Family dynamics
Who do you live with? Mention their ages and how they are related to you (or type of relationship).
In addition to those you already mentioned, who are the important people in your family?
Describe your relationship with your family and/or with the people you live with. Include the positive aspects (e.g. with whom you have good communication, from who you feel and get support etc.) and negative aspects (problems and sources of stress).
Describe your relationship as a couple (if you have not previously done so). How long have they been together? How is the relationship? How do you see the relationship in the future?
Description of your normal day
Describe the activities you do in a normal day from the first thing you do in the morning until you go to sleep.
What other activities do you do besides the ones you already mentioned? What activities do you do for pleasure (to have fun, distract yourself, relax, destress)? How often do you do them?
Physical and mental health status
How would you describe your current state of health? Do you suffer from any condition? Do you take any medication or supplements? Which ones? (mention if they are prescription based)
What is the important family health history? Is there a history of mental health in your family?
Have you ever been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder? Please, describe.
Have you ever gone to psychotherapy? What was the reason? Were the results satisfactory? Describe your experience (include what was helpful and what you didn't like).
Healthy habits
Describe your diet. Do you eat well? How many meals do you have a day? Do you try to be healthy foods?
How are you sleeping? Do you sleep well? How many hours on average? Do you wake up frequently? If you wake up, is it difficult for you to go back to sleep? Do the problems occur often?
Do you exercise or do any physical activity? How often? (If you answered no) Is it in your short-term plans? Have you exercised in the past? Why did you stop?
Do you think you drink enough water a day? How much do you drink?
Substance use
Do you smoke? Did you smoke? (If you answer yes) How much and how often? At what age did you start? (and if you quit smoking) How did you do it?
Do you drink alcohol? (If you answer yes) How much and how often? At what age did you start? Have you or the people around you ever considered your drinking a problem? (if you answer yes, please describe)
Do you use any illegal substance? (If you answer yes) How much and how often? At what age did you start? Have you or the people around you ever considered your consumption a problem? (if you answer yes, please describe)
Social, work and school
Describe your social life. Do you have a group of friends? Do you count on your friends/group if you need support, to be heard or help? What kind of activities do they do?
How are you doing in school? How do you get along with your colleagues? How do they treat you? How are your grades? Does it make you feel good to be studying? Up to what educational level do you want to reach?
Describe your employment situation. How do you get along with your colleagues and bosses? How do they treat you? Is it a stable? Do you fear you can lose it? Do you like your job? Does it make you feel good? How stressful is it?
Childhood
Describe the most important thing about your childhood. Use the following questions as a guide (but you don't have to answer one by one): What was the family relationship like? Have there been city changes? What were the most important events that influenced in some way in your way of being? Did they make you feel loved, accepted, important? Were there displays of affection? Did you grow up in an environment where you felt safe? Was there a family union? Did you have activities together? Did you feel like an important part of the family? How was the discipline? How were you punished? Were they harsh, exaggerated punishments? Or fair? Did your family boost your self-esteem or hurt it? Did you experience any type of violence in your childhood or adolescence? Did you experience something in your childhood that you would be considered a traumatic event?
Personality and self-concept
How do you feel about yourself? Do you consider yourself to have good self-esteem? If a person close to you described you, what would they say? Include positive and negative characteristics.
How would you describe your style of managing emotions? Do you recognize, feel and express them easily? Do you have a tendency to hide and save them? When you experience negative, difficult, or unpleasant emotions (anxiety, anger, guilt), how do you deal with them?
What are your plans and goals? What would you like to achieve in the next year? In 5 years? In 10 years?
Reason for consultation
Describe the issues you are interested in working on in therapy, as well as the goals you would like to meet.
