As the winter chill seeps into our bones, it's the warm, candid conversations that keep our spirits afloat. In this episode, we navigate the emotional terrain clients may encounter as they embark on their healing journey, and the compassionate approach we therapists cultivate to support them from the get-go.
We shed light on the delicate art of creating a sanctuary for clients, handling heavy topics with utmost care and ensuring that each individual feels respected and comfortable. We also tackle the quirks of a small-town practice, like bumping into clients at the local grocery store, and the policies that keep the therapeutic space safe and professional.
The finale of our conversation takes us through the mosaic of emotions that lace the therapist-client relationship, especially in the initial meetings. We share tales of our own vulnerabilities, the daunting act of opening up, and the triumph of finding that perfect therapeutic match. It's an intimate comparison to wandering aimlessly through an overwhelming furniture store, searching for the right starting point. Join us as we pull back the curtain on the early stages of therapy, where the simple act of beginning can pave the way for profound change and growth.
Instagram @mentalbreakitdown
Email: mentalbreakitdown@gmail.com
Logo Artwork: artofandoy.com
Connect with us of you have questions, want to be on the podcast, or have topics you want discussed!
As the winter chill seeps into our bones, it's the warm, candid conversations that keep our spirits afloat. In this episode, we navigate the emotional terrain clients may encounter as they embark on their healing journey, and the compassionate approach we therapists cultivate to support them from the get-go.
We shed light on the delicate art of creating a sanctuary for clients, handling heavy topics with utmost care and ensuring that each individual feels respected and comfortable. We also tackle the quirks of a small-town practice, like bumping into clients at the local grocery store, and the policies that keep the therapeutic space safe and professional.
The finale of our conversation takes us through the mosaic of emotions that lace the therapist-client relationship, especially in the initial meetings. We share tales of our own vulnerabilities, the daunting act of opening up, and the triumph of finding that perfect therapeutic match. It's an intimate comparison to wandering aimlessly through an overwhelming furniture store, searching for the right starting point. Join us as we pull back the curtain on the early stages of therapy, where the simple act of beginning can pave the way for profound change and growth.
Instagram @mentalbreakitdown
Email: mentalbreakitdown@gmail.com
Logo Artwork: artofandoy.com
Connect with us of you have questions, want to be on the podcast, or have topics you want discussed!
Welcome to Mental Break it Down, a podcast for therapists and the therapy curious, where we dig into all things mental health and mental health adjacent. We're so happy you're here, let's jump in. We're doing it, we're here. Okay, let me put this down. Hi, hi. This was a mostly much more successful start-up than last week. Yes, how are you feeling? I'm doing well. I was cast in my household this morning, though, and it still has to do with birds, but different kinds. The birds are no longer drunk because of all of the wind has chased them into their sanctuaries, but the crows were out this morning, and my dog always wants to fight the crows, and so he'll start screaming at the crows, and the only thing that pops into my head is you can't make them mad. They remember the crows. That's only got to be nice. The crows will still start like messing with us, so Sam's still fighting birds and is also apparently scared of birds.
Sonia:I'm terrified of birds, are you? I'm terrified of birds.
Sam:Why.
Sonia:They're just something about the beak and the beady eyes. I don't know. It's my thing with raccoons and what are those other things? Possums, Possums, like the little hands freak me out With birds. It's the beak and the intensity of the little beady eyes.
Sam:You are afraid of everything that I love.
Sonia:I know, I know how are we friends? I don't know, but you know, I do think they're beautiful, birds are beautiful, but like from afar, I don't want it.
Sam:From afar, Anything with tiny hands, a prehensile tail that looks sharp essentially because all those things look sharp.
Sonia:Yeah, they're not round and cuddly and cute, like you do, right, and that's why I stay away.
Sam:Sonya does not like sharp animals, they're snakes. Oh my gosh, you would have lost your mind visiting my house when I was growing up, I probably wouldn't have visited your house, you would have just come to mine. And like is that girl okay to let that girl over to our house?
Sonia:I didn't have any pets growing up, did you? I mean yes, you did. You just said it, I had too many, you had too many and I had none. Pets are not a thing in most Indian households, at least not back then. Pets were. Well, they're not pets, they're animals. So they're outside.
Sam:And now, I have this one.
