Ask a Therapist

Do I plan my sessions or do I wing it? So I think a good balance of a certain amount of preparation, but also being in the moment, is most valuable with clients.

It may be that the last session you had discussed something that you wanted to explore further with your client, so I will always review my notes from the last session. We may have discussed a technique we wanted to use, or some tools I was going to offer. But the client may sometimes bring something unexpected and something urgent, so that will obviously always take priority over anything else that had been planned. And the idea really is to be fully present with the client in this moment and see what they’re bringing. In fact, the best therapy often happens when its unplanned and organic.

At the start of most sessions, I offer my clients a brief, two-to-three-minute meditation to just ground them and bring them fully present into this moment, so that they can leave all their thoughts and the outside world behind, and see what is really emerging from within. Sometimes a client might say, “oh, I’ve got nothing to talk about today”. And I always think “ah, this is good – let’s see what is within. Let’s see what emerges from the stillness and the quietness, from just sitting together, sometimes in silence for a little while, and see what comes.” Often they can be the most fruitful and valuable sessions.