What to Expect as a Working Professional When Starting Therapy
If you’re a busy professional (like so many of us are,) the idea of starting therapy can feel overwhelming. Between meetings, deadlines, and the constant pressure to perform, carving out time for your mental health may already feel like a challenge. And once you do make that decision, you might wonder: What exactly happens in the first therapy session?
That first meeting, often called an intake session, is where we will start our work together. If you’re juggling a career, family, and a million other responsibilities, knowing what to expect can help you feel prepared and confident. Here’s a breakdown of what usually happens during an intake session with a therapist.
1. Handling the Practical/Legal/Boring Stuff
Before your session begins, you’ll complete some paperwork online that is required to start therapy. As a professional, you’re probably familiar with onboarding processes at work, and this is pretty similar.
You can expect:
Consent forms explaining confidentiality, rights, and limits of care.
Practice policies (scheduling, cancellation, telehealth).
History questionnaires covering your mental health, medical background, and life stressors.
It might feel tedious (like filling out HR forms), but it helps me quickly understand your needs and saves time during the session.
2. Settling In
Once the intake begins, we will spend a few minutes helping you get comfortable. I might ask questions like:
“How are you feeling about starting therapy?”
“Have you tried therapy before?”
“What made you reach out now?”
For professionals, this is often the moment where you can exhale a little. You don’t have to give a polished presentation—therapy isn’t a performance review. It’s about honesty, not perfection.
3. What Brings YOU to Therapy
The bulk of your intake will focus on what’s bringing you to therapy. Common reasons professionals seek therapy with me include:
Workplace stress or burnout.
Struggles with work-life balance.
Anxiety, panic, or chronic overthinking.
Perfectionism or fear of failure.
Trauma related concerns
Relationship challenges, often tied to career demands.
I will likely ask questions along the lines of:
“How are your current challenges impacting your work performance?”
“What happens when the stress feels unmanageable?”
“How is your professional life affecting your personal life—and vice versa?”
You don’t need to have neatly packaged answers. Just share as best as you can—it is my responsibility to help you organize the pieces.
4. Looking at Your History
To understand the full picture, we will discuss your background related to your work and career trajectory including:
Career path: stressors, job transitions, workplace culture.
Education: schooling experience, performance pressure.
Family and relationships: support systems (or lack thereof).
Mental health history: past therapy, diagnoses, coping methods.
Health and lifestyle: sleep, exercise, medical conditions.
This isn’t about digging up every detail—but rather it’s about giving me context for the challenges you’re facing today.
5. Discussing Stress, Coping, and Safety
Professionals often learn to “push through” or “push down” stress until it becomes overwhelming. Some other areas we will focus on include:
“How do you typically cope when work stress builds up?”
“Have you ever experienced burnout or felt like you couldn’t keep going?”
“Do you ever use alcohol, caffeine, or other substances to manage stress?”
I also ask safety questions to all of those that I work with about anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. These aren’t meant to alarm you—they help me gauge your needs and ensure you’re supported appropriately.
6. Defining Your Goals
I am a big believer that therapy works best when it has direction and purpose. I will ask what you’d like to get out of the process. For working professionals, goals often sound like:
“I want to manage stress without feeling like I’m always on edge or irritable.”
“I’d like to set better boundaries between work and home.”
“I need strategies to prevent burnout.”
“I want to feel more confident in my leadership role.”
You don’t need perfectly articulated goals right away. Even saying, “I just don’t want to feel like this anymore” is a good starting point. Over time, we will refine your goals together, which is the beauty of therapy; we can make the goals fluid and change them as you grow and heal.
7. Learning About How Therapy Works
We will take some time to discuss possible approaches that may be helpful to you, which I have found many working professionals appreciate. We will likely discuss options of therapy treatment including:
Evidence based approaches that will be most helpful for your needs. This might include therapies such as CBT, EMDR, CPT, and others.
How often therapy will occur. For some people it is weekly, while others are better supported every other week or monthly. This is a collaborative decision, so feel free to ask questions!
Length of therapy sessions. Most clients are utilizing 50 minute sessions, but some trauma treatment modalities can be utilized in longer lengths of sessions, including 2-4 hour sessions, depending on the need.
Like I shared earlier, this is also your chance to ask questions. I often get asked questions like:
“Do you assign exercises I can practice between sessions?”
“How long before I might notice progress?”
“Do you give feedback or more open-ended support?”
8. Managing Nerves and Expectations
Even the most confident executives, managers, or entrepreneurs can feel uneasy in an intake session. It’s normal to wonder: Am I saying this right? What will they think of me? I will be real honest with you; you are going to be nervous. You might feel out of place or unsure of what to say. The truth: I am not grading you. This isn’t going to dictate a promotion or merit increase. Rather, this is a time to let your walls down and begin to learn to be your true and vulnerable self. Therapy takes time to slow down and ask for help—something many professionals avoid until they’re at their breaking point. It is my goal to make sure we help fix this before it happens, or before it gets too miserable.
9. Wrapping Up and Next Steps
Toward the end of the intake, we will usually recap what you’ve shared. For example:
“So I’m hearing that you’ve been experiencing high stress at work, difficulty shutting off at home, and that you’d like to develop healthier coping tools.”
Then, we talk about next steps—whether that’s scheduling another session, starting with specific strategies, or mapping out a long-term plan.
This is also the moment for you to ask yourself: Do I feel comfortable with this person? Do I see myself working with them over time?
10. After Your First Session
When you walk out (or log off) from your intake, you might feel a huge sense of relief, or you might feel emotionally drained from sharing so much. Both are totally normal.
Many professionals notice they’re already thinking differently about their stress after that first session, even if nothing is “solved” yet. It’s the start of learning healthier ways to manage the pressures of your career and personal life.
Key Takeaways for Professionals
The intake session is about information gathering and trust building, not immediate problem-solving.
You’ll talk about your work stress, personal history, and hopes for therapy.
We will discuss how I work as a therapist and set next steps.
Feeling nervous is completely normal (and to be expected.)
The session is a starting point for long-term growth and resilience.
Final Thoughts
As a professional, you spend so much of your time supporting others—colleagues, teams, clients, or your organization. Therapy gives you the rare chance to focus on yourself.
The intake session is your first step in that process. By showing up honestly and with an open mind, you’re already making an investment in your well-being, your career sustainability, and your overall quality of life.
If you’re thinking about starting therapy, remember: you don’t have to have it all figured out. Just bringing yourself to that first session is enough.
Feel free to reach out through email (ebriggs@healingspacescc.com) to discuss next steps and get you started on your healing journey.