Sonia:I know how did you end up with puppies, then I don't know, I became an adult and I was like I want something cute and cuddly and look at this one.
Sam:You, poor baby juju, trapped in that home with her, with her wiping your paws, when you just want to be a garbage monster in the dirt.
Sonia:I know she is so cute. She's in the studio again today because, well, why not?
Sam:Well, I mean for one thing she licked my knee so much it's cold now she was laying on me.
Sonia:Yeah.
Sam:Well, you chose this life. No, it's just happening to me.
Sonia:What did we get into today? I feel like this is a slow start to the episode today.
Sam:It is. I think we have, at least for me. I'm feeling it's winter. Yeah, it is hibernation season. I'm slow, I am sleepy.
Sonia:I like it.
Sam:Do you feel like you're trying to do too much during the hibernation season? And that way you don't like it, or you just don't like the season.
Sonia:I don't like this part of the winter season. Why? Because once New Year's hits and all the festivities and the jolly and the glights and the happiness well, not everyone's happy during the holidays. You know what I mean. Just the energy of the end of the year, once that is done, the fuss and the distraction. Yeah, once that's over and we hit January 2nd, I'm like, okay, we're spring, let me just cut to spring.
Sam:Well, you're going to have a false spring next month and then it'll go right back into snow and make you really sad.
Sonia:Yeah, this is a time of year that's hard for me to get through. Are you dying?
Sam:No, I'm not Slowly inside I feel like it.
Sonia:I'm just like every day just feels the same, like it's just dreary outside. And I do love the Pacific Northwest, I love the Misty, you know this, I love this. But something about this part of the year is hard for me. Not like a seasonal depression kind of way, it's just like where is I need?
Sam:energy again.
Sonia:Where are the birds?
Sam:I don't really start feeling that until March, when I know it's like the technical time is right around the corner. It starts getting nicer. I'm fine with it.
Sonia:This is fine For me, I think. I know I have to deal with this for the next couple of months, and that's what I don't want.
Sam:It's anti-supportory. You've got to find some excitement in it.
Sonia:I want it Okay, great.
Sam:Well, that was my only professional opinion I had to give you. There you go.
Sonia:What should we talk about today? We had a topic.
Sam:Yes.
Sonia:You're staring at me blankly.
Sam:Because why do you always give it to me to introduce things when you know, Dan, what we're going to talk about?
Sonia:We're going to talk about intake sessions, first sessions.
Sam:What about intake sessions? Well whose point of view? From our point of view and what we observe right.
Sonia:Sure, you've been a client. Yes, now you've been in the therapist role for over a year.
Sam:A year and a half, 125 years, it feels.
Sonia:But we've seen a wide range of emotions, like how people present in first sessions. We've seen a good chunk so far.
Sam:I feel like half of my clients are first time to therapy, then the other half are either season pros or transferred from a different therapist. You know that kind of thing or picking back up. Let's talk about what is intake.
Sam:Intake is usually the first session that you have with your new therapist. They get to know what you need and a little bit more about you and your history. That looks very different between modalities therapists. I know some people where it's like an hour, hour and a half and you're filling out assessments and you're filling out demographic information, history, that kind of thing. Our approach is a little different because ours is more relational or conversational.
Sonia:I prefer having my clients fill out paperwork prior to intake session.
Sam:It's a requirement too, because informed consent and disclosures I want to have everything read, understood, signed.
Sonia:If you have questions, we can discuss it in intake. Using that time to fill out paperwork to me feels like a waste of time.
Sam:A waste of time.
Sonia:Thank you, Our preference, our practice. We send everything prior to intake. Then how do you approach intake? What happens when client walks in?
Sam:Quit stealing questions. I was going to ask you. I'm trying to be more engaged in questions because usually I'm just sitting here. For me, the first thing is we're going to get the nitty-gritty of the business stuff out of the way, because nine times out of 10, everybody's just signed stuff and filled out what they had to and have read little to nothing.
Sonia:I know.
Sam:Let's go ahead and quickly discuss the important key elements of how I work, what the disclosure entailed, what our cancellation policy is and how that looks. Also, what happens when I'm more than likely, inevitably see you outside, because the Pacific Northwest is a quote unquote big space, but it is a small space too. We run into people what that would look like and then also talking about mandatory reporting, like what we're legally required to report, also just about self-harm and suicidal ideation from the get-go, just to see what your need level is where you are, and then we'll talk about after that. It's leaving it open. What do you think it's most important for me to know right off the bat, or about you Also, I work with a lot of neurodivergent folks.
