The first time you visit a mental health professional they should always talk to you about confidentiality, which is your right to privacy, and basically means that anything you chat about with them will remain private between the two of you. Mental health professionals take this very seriously; if they don’t, they can quickly lose their jobs!

The next thing a mental health professional will do is complete an assessment of your mental health, usually by asking a whole range of different questions about what’s happening in your life, your background, family life and personal history (you can choose how much detail you want to discuss until you feel really comfortable). They ask these questions to learn about you, not to judge you or jump straight to diagnosing you with a mental illness. The reason they want to learn about you is so that they can best HELP you based on your needs and wants. They’ll then discuss with you a plan for continuing, including how often they’d like to see you and for how long. Normally they will recommend that you visit them weekly or fortnightly for a period of time. An appointment usually lasts about 45-50 minutes.