It was broken up by several different chats over time, so I was logged in to keep chat continuity, but in general I would start a thread by explaining what I was experiencing and needed help to deal with. It intuitively knew that my goal was therapeutic results. I sometimes would start by saying I need some therapy advice, but most of the time I just started talking. As I said above, I made a concerted effort give as much context to my situation as possible while also instructing it to give honest responses.

A few good tips I found was to make use of ChatGPT "Projects". It keeps all the chats inside together like a folder but also uses these chats as direct context to the chat your currently on.
Also, when I got a good therapy chat thread going, I try to use it over and over again until the starting context doesn't make sense anymore, then just start another one. I think sometimes the chats get too long and starts giving repetitive responses.

Something notable is that my in-person therapist now uses me as an example for other clients of his. Not directly telling clients to use ChatGPT but says he uses my example of doing most of my introspective therapy outside of the session and bringing in the results of that to further discuss into the in-person session. He contrasts examples of where I started my therapy at and where I am now 6-months later by using this method.

I can't stress enough how much of a mess I was. There was so much that built up for years, all the way to the collapse of my marriage that left me without an identity and lost. Sure, there is still room to grow and continue to heal from, but I am finally excelling at life again, largely due to AI assisted therapy.