Sam:It's like let's talk about accommodations and stuff like that. What do you feel is best suited? Are you a person that likes to get up and move around? Do we need to change the lights? What is best to help support you in this environment and make you comfortable as possible? Because that's our key goal. How we designed our whole office is how can we make our clients feel at home with the things we actually can control? How about for you? What's the first session look like?
Sonia:for you First session similar to yours. I always say I have some housekeeping things I need to take care of. These are legal things that I have to let you know confidentiality, hipaa, social media.
Sam:We're not going to be.
Sonia:Facebook, friends, all those things, and then it really varies depending on the client. Some clients don't know what to talk about in intake and so I will go through history gathering like who's in your household and tell me about your family or chosen family, friends, partners, pets. For other people it's like, okay, housekeeping done, and it's just here's what's happening. We are just diving right into what is happening right now.
Sam:You ask one question and it's nothing to do with what they're actually coming in with but then they launch into it because they have been waiting to get it out. Yes, exactly.
Sonia:I always feel honored. I've talked about this. It's an honor to be someone's privilege. It's an honor to be someone's therapist.
Sam:It is an honor to be your privilege.
Sonia:We can talk about privilege in another episode, but it's an honor to be someone's therapist and there have been sessions where clients come in and they're like, yep, I have goals, I know what to do, and then tears come out because of this one tiny thing that comes up in session and they didn't expect it, and then it's like just waterworks.
Sam:Do you find that sometimes coming in with an agenda is to try to hold that back because they have a different topic or other things to attend to, maybe I?
Sonia:don't know, I'm not in the other person's head right, but I feel that clients that are very organized, very meticulous in life, those are the clients that have really emotional intakes. It's just been a pattern I've noticed and it's beautiful. And of course there's always apologies like I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying. It's healing, let's do it, that's why you're here. Those never fail to surprise me. I don't know if surprise is the right word, but I just like, I hold it and I feel it and the space feels. I'm at a loss for words today, but I feel in those sessions that when there are tears shed and there's vulnerability right off the bat, it feels healing to me, even as a therapist, because we're doing work together.
Sonia:Does that make any sort of sense.
Sam:I think it does, and I also struggled to find a word for that because it's the first session and I will talk about this in the first session. Let's talk about how weird it is that you're coming to a stranger and telling me things that you have guarded or that are sacred to you or very personal to you. That's weird and I always try to check in at the end. How are you still feeling about this? Because if this isn't your vibe, that's totally fine. Also, I'm a stranger. How did it feel to talk to a stranger in this way? Are you okay, essentially right now, just to try to gauge how the experience maybe was for them to offer extra support. The words I keep coming to is excited and delighted, which is very strange, because when someone comes in and I don't know and maybe this is also speaking from my own personal experience, because in session I'm a crier, I'm an emotional person, in session as a client.
Sonia:In session as a client, I don't.
Sam:I will not cry. Sometimes I've teared up like things are heavy. That's another topic. But as a client I'm one of the criers, which feels very uncomfortable to me.
Sam:So, it's also talking about how uncomfortable it can feel and how care taking can feel. Like now I'm giving you. Even though I'm coming here to hand you my emotions for a little while or for you to witness this, I still feel like I'm burdening you or I have to take care of you, because what I'm offering is not generally accepted outside of this space in a warm welcoming place. I don't know where I'm going with this, but I feel all of excited, delighted, relieved for them also because, like you've been holding this. Relieved that's, I think that's the word that feels right Relieved.
Sam:I feel relieved for the other person for the client yeah, and I have no idea how they're feeling about the fact this is happening, but I'm happy and relieved for them because they're for whatever reason they've let it out, even just a little bit, just a little, yeah yeah, it's releasing all that tension.
Sonia:I just imagine like an Instapot, right, yeah, the pressure valve, yeah, and it's the first session even if it's just intake and it's information gathering and it's running down through a list of documents or whatever. Therapy can still happen during intake, of course, and I'm finding it almost always does.
