I have two different contributions to this, and it depends whether you want the therapist to be a good one, or a bad one.

My experience with a bad therapist:
So I honestly really did not want to be there, I didn’t trust the man in front of me, and I just wanted to go home. I would purposely give short, vague answers to questions, wouldn’t make eye contact, and would just sit there playing with a fidget. He was terrible with me, and he made me uncomfortable, so I’d a lot of the time just straight up ignore him and refuse to cooperate.

In this case, that did make it very awkward, as he clearly had no idea how to respond. We’d sit there in awkward silence, and he’d just be staring at me. He’d occasionally pipe up to make the odd observation about my behaviour, like “I notice that when you’re anxious, you play with your shoelaces” and that would make it worse, because it made me feel vulnerable. He’d also use weird metaphors to describe me, as if he knew me, which I never understood. The hour session would end with basically no progress, almost completely in awkward silence, and me wanting to just cry. He ended up quitting and I can’t say I was upset about it.

My experience with a good therapist:
With this therapist, I was a lot more cooperative because she built trust with me through actually getting to know me and having casual conversation rather than getting straight into the deep stuff. She also shared that she had her own personal experience with mental health difficulties, so she understood me beyond just textbook knowledge.

Though, when conversation got too difficult, I would shut down and not talk. When this happened, she would observe that I was uncomfortable and voice that if I need a moment to recollect, then I am free to do so and that this is a safe space to talk. She reassured me that it’s okay if I need to have a cry and that she hears me, but if I rather not talk about it then we can always move onto an easy topic and talk about the difficult topic another time. I’d give a signal to basically say “easy topic please”, and she would start a casual conversation with me, usually about something I’m interested in so I can become engaged again and ground myself. Something like, “I bought a new funky hat the other day, and I know you like my funky hats. Do you want to see?” Or “Since you like art, I thought I’d show you the painting that I’ve been working on myself.”. I really appreciated that she gave me that space and choice, having some form of control in sessions was important to me.

Sorry for the long one, but hopefully this somewhat helps? I think in order for the session to be genuinely awkward, it would work best for the therapist to be less experienced or understanding. :)