15 prompts to write before you see your therapist
Fifteen short questions for when you want to write something down and don't know where to start. To use during the week, not the night before.
"Write down what you feel" is the worst possible advice when you don't know what you feel. The blank page, or the blinking cursor, doesn't help. What helps is a concrete question, one you can answer in a sentence and that points at something therapy can use.
These fifteen prompts are designed for that. They're not meant to be answered all at once: they're for picking one when you want to write something down and nothing comes. Write it or record it; a minute is enough.
About the day
1. What took up the most space in my head today?
Not the most important thing. The thing that took up the most room. Sometimes they match; sometimes the difference is the topic.
2. Was there a moment when I wish I'd reacted differently?
An answer you gave, something you held back, a door you closed a little too hard.
3. When did I feel good today, even for a little while?
This one always gets forgotten. And what makes you feel good is as much material for therapy as what makes you feel bad.
4. What did I put off again?
If the answer is the same three days in a row, you already know what to talk about on Thursday.
About people
5. Who did I talk to that left me with a strange feeling?
You don't need to know why. Just who and what feeling.
6. Who did I avoid?
An unanswered message, a call you let ring. Avoiding is information.
7. Did I say yes to something I wanted to say no to?
Or the other way around. Note what and to whom.
8. What would I have liked someone to say to me today?
This one usually opens up more than it seems.
About the body
9. How did I sleep, and did anything happen before I fell asleep?
Only if it was different from usual.
10. When did I notice tension, tiredness, or nerves in my body?
Clenched jaw in a meeting, knotted stomach before a call. The body registers things before the head does.
About therapy
11. What's still turning over in my mind from the last session?
Write it the same day or the next. By the following Thursday, it's gone.
12. Is there something I haven't told my therapist, and I don't know why?
You don't have to tell them. Just note that it exists.
13. What do I want to talk about next Thursday, in one sentence?
If you can answer this one, you're already prepared.
For looking back
14. What repeated this week compared to last week?
A person, a situation, a phrase you tell yourself. Repetition is a pattern, and patterns are what gets worked on.
15. What doesn't happen to me as much anymore?
The hardest one and the most important. Absence doesn't call attention to itself, but it's where the change shows.
How to use them
- One at a time. It's not a questionnaire. Pick the one that speaks to you that day.
- In the moment. If something happens at 4 p.m., the answer at 4 p.m. is worth more than the one at 11 p.m.
- Without editing. The first answer is usually the right one. If you start correcting it, it's no longer a record, it's an essay.
- By voice if writing is hard. Recording thirty seconds answering one of these questions is just as valid as writing. Sometimes better.
- Reread before your session. Five minutes. What you wrote down during the week is your list of topics.
Keep this list somewhere you'll see it. Over time you won't need it: the questions become automatic, and writing things down stops being a task and becomes simply what you do when something happens.
Harmony asks you these questions when you open the app and saves what you answer, by voice or text, for your next session. It's a complement to your process, not a replacement.