Sonia:Right, and I'm finding for myself that it's happening more often than not. Yes, and I've also had on the other side of the spectrum of clients coming in for intake that maybe it wasn't their choice to be in therapy, maybe it was a parent because they were a minor or whatever, and they're just silent. And then that happened to me in internship a few times where they just weren't ready but they were made to be there or they thought they were ready and they just weren't ready, or they thought they were ready and they weren't quite ready. And then I'm just like, uh, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do with this client that is closed off, doesn't wanna talk, is staring at the door and I can feel their anxiety and stress. It's palpable.
Sam:What do you do? How do you handle the silence?
Sonia:I had to just bring it back to my center, like this is not about me, this is their process. We will build trust, but it's going to take time and I learned a lot from that client.
Sonia:I learned a lot of patience with that client in myself and eventually it developed into a really beautiful therapeutic relationship. But it took time because they needed to feel safe and the first session there was a lot of silence. I wanna say like 60% of the session was silence and the other good chunk of it was me Just reassuring that it's okay, we're gonna take time. This is their space. We'll create safe space together. So that was interesting to have complete silence versus like clients that come in and they're like I'm ready to talk.
Sam:Even sometimes the clients that have said I'm like I've been waiting for this, I've been looking for a therapist forever, and they're highly motivated and very excited to get started. I also see a lot of overwhelm, like, okay then, but where do we begin? I don't know where to start, I don't know what to talk about, or there's too much, or, and then it's just staring Uh-huh. And then I'm like, okay, well, we don't have to start in a particular place. If you're feeling like it's really too big, we can. Whenever you start talking, it usually leads to something else.
Sam:So just by providing like an opening, it's literally like, okay, what's on your mind right now? Like what happened today when you were looking for a therapist, what was going through your mind? Because usually by the time somebody finds us, they were looking for a therapist because they were struggling or in a crisis, and we're just like I have to do this, and that's not the case all the time. And then it's very it can be very strange, when you're so activated, to finally get to a space and maybe you've calmed down or you have perspective on what brought you into therapy and you're like this doesn't feel so big anymore, but like, well, there was a reason why you came in, so let's go ahead and get back to that space and take it from there. That can be helpful too, because it's very we'd be like this felt like world shattering, ending whatever happened. And now I'm here and I'm feeling better. So why am I actually here?
Sonia:Which is interesting. I've had that yeah.
Sonia:People reach out and then, months and months later, you finally follow through on the emails and the communication, the consultation and the making of the first appointment. And then, yeah, it's like, well, I feel better now, but I know there's things to work on. And then those are the intake sessions where I'm like, okay, tell me about your mom, tell me about this. And then there's also like, well, where do I begin? I imagine I don't know if I ever told you this have you ever been in those furniture stores that are just like multi-level, just huge, like almost warehouse-like? And I feel like you and I went to a lot of them.
Sam:I was just gonna say looking for things for the office. We were in those and I was like I gotta leave. But do you remember?
Sonia:it's like that feeling of I don't know where to begin because there's not like a clear path. That's what I, I think that's how I felt as a client in my first therapy session. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm in that furniture store.
Sam:but in my brain, I don't you start with the thing closest to you, right? Sometimes it's a dining table and sometimes it's a lawn chair, and you know, so Yep, you start the thing closest to you and take it from there. Right, and I was gonna say and sometimes you talk with the person about what you need, but you do not talk to people in stores. I don't.
Sonia:Leave me alone.
Sam:You're not gonna try to sell me on things I don't need. Get out of here.
Sonia:I don't it's a I don't know if it's a great quality I have, but I just I get focused.
Sam:You will not be swayed.
Sonia:You have a mission. I have a mission to look at therapy chairs.
Sam:I don't need a headboard. I don't need your sectional. Your dinette set can suck it. Get out of here. I don't care about your sale, leave me alone. I've already researched your sales. Okay, I know more than you. Okay, is Ron Swanson in Home Depot? I know more than you. Please leave Another reference and you don't, okay.
Sonia:I think I know Is this the guy with the mustache?
Sam:Yes, the mustache Okay.
Sonia:I can't tell you where he's from.
Sam:But I have a parks and recreation.
Sonia:Great, never seen it. Yeah, I know Anything surprise you in an intake session as a therapist.
Sam:Are you thinking more of like a content action, like I'm not easily surprised. Maybe that's the thing I'm just like I'm expecting the unexpected.
