Therapy Prompts For Sessions: Mental Health And Self-Exploration
Throughout the talk therapy sessions you attend, you and your therapist might cover a wide range of topics—from trauma and mental health to relationships and self-discovery. However, there may be sessions when you aren’t quite sure where to take your journey next. You may have just finished processing some intense childhood trauma and need an emotional break, or you may be in a good place but still eager for further steps toward self-actualization.
How to use therapy prompts for sessions and self-expression
You might use them as a jumping-off point for a discussion with your therapist or as journal prompts for expressive writing exercises on your own. Either way, you may find them to have a lot of benefits on the road to deeper self-knowledge.
General therapy prompts for self-reflection
The following prompts can be used to gain better insight into who you are as a person and to promote personal growth. You might bring them up in your next therapy session or use them to inspire a journaling or expressive writing practice—which research suggests may help promote increased self-awareness and reflective thinking.
Self-reflection therapy questions
Consider the following therapy or journaling prompts:
- What are 10 words that you would like to use to describe yourself? Brainstorm a few strategies you could use to make those 10 words a reality and write them.
- Take some time to explore a few past experiences that shaped who you are today.
- What’s an opinion that you held in the past but have since changed? What made you change your mind?
- Write three things about yourself that you want other people to know.
- What are three things that bring you joy?
Therapy prompts for exploring personal relationships
Research suggests that social connectedness can predict mental health and that loneliness can lead to a variety of physical and mental health challenges. So while close personal relationships can be beneficial and fulfilling in many ways, they’re not always easy or simple.
Questions for understanding your personal relationships
This next set of prompts can help you explore your current relationships and identify what you want and need from others:
- What does trust look like in a relationship for you?
- What are three general boundaries you practice when it comes to relationships?
- What does love look like in a relationship for you?
- What are three things that you bring to the table in a relationship?
- Name three positive things about a current romantic relationship or close friendship. What are three things that you feel you need to control or work on?
- How can you show the people you love how you feel about them?
Therapy prompts for personal and professional goal-setting
It can be easy to get so involved in the busyness of daily life that we lose sight of our long-term vision for ourselves. It can help to sit down and really think about what our values are, how we can apply them to live the way we want, and what we’re aiming to achieve in our personal and professional lives.
Goal-setting questions and therapy prompts for sessions
Here are some prompts for therapy or for your favorite journaling techniques you can practice to get the conversation started regarding life goals:
- Write a letter to your future self. What do you hope for them, and what do you see their life looking like?
- What are three obstacles you face to living the way you want to? Brainstorm a few potential solutions to overcome each one.
- Do you enjoy the work you do? What aspects of a job or career do you feel you’re missing or need more practice in?
- What are your strengths when it comes to the workplace? How do they help you fulfill your job responsibilities?
- How do your boss and colleagues show you that you’re valued at work? How do you wish they did?
- What motivates you?
- Write down three long-term goals for your life. How are they the same or different from the goals your past self had five years ago? 10 years ago?
Therapy prompts for self-acceptance
Although research suggests that self-compassion may help promote both physical and mental well-being, many people find it difficult to put into practice. If accepting yourself or practicing self-compassion is challenging for you.
Questions to ask when working on self-acceptance
Here are some prompts to help you direct your love inwardly:
- What are the three aspects of your personality that you like best?
- What part of your body do you think is the most beautiful? Why?
- Whatis a kind gesture that you can practice for your body today?
- What does “outside your comfort zone” mean to you? Talk about a time in your life when you stepped outside your comfort zone and how it shaped you, or brainstorm ways to do so now.
- What are three limiting beliefs you feel get in the way of being your best self? Try to reframe these beliefs into empowering statements.
Therapy prompts to improve mental health and physical health
Establishing and maintaining healthy lifestyle patterns can be key to cultivating overall mental and physical health, from getting enough sleep to exercising regularly.
Therapy prompts for sessions: Questions for improving your physical and mental health
If you’re looking to implement some of these habits into your regular routine, you might consider prompts like these for journal writing or therapy:
- What is your ideal morning routine—one that makes you feel ready to take on the day?
- What is your ideal evening routine—one that makes you feel relaxed and ready to get some sleep?
- What are three hobbies or activities you practice that make you feel fulfilled?
- How do you prioritize self-care in your life?
- What’s one small thing you can do every day to improve or support your physical health?
- What’s one small thing you can do every day to improve or support your mental health?
- Write down one or two barriers to the two previous answers and ways that you might remove or reduce them.
Getting the most out of therapy
While therapy can be an effective treatment for many mental health conditions, such as depression, it can offer lots of additional benefits as well. For many, it can be a safe space to feel heard and understood and gain greater self-awareness. It can be an opportunity to check in on yourself and your relationships in the present moment or to get perspective on your life.
Benefits of evidenced-based therapy from mental health professionals
Evidence-based modalities like cognitive behavioral therapy can also offer tools and strategies to help you manage stress, anxiety, and depression, improve communication, and improve life satisfaction.
Online therapy with therapists
If you’re not currently in therapy, speaking with a licensed provider could help you address areas of your life where you may need support or help you explore the path of self-discovery. Or, if you’re looking to get a new perspective by working with a different therapist, you might explore online therapy. With a platform like BetterHelp, you can get matched with a licensed provider based on your answers to a brief questionnaire. Instead of being limited to the in-person therapists in your area, you’ll be able to connect with the right counselor for you regardless of location.
