that the unknown part is smaller before you decide.
People put therapy off for months over a question nobody answers plainly: what will I be asked, and what happens if I do not want to answer it. So here is the sequence, in order.
A first session runs the same length as any other, 53 to 60 minutes for an individual and 75 minutes for a couple. It is a working session rather than an intake interview conducted with a clipboard.
Before the session
Paperwork and consent forms are completed in advance, so the time is not spent on admin. You need a private space and a reliable connection. Maryland licensure means you must be physically in Maryland while the session runs; at home, at work, or anywhere else in the state all qualify.
There is nothing to prepare. People often arrive having rehearsed an opening line and then say something completely different, which is usually the more useful thing.
The first ten minutes
The opening question is some version of what brought you here now. Not what is wrong with you, and not your history starting from the beginning. The word doing the work is now: something changed, or something stopped being tolerable, and that is the most informative thing about the situation.
If you do not know, say so. Not knowing is a legitimate starting point and it is far more common than people assume.
A few markers before you get in touch.
What you will be asked, and what you can decline
Expect questions about how you are sleeping, how you are eating, whether anything has been getting you through the day that you would rather not say out loud, and whether you have thought about ending your life. That last question is asked of everybody. It is not an accusation, and answering honestly does not set anything automatic in motion.
You can decline any question. Saying 'not yet' is a complete answer and it will be respected without argument. Nothing about a trauma has to be recounted in the first session, or the fifth, for the work to move forward.
How the session ends
The last few minutes go to whether this is a fit and what a plan might look like. That assessment runs in both directions. You are allowed to decide it is not right, and being told so plainly is more useful than a polite disappearance.
If it is a fit, you will usually agree a regular slot. Therapy works on repetition and rhythm, and appointments booked one at a time tend to thin out at exactly the point where the work becomes difficult.
The honest part
Therapy asks something of you between sessions. The people who get the most from it are the ones ready to look at their own patterns rather than to have somebody else's changed. If you are not there yet, that is worth saying in the first session rather than discovering it six weeks in.
Enquiries come back within 24 to 48 hours. In a crisis, call or text 988 rather than waiting for a reply.
Is this a fit?
Is this the right fit?
A few markers before you get in touch.
You'll likely get the most from this work if you are:
- Adults and couples anywhere in Maryland
- People who have never been in therapy and want to know the shape of it first
- English speakers, French speakers, and people who live in both
The work asks for:
- A private space and a reliable connection
- Regular attendance rather than occasional
- A willingness to look at your own patterns
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