Workbook
Before You Start Therapy
The Pre-Intake Workbook That Makes Your First Session Worth the Price
This workbook gives your therapist a three-session head start before you walk in the door.
For the person about to start therapy who does not know what to say in the first session. For the person who has never articulated what they need help with in a way that lets a therapist actually help them — not because they do not know, but because no one has asked the right questions in the right order.
The Name It First Experience
Therapists are skilled at asking — but only about what you put in the room. Before You Start Therapy walks you through the questions no intake form asks but every therapist needs answered: what you actually need help with, what you have tried before and why it stopped, what you are afraid the therapist will conclude about you, and what you want your life to look like on the other side of this work. It is for the person about to start therapy who wants the first session to be worth the price — who has things to say and has never had the right questions to say them with. You finish with a documented readiness document — what you need, what you have tried, what you are afraid of, and what you are working toward — ready to hand your therapist before you begin.
You can opt into 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins from your account. We recommend you do — the point is to see what changed.
Sample questions
- What do you need help with — specifically, in your own words, not clinical language?
- What have you already tried — and what did you learn from what did not work?
- What would tell you that therapy is helping — what would be different in your life six months from now?
Research basis
Person-centered therapy (Rogers) / intake assessment research / therapeutic alliance research / ACT / motivational interviewing
Choose your format.
Every format asks the same questions and produces the same document.
Print Paperbackpersonalize
A real book and a pen. Write in the margins. The most permanent version of you on a page.
$22.99
eBook + journal
The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
Not available
Audiobook
We read every question and every scenario aloud. For the commute, the walk, the dishes.
Not available
Hardcoverpersonalize
The keepsake edition — sewn, ribboned, made to sit on a shelf and be returned to.
Not available
Digital Fill + membership+membership
Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
$12.99
Hands-Free Interactive + membership+membership
Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
Not available
Everything packages
The Paperback Everything Package
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Not available
The Hardcover Everything Package
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Not available
The Premium Hardcover Everything Package
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Not available
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Choose your pace.
The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
Full depth
Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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