ABSTRACT
After doing psychotherapy for a while, a therapist may become jaded and regard first appointments as "routine," just as another patient for the therapeutic mill. It is easy to forget how you felt when you were in the same position, if not as a patient, then as a newly anointed therapist facing your first patient. Recall how fearful you were that you might forget your own name, hopeful that the patient would not notice your nervousness, fearful that the patient would soon unmask you as an imposter, and certain that it would be only a matter of time before you would make a fool of yourself or be fooled by the patient. It is important to stay in touch with those ancient and uncomfortable feelings. One of the worst errors a therapist can make is to lose touch with the excitement and anxiety of beginning with a new patient, to see it as a routine affair that, "as usual," has the patient all stirred up. But, if you wait a while, the dust will settle and the patient will get around to telling you what is "really" troubling him.
