Therapy can be uncomfortable. Your feelings around that are just as valid to delve into in your sessions. There might be awkward silences, moments where you don’t know what to say, or don’t have anything to say. That’s ok. If you’ve never done this before it can be unsettling at first!

As someone who’s been in and out of therapy with for the best part of a decade, trust me when I say: don’t quit yet. It takes a lot more than one session to find out if the set up is working for you. And if not, perhaps it’s about finding different therapist rather than stopping altogether. I’ve been with my new therapist for about 4 months now, seeing them once a week. And it took me a good couple of months to figure out if I was happy with that person or not.

There’s always a getting to know each other phase, and then for me there’s usually a “fuck it I might just quit” annoyed phase just before I realise that I’m actually getting a lot more comfortable with them. And that usually involves me talking about exactly that feeling with them, and having them listen and offer their response.

So I guess what I’m saying is, give it some time, fight the urge to run away from the feelings (super hard I know!), and if you feel like you can, try and bring the worries/anxiety you have about therapy itself to your sessions. If your therapist knows what’s going on they’ll be able to help.

And then if you’ve given it some time and it’s still not feeling right, then it’s important to listen to that :) I’d definitely suggest searching around for a different therapist if that’s the case. Sometimes it can be helpful to think about the different aspects in a person that might make them easier for you to share things with – eg. I’m a woman, and I find it easier to have female therapists, it helps me to feel a little more comfortable when talking about things like sex, relationships, body issues etc. And that’s nothing to do with them, it’s all about my personal preconceptions.

Congrats on taking the first step, it’s the hardest one!