What the research says
Research suggests that online therapy can be as effective as in-person sessions in many cases, but it allows more flexibility with scheduling and can be engaged in from the comfort of home. If you ever feel that you aren’t moving forward with your current BetterHelp provider, you can change therapists at no additional cost.
Takeaway
Read more below for answers to questions commonly asked about “therapy prompts for sessions”
What therapy prompts for sessions are asked in a therapy session?
Various therapy prompts are used in therapy sessions, especially for mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety. These prompts focus on helping clients explore and understand their feelings, thoughts, and experiences. Some general categories of therapy prompts include examining behaviors, exploring thinking patterns, emotional reactions, beliefs, and coping skills, exploring the past, setting goals for the future, gaining focus on establishing healthy habits, and checking in with emotions.
What therapy questions do mental health professionals like therapists ask in the first session?
In the first session of the first week in therapy, therapists usually ask questions to understand the client’s intent for seeking therapy, including their concerns, history, past experiences, and goals for future treatment. This is one of the most effective ways that therapists can adjust to the unique needs of clients and what the clients are feeling and thinking about, such as in the case of trauma survivors or patients with depression.
Most of the time, this may open doors for a healthy relationship between the client and therapist. Some questions to talk about include, “What brings you here today?,” “What are your current concerns?,” “Have you seen a therapist before?,” “How do you cope with life challenges?,” “Can you tell me more about your family background?,” “What is your strategy in making decisions?,” and many more.
What are the two types of clarifying therapy questions?
The two types of clarifying therapy questions used by therapists are open-ended and closed clarifying questions. Open-ended questions allow individuals to give detailed responses to “how,” “why,” and “what” therapy questions, thus digging deeper into their inner world and making sense of how they are feeling; meanwhile, closed questions are used to verify details mentioned by the client, using yes and no answers.
How do you engage quiet clients in a therapy session?
Mental health professionals have the ability to engage quiet clients in a therapy session by using different strategies for them to respond to. As a mental health professional, you can talk to and engage quiet clients in therapy by using gentle, mindful questions and developing a trusting environment so clients can express themselves at their own pace and not stress about it. Using nonverbal gestures and activities is ideal, so quiet clients are more comfortable participating in this simple act and building rapport.
Use open-ended questions to encourage self-reflection on their inner world, their values, and their perspective, as well as exploration of past events and the day-to-day life of the clients. Don’t pressure them to talk or provide answers to get a sense of how they are feeling; gently prompt them to share their line of thinking and their perspective while showing patience and empathy with their emotional reactions.
What are prompts in counseling?
In the context of counseling, a mental health professional uses prompts as questions or cues to encourage their clients to explore their feelings and develop some perspective about past events, identify problems, and understand thoughts more deeply. This may influence them to respond with a desired behavior, which can be beneficial for their values and well-being.
What phrases do therapists use?
Therapists use phrases that validate how their client is feeling, encourage reflections and develop healthy habits, and explore behavioral patterns, perspective, and beliefs. Examples are:
- “Tell me more about that.”
- “How does that make you feel?”
What are cognitive prompts?
Cognitive prompts are prompts or cues that guide students and learners when they should start asking questions and make connections between different ideologies, and challenge their automatic thoughts to open a different perspective on other areas of their lives.
How do you do therapeutic journaling?
You can do therapeutic journaling by writing consistently for consecutive days about what you’re feeling, your thoughts, your ideas, and your daily experiences as a self-help tool promoting emotional processing and self-reflection. When you write, it helps you gain a new perspective. Take a deep breath and take a moment to focus and loosely gather your thoughts before you write.
Expressive writing for a few minutes to describe how you’re feeling about your past relationships and past events can be a good addition to your healthy habits and has a lot of benefits for different aspects of your well-being. It can also be a good mindfulness practice to avoid negative thinking and anxiety, as well as identify and accept what you’re feeling.
Using journal prompts when journaling can be helpful for you to dig deeper into past events and small details of your life and see a different aspect and perspective of your emotions. It can help you be more in control of your feelings and emotions. Examples of journal prompts can be about workplace stress and anxiety, concerns about family life, things you want to achieve, or new relationships you have, and identify what makes you feel satisfied or what makes you feel uneasy. It may also be helpful to write an open letter to somebody who had a major impact or influence on your life.
You can also write by doing therapeutic journaling in conjunction with therapy and the guideance of a mental health professional.
What are fun check-in questions for therapy?
You can make your therapy sessions more fun and engaging by considering these check-in questions:
- What are you looking forward to?
- What’s a skill you’d love to learn, a thing you’d like to achieve, or a place you’d love to explore in the near future?
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
- What’s a funny or particularly happy moment that happened to you recently?
What is a clarifying question in counseling?
In counseling, a clarifying question is an open-ended question that can be helpful to the counselor so that they can identify and focus on what the client is thinking or trying to say, or describe how they are feeling. You can ask clarifying questions such as:
- Can you tell me more?
- What do you mean by ___?
- Could you explain further?
- What are your ideas regarding ___?
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