Resources | Forge Wellness Collective

What to Expect When Starting Therapy

Forge Wellness Collective — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:00:00 -0500

Start by completing our contact form. Tell us a little about what you’re looking for, who therapy is for, and how we can reach you.

A few sentences are plenty. You do not need to summarize your entire life or know exactly what kind of therapy you need.

Then, we’ll figure out the basics.

We’ll follow up to learn a little more about what you’re looking for and help determine which clinician may be a good fit. We can also talk through availability, insurance or self-pay, and any questions you have before scheduling.

If it seems like Forge isn’t the right fit, we’ll do our best to point you in a helpful direction.

Before your first appointment

Once you’re scheduled, you’ll receive some paperwork through our secure client portal. Yes, there are forms. We tried to make them as painless as forms can reasonably be, honest.

Completing them ahead of time gives your therapist some background and leaves more of your appointment for actually talking with each other.

If you’re using insurance, you’ll also provide your insurance information so benefits can be reviewed before your appointment whenever possible.

What actually happens at the intake?

Your first appointment gives you and your therapist a chance to get to know each other and begin figuring out what would be helpful.

Your therapist will probably ask about what brought you in, what has been difficult lately, relevant history, important relationships or experiences, and what you hope might change.

You do not have to tell your entire life story in the first hour.

You also don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what your “therapy goals” are. “I don’t know. I just know this isn’t working anymore” is actually useful information.

Your therapist will help guide the conversation, ask questions, and begin developing a plan with you.

And then?

If you and your therapist decide to continue working together, you’ll talk about what makes sense next—including how often to meet and what you’d like to focus on.

And if something about therapy isn’t working for you? Tell us. Therapy should be collaborative, and that includes talking about the therapy itself.

One last thing

You don’t have to wait until life is completely falling apart to ask for help.

Sometimes people come to therapy because they’re in crisis. Sometimes they come because they’ve been carrying something for years. And sometimes they just know that the way they’ve been doing things isn’t working anymore.

All of those are good enough reasons to start.

Ready to begin?

Complete our contact form, and we’ll help you figure out the next step.

I have an appointment. Now what!?

Forge Wellness Collective — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0500

Starting therapy can be weird.

You’re meeting a stranger and, within a relatively short period of time, you may be telling them things you don’t talk about with many other people. It makes sense if you’re not entirely sure how this is supposed to work.

Here are a few things you should know before your first session.

You don’t need to know where to start.

That’s part of our job.

Your therapist will ask questions to learn more about what brought you in, what life looks like right now, and what you’d like some help with. There may be questions about your history, relationships, health, symptoms, or previous experiences with therapy.

You don’t need to organize everything into a perfectly coherent story first.

You also don’t need to have a great answer to “What are your goals?”

Maybe you know exactly what you want to work on.

Or maybe your answer is closer to: “I don’t know. I just don’t want to keep feeling like this.”

We can work with that.

Part of therapy is figuring out what’s happening, what matters to you, and what might actually help.

You don’t have to tell us everything on day one.

Your therapist needs enough information to understand what’s going on and provide appropriate care—but trust takes time.

You’re allowed to say, “There’s more to that, but I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

That’s useful information, too.

You might cry. You might not.

Both are completely fine.

You might laugh at something you didn’t expect to laugh about. You might leave feeling relieved, tired, hopeful, uncomfortable, or mostly like you just gave a stranger the world’s fastest summary of your life.

There isn’t a correct emotional response to your first therapy appointment.

And yes, you can ask us questions.

Therapy isn’t something being done to you.

Ask about how your therapist works. Tell them if something doesn’t make sense. If you’re worried about something, say it. And as therapy continues, tell us what’s helping—and what isn’t.

A good therapeutic relationship has room for those conversations.

Mostly, just show up.

You don’t need the right words, a perfectly defined problem, or a five-year plan.

Come as you are. We’ll start there.

When Anxiety Spikes: 5 Things to Try

Forge Wellness Collective — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Grounding isn’t about convincing yourself you’re fine. It’s about giving your brain and body something useful to do when anxiety is loud.

Anxiety has a way of pulling our attention away from what is actually happening and toward what might happen, what something could mean, or what we need to do RIGHT NOW to make the feeling stop.

Sometimes the most helpful first step isn’t solving the problem. It’s finding some solid ground in order to figure out what actually needs your attention.

Different things work for different people—and even for different anxious moments. Consider testing these out for yourself.

1. Look around

Anxiety can make your world very small, very quickly. Deliberately notice what is actually around you.

Try the 5-4-3-2-1 technique: name five things you can see, four you can feel, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.

Or make it simpler. Find three things you can see, three things you can hear, and three things you can physically feel.

The exact numbers aren’t important. (Honestly, I just hold out my hand and try to think of which senses I could name the most answers for as I count down!) The point is to redirect some of your attention toward concrete information about where you are and what’s happening right now.

2. Give your body something else to notice

Press your feet firmly into the floor. Notice where your body meets the chair. Hold something cool for a few seconds. Stretch your hands and notice the sensation.

Physical sensations can give your attention somewhere to go besides the internal alarm.

You aren’t trying to force yourself to calm down. You’re simply giving your brain some additional information to pay attention to.

3. Name what’s happening

Try something simple and accurate:

“I’m feeling anxious right now.”

Or:

“My brain is telling me something bad is about to happen.”

That’s different from trying to convince yourself, “Everything is fine!” when you very much do not believe everything is fine.

Naming anxiety for what it is can create a little space between having an anxious thought and treating that thought as a fact.

4. Try slowing your breathing

Some people find breathing exercises incredibly helpful. If that’s you, try slowing your breathing and allowing your exhale to be comfortable and unforced.

You can also try box breathing: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, and hold for four. Or slowly and deeply breathing in a DOUBLE inhalation before breathing out—can be very helpful since we tend to have shallow breathing when we are most anxious.

What’s also very important to remember: you do not have to breathe perfectly.

For some people, concentrating closely on breathing actually makes them more anxious. If you’re anxiously monitoring whether you’re doing your calming exercise correctly, try something else. There is no prize for successfully counting your breaths.

5. Ask: “What is actually happening right now?”

Anxiety is very good at skipping ahead.

What if this happens? What if they meant that? What if I can’t handle it? What if this gets worse?

Try bringing yourself back to the present:

What do I actually know right now?

Is there something I need to do right now—or is my brain trying to solve something that hasn’t happened yet? How can I welcome this emotion instead of resisting it?

Sometimes there really is a problem that needs your attention. Grounding isn’t about ignoring it. It’s about getting steady enough to respond to the problem you actually have instead of every possible version of what could happen next.

What if none of this works?

That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

Grounding is a tool. It isn’t a cure for anxiety, and the goal isn’t necessarily to make every uncomfortable feeling disappear.

This is also something you can talk about with your therapist. What happens when you become anxious? What have you tried? What helps—even a little? What seems to make it worse? Sometimes figuring out your patterns is more useful than collecting another list of coping skills.

If anxiety frequently feels overwhelming, keeps you from doing things you want or need to do, leads to panic, or takes a lot of your energy to manage, therapy can also help you look at what’s underneath it.

Sometimes we need better tools for anxious moments.

And sometimes we need to understand why the alarm keeps going off in the first place.