How to Make Your Initial Therapy Assessment More Conversational - Extended Cut

This is the podcast-style, extended-cut version of my video "How to Make Your Initial Therapy Assessment More Conversational." If you prefer a shorter, snappier, more produced version of this video then you can access that here:

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This video is geared toward therapists of all kinds, including psychologists, MFTs, LPCCs, social workers, and others in the clinical counseling field.

Welcome to Private Practice Skills! I’m Dr. Marie Fang, psychologist in private practice. I post videos offering tools I learned the hard way about starting and growing private practice so that you don’t have to.

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This video is not intended as professional or legal advice. Be sure to seek the services of a professional if you are in need of them.

[wondergal]

Oh! And for goals, one thing I've found is if I put the goals on me, it helps. I'll say, "so I also want to ask about your goals for counseling. These are more for me to make sure I'm working on the things you want to work on."

[fisharefwends]

With my current therapist I really liked that we did the initial assessment virtually, it was only because her office wasnt ready yet but it really helped.

[wondergal]

My initial "spiel" is, "today is an information-gathering day, but I prefer to make this more of a conversation rather than an interview. Some questions don't have great segues though so I'll probably just chime in and ask them." I've heard many clients share that previous counseling just felt impersonal because of all the questions.

Reflections, "it sounds like...", "I'm curious about, " "I'd love to know more about, " are all common things to use.

I do wonder if the natural-ness of this comes from experience though and how it may seem easy but actually requires a decent amount of practice.

[otonielh.f.]

As a psychologist student, I have found this video so helpful specially the acting part. I have heard from many practitioners that they feel trapped in the “questions format” but your insight has given me a better idea of how to approach my first session someday. Thank you for your guidance.

[cakesinthecity]

Thank you so much for this! This is incredibly helpful!

[BojanPeric-kqet]

You should really see therapist's reaction when I stated my boundaries, which include, among other details, that anything related to suicide, she will be the last person to find out, if she finds out at all.
And you would be very surprised to see how many therapists send whole bunch of questionnaires to be filled before first session. My guess: they want save for intake session because it is usually not payed (out of pocket) here. Some even like to "scan" social media. One would expect that trainers and supervisors should know better. Totally opposite of your video.
But one the worst "conversational" things therapist can do is to switch to informal form of you after 15 minutes or so, without even asking for permission. I guess she was too much conversational, if not chatty.