First session with therapist

[PippaB007]

I have a long history of depression, but have been mostly stable for more than a decade, with the help of anti-depressants.

I've often felt that I would benefit from therapy, but I've never picked up the phone to make an appointment. There is always an excuse - not enough time, not enough money, other things are more important.

And then last week I had a miscarriage. It was awful. And so sad. And it unleashed a lot of emotions. So I made the call.

The first session was this morning. It seems like I might like the woman. And from next week it will be weekly, Wednesday afternoons at 2pm. I'm nervous, but glad i started this. I have a feeling it will be a long journey.

I'm very sorry for your loss. I think it's brilliant that you've taken the brave step towards counselling. You sound uplifted by it. I wish you lots of luck.

Well done, making that call and going to the first appointment is a significant part of the battle won. I hope that therapy will be an uplifting experience for you. Just be aware that some days you might come out feeling worse than when you went in, that's normal, other days your session might leave you feeling high.

I'm glad you feel positive about therapy. I love it, although it can make you feel worse for a bit sometimes as all those buried emotions/experiences come to the surface. In my view, medication is good when/if you need a crutch, but therapy is really what helps you to walk by yourself.

Hope it goes well for you. I have found that proper psychotherapy, as opposed to counselling, is very effective for deep rooted problems. Not saying counselling doesn't have its place but it doesn't really help you to change your patterns in the same way, just your perceptions and feelings. Whereas with psychotherapy you will actually change on a fundamental level which affects in turn what happens to you.

Such a brave step, but it may be the best step you ever make. Therapy is hard, really bloody hard, but so worthwhile :)

maggie the distinction between counselling and psychotherapy isn't always that clear. For example psychodynamic counselling specifically addresses deep seated issues. I know many experienced therapists who use the counsellor title because some clients are put off by psycho-anything. On the other hand some others call themselves psychotherapists but have only trained in dance movement therapy or similar.