Sonia:Oh, I was like, are you jaded? But you know, you're just open to all the experiences.
Sam:I have many experiences in my life that lead me to be surprised very infrequently oh, nothing shocks me or surprises me anymore. Oh, okay, for the most part, and I'm not gonna say anymore very rarely.
Sonia:Okay, but even about yourself, has there ever been anything that you, as a therapist, you're like? I didn't expect that out of myself.
Sam:Early on, and we've talked about this several times early on, especially in like internship and just being a fresh baby therapist still in school. You try and fight it, but I think it's still, at least for me, got through of like this is how I'm supposed to act to be in best service of my client.
Sam:Right, that's what I expected and I went through school expecting, like I have to figure out who therapist Sam is and very quickly, through trial and error, I realized that people feel it when you're not actually you, very viscerally and quickly Uh-huh, and so I started. I mean, when you're in school you're told like you're the blank slate, no self-disclosure, you are a therapist, it's not about you. Yes, but I'm also a human and to keep all of my humanness from another human, that does not feel good. It didn't feel good to me, it was very inauthentic. So I started just like okay, how does Sam want to do therapy in relation with another person instead of, who does Sam want to be as a therapist? So, going into the space and not, they tell you, open body language. So I'm like am I supposed to sit here with my arms on the side of the chair with my legs open?
Sam:that don't touch the ground that looks so weird and so I just like started taking off my shoes and crisscross and being comfortable and even if it's an intake, I'm still wearing my hoodie and I'm comfortable. And so when I would bring cases for consultation to our consultation group in school and I'd get feedback that I'm not supposed to be doing those things or I'd like a client too much and all of this thing, I appreciate the feedback. But when I would make changes to better adhere to what my professors were telling me to do, my clients were asking me if I'm okay. That shocked me.
Sam:I'm like it's so apparent five seconds into session that I am different and you don't appreciate it, and you appreciated what I was bringing. It's the unlearning, certain aspects, and I still catch myself doing every once in a while, just like being too stiff or whatnot, cause I'm like where do I need to put my hands? I'm like is this just me in the way my brain works? What's causing me to be so strange right now? It's been a learning curve, because somebody's coming to you for help and so that's for front in my mind. I work customer service and retail for my whole life, so I'm like I'm here to give you what you need, but that's not actually. No, no, that's not this, that's not this. There's not anything I could do to make you feel better. We have to figure that out together, and keeping that in mind has been really helpful.
Sonia:And that's how you work too. That's kind of one of the models that you work with.
Sam:And I think I get shocked in a good way when you see somebody relax in the first session. It's not shocked, it's just I'm like there it is. Or somebody comes in and they're just very much themselves and they're not so timid and they're just. They grab a snack and a coffee and then they walk into the room, they sit down, kick off their shoes and immediately make yourself comfortable, cause that's where it's a new space. So I'm like I'm not expecting that and that kind of is great. But it shakes me up a little bit cause I'm like most people that come in here don't know where to be and how to be in the space quite yet.
Sonia:I think a lot of my surprises and unexpected moments happened more in internship. I recall, and I think I've told you this I don't know if I've ever talked about it on a podcast, but a podcast episode but there was an intake that in our old place, right, remember you had to walk down the hallway and like it was what like a 20 second walk from our office to the lobby and, just feeling confident, I'm like, yes, it's intake day, I feel good, you know new client woo.
Sonia:And then I turned the corner and I'm like, oh, I just I did not expect the client that presented, and so then we walk back. And then during intake I just felt so insecure is not the word, but I was just questioning, like am I going to be able to support this client in the way that they need?
Sonia:We are very different and at that time I didn't have my niche down. I didn't. We were an internship, we were working with everybody. We were working with all ages, everything, all identities. I didn't have my niche and I don't think we were really allowed to and I really questioned if I could support this client.
Sam:In a way Was it just differing identities that you didn't expect. Totally different, like polar opposite identities.
Sonia:And, of course, in school we've been taught you should be able to help everybody.
Sonia:Oh, I think I remember the client talking about it Right and we were just two very different people from most aspects of life and it turned out to be a pretty decent therapeutic relationship, like we didn't have sessions for very long, but it actually was wonderful. And then I had another intake session that I was just shaky the whole time. It was my nerves and I have never felt that way in session before and of course I had to like work through it with my supervisor had nothing to do with the client, it had everything to do with me and again I think it was that feeling of am I going to be able to support this client?
