Before you start therapy ask yourself these questions

so you're finally ready for that first therapy session great but where do you start great question let's talk about it in this video I'm going to give you two quick things to think about prior to that first therapy session but hey we never met before my name is Dr McCleary and I'm licensed clinical psychologist and navy veteran and my content is dedicated to educating veterans and their families about mental health so if that's you consider subscribing lot of people seek out Mental Health Services because they're just not doing well they're feeling low they're feeling down or they're generally feeling some way they don't want to feel or they're thinking particular way that they don't want to think okay well there can be lot of different reasons for all of that but what you want to find out is which you actually need to be working on and your therapist will help you get there but it's something important to think about prior to that first session what do you actually feel like you need to work on this is question ask all the time because it's not just my job to figure out what's going on part of it is your job as well and we're going to figure it out together thinking about what you want to work on is important prior to even that first session and something to think about is well what's bothering you the most what do we need to be focusing on what is the thing that is bringing you to treatment if you can already come in with that in that first session you got good head start the next question want you to ask yourself and something to think about is what do you actually willing to work on not what do you want to work on those are often different what are you actually willing to work on what are you willing to talk about it's very difficult to in the first session especially to start spilling your guts to complete stranger get that work in the field of trauma and often the last thing that anybody that has experienced the trauma wants to talk about is the worst time ever in their life makes perfect sense and maybe somebody isn't ready to unpack some of those traumas maybe they're not ready to talk about certain things that's okay what you do want to ask yourself though after you figure it out why you're coming to treatment in the first place is what are you actually willing to work on because I've never met anybody that comes to tell to talk to me it is excited to tell me about some bad stuff that's going on that's not how it works the reality is nobody wants to come see me two things think about what you want to work on what you need to work on what's going on for you right now that's causing you the most issues and two what are you actually willing to work on what are you willing to do you can come in during the first session with those two things you're going to be off the races after the races the recovery something to think about if this video was helpful for you please like it or consider subscribing to my channel if you want to learn more about PTSD and mental health but more important than that if this video was helpful for you well that means it can probably be helpful for another veteran or another friend or family member of veteran so ask that you share with them because at the end of the day that's really what all this is about one veteran trying to help another