First Therapy Session in Ibiza & Online: What to Expect

“I don’t even know where to start.”

That was one of the first things a client said to me as she sat down. She laughed a little as she said it, but I could feel how much it had taken to get there. She had thought about reaching out for months.

I hear some version of this very often. So this month I’d like to take some of the mystery out of that first step.

Why starting is the hard part

Booking a first session can feel big. Many people tell me they’ve written the email several times, or kept my website open in a tab for weeks. The worries sound familiar:

Where do I even begin? What if I cry? What if it’s not “bad enough”? What if I can’t explain it properly?

None of this means you’re doing it wrong. It means you’re about to do something that matters to you.

What the first session is actually like

The first session is 50 minutes of two people, in a room or on a screen, getting to know each other and what brings you here. It’s a conversation, not an exam, and you don’t need to prepare anything.

We begin by getting comfortable and familiar with each other.

There’s no rush.

Then I’m curious about you: a little of your history, and what you’re hoping for.

I also want to hear about the good things, what has gone well in your life, what you care about, and your hopes and dreams.

You don’t have to share everything, and you don’t have to have it figured out. You’re also very welcome to ask me questions, about therapy, about me, about how this works. If you cry, there’s no need to apologise. If you go quiet for a moment, that’s welcome here too.

Towards the end, we take a few minutes to check in. How was that for you? Is there anything you’d like to ask? If it felt right, we can find a time for another conversation. And if you’d like to think about it first, please take your time. There’s no rush to decide.

You don’t have to be in crisis

Many people think therapy is for when everything has fallen apart. In my practice, people often come because of the struggles that life brings: a transition, a loss, being far from home, or years of carrying too much, until it becomes hard to cope with them.

You don’t need a big enough reason. If it’s getting hard to carry, that is reason enough.

How I work

In the approach I work with, I don’t see people as simply sick or well. Life is more complex than that, and so are people.

Most of us move along a continuum. There are times when we feel more resourced, more connected, more ourselves, and times when we feel further from that: overwhelmed, stuck, depleted. Neither state is fixed, and neither defines us entirely.

That’s why I don’t begin with what’s wrong. In the first session, we begin with what’s already there: your story, your strengths, the capacity you carry even in the hardest moments.

Whatever emotion comes up, I’ll sit with you through it and let it be there. I’m not trying to hurry it along or make it go away. Being there with you is what matters most to me, and it’s why I do this work: I want to help people live a more fulfilled life, to see their own potential, and to find more compassion for themselves.

And me, on my side of the room

Something I don’t say often enough: I get nervous too.

It’s not the kind that gets in the way. It’s more like the feeling before meeting someone important. Every first session is a new person and a new story, and I want you to feel safe enough to be there. Alongside that nervousness I feel excitement and hope. I’m curious who you are, and hopeful about what might become possible, even when it can’t be seen yet.

It’s a privilege to be trusted with someone’s story, especially when you’re still finding the words for it.

So if you walk in nervous, that’s completely okay.

If you’ve been thinking about it

You can begin with something as small as “I’m not sure why, but something doesn’t feel right.”

If you’d like a space to begin, I’m here. I work in English and German, in person in Ibiza and online.