Sam:Am I enough for this client Am?
Sonia:I enough for this client. And in intakes where client walks in and you're like oh okay, you have an image. Right, we're human beings, we have certain ideas about gender, age, whatever.
Sam:And we didn't do consultations or video consultations.
Sonia:We did not.
Sonia:So it was just emailed back and forth and then it was, and sometimes it was emailed back and forth with admin and then we were just like the last step to make an appointment right, and client walks in and we sit down and then it's just everything that's ever happened in their life is just out in first session and the overwhelming sense of I felt responsible to be able to provide like the right kind of support just was a lot to handle as an intern and so I had to like run across the hall and, like you know, get support.
Sam:Well, we're still learning that it's okay to not be able to meet everyone's needs and not be in the scope of practice for everything, but that's hard because it was like you're coming to me for help. That's what I need to give for you.
Sonia:Yes.
Sam:But it's like I might not be the right fit. And then if you're wondering, and that happens in like a split second- it does You're like hi, oh no, oh shit.
Sonia:Yeah, is this gonna work and in all the examples that I just mentioned they were all great therapeutic outcomes and relationships. I actually really enjoyed sessions with those clients and my initial reaction and feeling in intake was not a clear indication of how that therapeutic relationship was gonna go.
Sam:Oh, no, no.
Sonia:And now I can tell pretty quickly like we're gonna be a good fit. We're gonna be a really good fit.
Sam:I'm curious for you, like because starting with a new therapist or starting therapy for the first time all of this can be really daunting and you've already put so much work into finding a therapist in the first place. What do you feel like you would want clients to know about you and how you practice in our space? If you can speak to the client and be like I want you to know this, I don't know to make it easier, yeah, I don't know why.
Sonia:I actually had this conversation with a new client pretty recently and there was a concern about I don't want. Maybe not concerned, but there was conversation about it is hard for me to talk. How are you gonna get me to talk, basically as a therapist, how?
Sam:are you going to? I work best when asked questions. I'm like yeah, sure.
Sonia:And for me, I think, introducing the space of like a quick rundown this is our living room. This is on our lobby. Grab a snack, relax before session. We don't want you to be hungry or thirsty. This is the office. This is the therapy office that we'll be meeting in every week. Sit wherever feels comfortable, sit however feels comfortable, and I see clients like take the room in and you can tell like okay, this feels good. I had a client say oh, it's nice and warm in here.
Sonia:It's, really it's cozy in here, so I like to talk about the physical space first and acknowledge like there's light coming in, there are trees like this is why we picked the space that we did for GCC. And then I talk about how I do therapy and that it's flexible, because my niche is working with clients of color, people of color that come from different backgrounds. So I have to be able to be flexible, right, because in different cultures we interact differently, right, and so I have to respect that, and I talk about that. I talk about the power dynamics and the ways that I try to eliminate that as much as possible.
Sonia:I talk about what it means to create this quote unquote safe space, this very therapeutic buzzword that it doesn't exist until we create it together. And I talk about the awkwardness of therapy, as you mentioned earlier, because it is I'm a stranger and I'm like tell me your life. So I try to break all of those things pretty quickly and, yeah, so far so good. So far so good. It's hard to do that with virtual sessions, though, because I'm like here's the off.
Sam:It is way harder with virtual, which is why I like in person. If people can come in person at least for a little bit, so we can. There's a vibe in the room and it's undeniable.
Sam:So we can feel what it's like to share space. I desperately wish that I had the ability to telepathically project like how excited I am you're here and how hopeful I am for you and yes, I'm absolutely serious when I say that you don't have to sit down, that you can actually get comfortable, that I'm also a flawed human sharing space with a flawed human and we're gonna figure this out together. I wish I can just like give somebody the feelings that I'm having. Yeah, so I just try to actually just talk about it, because it's the second best.
Sonia:I guess I always say welcome to GCC.
Sonia:I do always find myself saying that because, I think this is a wonderful space and I want them to feel like it's a space for them to heal, to cry, to laugh, to joke around, Cause sometimes we joke in session like life is life, you know, and so I. To me, the space, the suite, the GCC suite, is its own thing and in intake. I do acknowledge that and I don't want to say it's like sacred ground, but it's like. This is where a lot of stuff happens. It's intentional.
