Most people arrive at a first session having rehearsed it. Some have written notes. Almost everyone apologises within the first five minutes for not being clearer, or for taking up the time with something that isn’t serious enough.
You do not need a prepared account of your life. You do not need to have worked out what the problem is. If you had, you would probably not need the hour.
What actually happens
We start with the boring, necessary part: how long we have, what confidentiality covers and the two situations where it doesn’t, how payment works, what happens if you need to cancel. Five minutes, and then it is your time.
After that, you talk. It can be about the thing that made you finally send the email, or about something that happened on Tuesday, or about how strange it feels to be sitting there. All three are useful. I will ask questions, but mostly to check I have understood you properly rather than to gather information for a file.
Some people cry in the first session and are embarrassed about it. Some people talk for fifty minutes without a pause and leave feeling exposed. Some people say almost nothing and find the silence surprisingly bearable. None of these is the wrong way to do it.
At the end
We stop a few minutes early and decide together whether to carry on. There is no pressure to commit in the room. Going away and noticing how you feel about it the next day is usually more informative than anything you can work out on the spot.
If you would like to start with a shorter, free conversation instead, that is what the booking page is for.