Getting It Right From The Start
Denver Simonsz
I help psychologists develop their best practise. Board approved supervisor. Passionate psychologist. Writer.
Initial assessments were daunting when I began my journey as a provisional psychologist in 2007.?
What if I couldn’t engage the client?
What if I didn’t get all the necessary information?
What was the necessary information?
How was I supposed to engage the client AND get all that information?
I was putting immense pressure on myself to have the perfect first session. One in which I gathered all the information I'd need and could now get to work on treating the client.
It's a pattern I see repeated with many of the early career psychologists I supervise. The pressure to get it right from the start, make no mistakes and miss no information is intense. Any sense that you're not doing enough as a psychologist turns the first session into a mad dash to do it all.
While that can come from a good place, it's sustainable and ironically can cause us to miss things because we're moving too fast.
So if we abandon our attempts to get it all right from the start, what's the alternative?
Well, it's reminding ourselves that it's ok to aim to get it right, but therapy is full of ongoing processes. We are constantly checking back in on things because clients lives are dynamic, so it just isn't possible to capture everything you need in one session.
Take a risk assessment as an example of this. Do you assess risk in the first session and then ignore it for the rest of the treatment? Of course not. It is something that you come back to time and time again because circumstances change. You recognise that as good as your initial assessment of risk is, you would be naive to think you could get everything you need once. You have to keep checking. Likewise, a client's history isn't something you go over once and never revisit. You move back and forth on the timeline of their life as needed.
So when you feel the nerves of the first session approaching, remind yourself of this. Whatever you're trying to cram into the first session, can be and often should be done again and again and again. Your client's life is complicated enough to warrant more than one attempt to understand it.
Psychologist
9 个月Those "what ifs" were questions that frequently ran through my own mind as an intern. It's so validating to read your posts and know others also experienced this. Thanks for sharing Denver! Those new to the field will no doubt find this helpful.
Placement Coordinator I Clinical Psychologist I Board Approved Supervisor
9 个月Thanks Denver Simonsz - I always enjoy reading your insights and reflections. Your piece reminds me of Daryl Chow’s work - including his book The First Kiss: Undoing the Intake Model and Igniting First Sessions in Psychotherapy. Have you read this one?