The barrier that everyone has

Everyone who sees me knows that I always look for practical solutions. Addressing even the simplest problems can pay big dividends. And there is a simple barrier that everyone faces.

That barrier is: what do I say in a session? What if I don't have anything to say? This has been going on since Freud put the first person on his couch.

Let me say two things about this. The first is that the more you bring to a session, the faster and better the improvement. People who engage in any learning endeavor - psychotherapy included - will reach their goals faster. It's the difference between a car driving to a specific destination and one taking a leisurely, meandering drive.

That doesn't mean (continuing the analogy) that if we are exploring if this route or that route is the better one, stopping to see sites along the way, etc. that we are wasting time. We don't want to be like long-haul truckers, being tracked to make sure we maximize every tick of the clock along a pre-prescribed map. But having a destination in mind for most sessions is important.

Secondly, I can't make something out of nothing. Well, I can for a little while but therapy is about you so let's not use that too much.

To help you, I've prepared some resources. Originally I had created these to give people options on how they wanted to handle the second session. They are also a good resource to go back to, if you are wondering about what to talk about in an upcoming session.