What to Talk About in Therapy
It's common to sit down for a session and suddenly forget everything you meant to bring up. Here are some reliable starting points.
Reliable starting points
- Whatever's been on your mind most this week, even if it feels minor
- Something that happened since your last session that you haven't stopped thinking about
- A pattern you've noticed in yourself - a reaction, a habit, a recurring thought
- Something a previous session brought up that you want to return to
- How you're feeling about therapy itself - what's working, what isn't
- Something you've been avoiding saying
It's okay to not have an agenda
"I don't really know what to talk about today" is a completely normal way to start a session - a good therapist can work with that, and sometimes the least planned sessions lead somewhere useful. You're not required to arrive with a structured topic every time.
If you're doing a structured programme
In CBT-based approaches, sessions are often more guided by the current module or exercise you're working through - see how online CBT works for what that structure typically looks like.
Between-session notes help
A lot of people find it useful to jot things down as they come up during the week, rather than trying to remember everything in the moment - even a few bullet points on your phone.
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