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A first psychotherapy session does not require a polished account of your life. Here is what it may explore and which questions help you judge whether the fit is right.

Plenty of people delay seeking psychological support because they feel they should first be able to explain everything neatly. That is not required. At the Freshwater clinic, a first psychotherapy conversation can begin wherever you are, including with uncertainty about why you have come.

Where the conversation might begin

Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, also holds qualifications in psychotherapy, and she may start by asking what has become hard lately, how long it has been going on and what you would like to be different. Other areas can help build a starting point:

• sleep and energy
• relationships at home and at work
• study or job pressures
• support you have had in the past, and what did or did not help

You decide how much to share in that first meeting.

Questions to put to Christine

It is reasonable to ask how goals will be set together, how you will both check whether things are moving and what confidentiality looks like in practice, including its limits. There is no standard number of sessions that applies to everyone, and the name of a therapy method on its own will not tell you whether the working relationship feels right.

Keeping your priorities at the centre

Good psychological work leaves space for what matters to you. That may be understanding a pattern, finding a change that feels too difficult to attempt alone or simply knowing how you would recognise that something has shifted. Ask how the work will be looked at again over time and what options exist if your needs change between appointments.

If things feel urgent

Psychotherapy is not an emergency service. If you are worried about your immediate safety, contact your GP, a crisis line or emergency services.

For a first conversation on the Northern Beaches, you can arrange a psychotherapy appointment with Christine at the Freshwater clinic; even one sentence about what brings you is enough to begin.