Washing "dirty linen" in public?

Therapy Session # 1

Oh yes...and i finally went for my first session of therapy today...i was rather nervous since i didn't know who was going to be my therapist and what was going to happen, learning it in class is definitely different from the actual experience.

I can't quite decide whether i should blog about it here or @ lilmisspsycho, but i reckon since its more personal, i would talk bout it here, and maybe the more psych related stuff will be mentioned there (and why again do i introduce complication to my life?...)

Today's session is not an actual therapy session, according to my therapist..its called intake, its sorta like a get to know you, and you get to ask questions to your therapist as well...(one and half hours long! subsequent sessions will only last 50 mins).

Rewind a lil prior to the start of the intake session, i took at least 15 mins to fill up the forms, informed consent (basically its a document detailing your rights to confidentiality, when the therapist can disclose your personal information, the charges involve, etc.), also because i had to consent to audiovisual recording (note the key word is had)...our counselors are actually graduate students, so the sessions need to be recorded so that they can view it with their supervisors, also there are 2 way mirrors (yeah i know..can be a little daunting!)...Don't worry in actual counseling situation, this is not the case. Just that we are psych students and willingly offering ourselves as white rats!

After filling up all the forms (which even included a section that ask you what problems you want to talk about..then they had a list of stuff with a scale...e.g. friendships, relationships, past abuse, career, etc.) i asked the receptionist who was my counselor..and he said...Mr X. (Although i am not legally required to maintain the confidentiality of my counselor, i think its ethical for me to do so)...Mr. X is a i think at least 40++ man...got white hair at the sides, top still quite black, rather petite, his theoretical orientation is CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) - this means he will be messing with my brain =P [ok..not exactly, but will illustrate in another post]. He studied psych in London, during the time when it wasn't even offered in Msia, so i guess you can say he is one of the pioneers, he has a full time job, which he is yet to disclose, and i did not press to get an answer, but perhaps i will in the next session. Speaks in a steady pace, and seems like a laid back sorta person. I could sense, he was probably as nervous as me...i reckon..not sure =P

So..finally we got started, he did his ethical duty of going through the inform consent with me..this is a big thing in therapy..i shall not bore you with that in this post, but it might be interesting to the lay person, essentially it details your therapist's responsibility to you and your rights as a client. And then the session begun...(but remember its just an intake session)

He asked me about my family, my primary concerns and what i intended to achieve in therapy. I actually couldn't wait to get started with the actual therapy, but he said next week :( haha...(i'm just really interested to know what techniques he will employ, wonder whether this constituted good participant effect in counseling).

Compared to my previous therapist, he is rather quiet, perhaps a better listener...but there are times where there is an awkward silence, but seriously the experience has highlighted to me how difficult it is for us Asians especially to share our problems with a random stranger. The experience really is enriching, especially if i do consider it as a profession at some point in my life. My lecturer likes to say we Asians don't like to wash our "dirty linens" in public.

But truly, if we are human, we all have issues, its just the extent of impact it has on our lives that differs. But since, i am getting extra credit for attending counseling, as well as getting it at a super super discounted rate, may as well make full use of the services...ok..i know you guys are dying to hear what i spoke to my therapist about...hm...should i disclose?

We really only schemed the surface today, apparently they need to assess the counselor's competence in continuing with me..whether i need to be referred to an actual professional etc, so i won't know till next week, whether Mr X will still be my counselor. But i like him, he seems nice, father figure sorta person. On a side note, my other friend, got like this rather hot guy as her therapist..haha i think she wished she didn't, cause you are ethically not supposed to date your therapist! Depending on which professional code you abide to, you can only date former clients after 2, 5, or 7 years from the time where therapy is terminated...imagine the wait! Also, i can imagine, it would really be hard to want to talk about all your problems when you are trying to impress your therapist, so really there are a lot of dynamics involved in searching for a therapist, and who a person might or might not be comfortable talking to, whether male, female, race, sexual orientation, etc. all these are taken into account. There is no perfect match, or criteria, but rather the goal is to ensure the client feels that he/she is in a safe environment to disclose her personal issues.

Thats all from my first session for now...next week i will have some take home assignment apparently...