The Art of the First Session: Making Psychotherapy Count From the Start

Making Psychotherapy Count from the Start

The average client today only comes to therapy five to eight times, and many only come once, so it is increasingly important, therefore, for therapists to achieve first-session success. Therapeutic skills and sales and marketing savvy are equally important to this task. In the first sixty minutes, clinicians must build trust, communicate what they have to offer, and ensure that the client feels different when they walk out than they did walking in.

Short, practical, and applicable to all therapeutic modalities, this book walks readers through all the first-session essentials, including preparation for the first session, action-steps for each stage of the session, techniques for changing the emotional climate, and “closing the deal,” to make sure that clients come back for more.

Packed with case examples, vignettes, tools, and techniques, The Art of the First Session prepares clinicians with critical skills to cut through performance anxiety, feel and convey confidence with clients, and hit the ground running in therapy with new clients.

Robert Taibbi, LCSW, has more than forty years of experience working with couples and families. Author of eight books and more than three hundred articles, he is a regular blogger for Psychology Today and the recipient of three national awards for Best Consumer Health Writing. He has served as adjunct professor at several universities, and provides trainings both nationally and internationally on subjects including couple therapy, family therapy, brief therapy, and clinical supervision. He is currently in private practice in Charlottesville, VA.