Sonia:It's intentional, yeah, and 10 out of 10 clients and I'm going to say 9 out of 10, 10 out of 10, I think it's been a space of comfort for all of my clients and all of my clients have expressed that, so intake here has been really great.
Sam:I keep telling, I keep hearing in my head things from school, which is really funny. It's like fighting its first thought, second thought, right, and it's the don't give your like, don't your feelings essentially don't matter, keep them to yourself. But I'm just like I'm excited you're here, I'm happy to see you, welcome, I'm glad.
Sonia:Yeah, I do say that, like I'm glad you made it in, I'm so glad you're here, let's let's get going.
Sam:I like opening the door and preparing to shut it behind somebody and see them slowly walk in and look around.
Sonia:Yeah, it's. Intakes are great, and intakes can um be eye-opening. Have you had an intake where you're like this is not a good fit and you've had to refer anybody out?
Sam:You know, not yet. Same, not not yet. And I I have. I've even had clients um way back that other people said I don't know how this is working for you because, um, at least half, if not most, of the session was absolute silence. And looking back, when I was first working with that client, I was like why? What are the expectations? But the more I worked with them into it didn't take very long. They needed space and time, they needed processing time. So I gave that to them and I talked about it Like I'm, if I prompt you or ask you a question, you need extra time. We're just going to chill here. You're not expected to take for me.
Sonia:We're trained in silence, we're just going to hang out.
Sam:You answer me when you feel comfortable too. Um, I kind of I liked that client a lot.
Sam:I liked that client, I liked our space. Even though it was because I'm can be a chatty person. It was very strange for me to hold that much quote unquote therapeutic silence, but it taught me so much. Yeah, I um as of yet I think we also have a good system down to where it's very apparent what we do and who we are and if you're into that, great. But then we have our consultations. We make it very clear that, like, please shop around. You don't have. If you find somebody that you vibe with better, please do that. So I think, especially in this space, we haven't had that much, because people will either lean in or not.
Sonia:Do you get nervous for intake sessions?
Sam:Yes, and no because it's. It's like it's first date feeling.
Sonia:Yeah.
Sam:Yeah, because like well, are they within my scope of practice? Can I be of support? Will they like me, like all of this stuff? Will they find me helpful? It's not like a oh God, I hope they like me. I'm like is this a good fit? That, that's that's my feeling. It's more like I really hope this works out. Yeah, for them, for them, and so they don't have to keep looking. And they have found their space and so they can just start doing the work. So it's, it's a mix of all of those feelings.
Sonia:I agree. How about for you? Same, I agree. I yeah, it's the. It's the first day of school, kind of like there's excitement, you don't know what, what it's going to be. So you know what first day of school is. It's always the same right.
Sam:But you still, you don't have your routine down Exactly Everybody's still new.
Sonia:Yes, and there's always that. I hope that this is a good fit for them. Even though we've put in the legwork, consultation, email, back and forth paperwork, all of that, there's still that, like, I hope this is the right fit for them for us together.
Sam:Yeah, it's always finding out like what their headspace is coming in. So I, before even getting to housekeeping, or sometimes just right after I'd be, like you just got settled in and listen to me talk for a little while, like how, what's your energy like coming in? Are we low energy, high energy? Like what's your headspace coming in today? What are you, what were you wondering about coming?
Sonia:into therapy.
Sam:What were you concerned about? That's kind of things, doing a check in, I mean defaults oh the good old standby, just talk about it.
Sonia:Just call it out, just talk therapy.
Sam:Talk about it and talk therapy. Okay, there you go and, on that note, bye. Thanks for joining us. Bye. Mental Break it Down is produced and edited by Sam and Sonia. Our logo was created by the amazing art of Andoi. If you have any questions, comments or have a topic you want discussed on the podcast, email us at mentalbreakitdownatgmailcom or connect with us on Instagram at mentalbreakitdown. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Nothing said in this podcast constitutes personal or professional consultation, therapy, diagnosis or creates a counselor-client relationship. It is not intended to provide medical or mental health advice. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and guests are theirs alone. Thanks for listening. Bye, thank you.