Counselling as a process can be rather intense, and starting it can be very daunting. You might have many questions and doubts about how to begin, and whether counselling is the right way forward for you at all.
That, really, is what the first session is for.
It is tempting to think of it as the work starting straight away, at full speed. I find it more useful to treat it as the session where we get our bearings. You can tell me what has brought you here, what you are struggling with at the moment, and what you are hoping might be different. I can tell you how I work, and we can talk together about which approach might suit you best.
It is also the session where you get to ask me things, and people are often far more hesitant about this than they need to be. You are allowed to ask about my training, about whether I have worked with something like your situation before, about what happens if you feel it is not helping. Those are all reasonable questions, and I would much rather you asked them early than carried them quietly for months.
And then there is the part that matters most, which is harder to put into words: the first session is where you find out how it feels to sit with me.
The relationship between you and your counsellor is the single biggest factor in whether counselling helps you.
That is not simply a nice sentiment. It is one of the most consistent findings in psychotherapy research. Approach and technique do matter, but they matter rather less than whether you feel able to be honest with the person sitting across from you.
Which means that fit is a real thing to weigh up, and you are entitled to weigh it up. If, after the first session, you decide that I am not the right counsellor for you, that is a perfectly legitimate outcome and not a failure of the session. I would far rather you found the right person than stayed with the wrong one out of politeness.
My aim, from the first session onwards, is that our time together is as valuable to you as it can possibly be. That begins with both of us being honest about whether we are the right fit.