Psychologist recommends tips on how to eliminate awkwardness and anxiety during therapy sessions

With each passing day, more and more people are prioritizing their mental health and going to therapy. However, the initial phases and meets can get a little awkward. It is not easy to open up and be flexible about things that are concerning. While therapists try their level best to make their clients feel comfortable, people seeking therapy, on their part, can take simple measures too. Dr. Therese Mascardo, a psychologist who goes on TikTok by @exploring.therapy, shared a few tips on what one can bring up during therapy sessions.

Mascardo, who posts about mental health and therapy, focuses on those struggling with sharing and suggests what they can say. She begins the video by saying, “A free tip for when you’re going through therapy.”She then clarifies, “If you are unsure or anxious about what to bring up during a therapy session, it’s totally normal and okay.” Moving on, she recommends two alternatives to get started with the session. Firstly, she suggests letting the therapist know about the scenario. “You can bring that up with your therapist knowing that that’s coming up for you and you can talk it through and process a little bit,” she says. 

Next, she explains the misconceptions many people have. Mascardo says that many people think they have to talk about certain things during therapy, but that’s not the case. Ruling out another notion, she says, “A lot of people think that therapy is like a weekly digest. It doesn’t have to be.”

She elaborates, saying that one could talk about things that happened during the week if they hold importance or affect them in any way. “A different way to think about therapy is, instead of a weekly digest, think of the main themes that are important to you in therapy,” the psychologist says. She adds, “It could be relationships, something that’s stressing you out or something within you that you’d like to change or improve, a personal habit, or any of those things.”

She also mentions pondering over the aforementioned concepts in the form of themes that can be focused on during the therapy session. “During the week, when you have certain moments of insight or moments of friction, conflict, or difficulty, take out your phone or therapy journal and jot down those things,” Mascardo suggests. 

She then mentions that these pointers can serve as a “frame of reference” for what to bring up during therapy. She remarks, “If you keep adding things to the list as they come to you, you’ll never be stressing about what to share in therapy.” Elaborating on the same, she says, “You’d have moments throughout the week where you’re already thinking about what to share.” The psychologist herself makes it easier to figure out what to say and how to get more comfortable with her simple tips. 

People loved her advice and shared their views in the comment section. @crissytec said, “Most of the therapy sessions I went through, I had no idea how to start. I asked him to start with questions and that’s how it mostly went.” @emilyo723 said, “Definitely using these. I always feel anxious about not knowing what to say.”