What To Expect On A First Visit To The Psychotherapist?
Although resistance or reluctance to attend psychological therapy is being overcome with increasing frequency, there are still certain fears about what consulting an emotional problem with a psychologist may entail.
One of the main fears that the person experiences may be related to the lack of knowledge of what the first therapy is like Therefore, below are the aspects that are most frequently addressed in the first meeting with a psychology professional enrolled within the cognitive-behavioral current.
As indicated by Betisa Bárez (2018), there are three main objectives What the psychologist intends to address with the potential patient during a first visit:
Firstly, the aim is to establish a positive climate of comfort and trust between both parties, so that the foundations of a first therapeutic bond that allows subsequent joint work during the intervention process begin to be established.
Furthermore, in this first exchange the professional The process of collecting data on the reason for consultation begins exposed by the patient, in order to make a conceptual approach to the indicated demand.
This purpose will allow the psychologist to develop a more detailed idea of the problem consulted by the patient and thus understand it more deeply. Ultimately it will also make it possible to determine if said professional is the right person to attend to said consultation or if, on the contrary, one should consider referring the case to another more specialized professional or more appropriate to the patient’s needs.
Finally, in this first meeting the psychologist informs about the conditions and rules that will frame the therapeutic sessions to be carried out from that moment on. This set of information is called “framing” and consists of a series of procedural rules or principles that have the function of delimiting for both parties how the appointments are going to be made, what can be expected from them and what structure and/or working method. set will be followed during the psychological treatment process.
What specific content is addressed in the initial interview?
Regarding the information about which the professional asks the patient to collect initial data, there are essentially the following areas:
1. Patient demographics
These include age, place and date of birth, as well as data on your professional occupation and a brief description of the people with whom you live and who make up the so-called nuclear family.
2. The presentation of the query
It refers to the moments in which the patient exposes the different areas causing his personal discomfort Initial details about its beginning and evolution up to the present moment are included.
This point also addresses the degree of interference that the problem(s) entail in your daily life performance.
Finally, in this area it is also worth inquiring about the patient’s expectations regarding the therapeutic process and whether they have previously undergone any other psychological monitoring.
3. Explanation
Depending on the consultation requested, the psychologist can perform a brief explanation about how you will proceed on subsequent visits and what structure of procedures you are going to follow next. This aspect should not be confused with the fact that the professional makes a return or diagnostic hypothesis of the case in the first session.
Although the patient usually tends to expect the therapist to determine a clear professional assessment in the first meeting, it seems essential that the therapist adopt a more cautious stance.
In this sense, Betisa Bárez (2018) indicates that, usually, The psychologist needs an average of four initial interview sessions so that you can have sufficient information about the query presented by the patient, and all the circumstances surrounding it, in order to be enabled to carry out a well-founded return session.
4. The framing
As indicated previously, it becomes the regulatory framework in which the entire psychological process established between the therapist and the patient is governed (Betisa Bárez, 2018). Specific, This content area is made up of agreement on the following elements:
In conclusion
What is stated in this article can be useful to minimize the resistance that a patient may present when deciding to have a psychological consultation, since knowing what aspects are discussed in the first meeting between both parties can help the person have more realistic and more concrete expectations, thus reducing the fear of ignorance. that this action can wake you up.
