My First Session with a Jungian Analyst

I was very excited when I finally managed to book my first session with the analyst. He had an opening in his schedule for a Saturday that I was available, Perfect.

The session was going to be on Skype, and I made the mistake to confuse my Skype account with my messenger, which it was super silly and stupid of me. In my mind I was ready for the session 20 minutes earlier and I was waiting for the call, I wanted to impress him with my organization. Unfortunately, I was waiting on messenger and he was trying to contact me on skype. He finally called me on my number, and after 10 minutes of embarrassment , we finally managed to start our session.

He started by asking about my relationship with my parents, early memories, etc. That was pretty standard, but what made it very different was how he put his headphones on, and closed his eyes to listen to what I was saying ( I assume this is a technique called active listening). Every time I said some key words in my story, he would nod and make a sound of acknowledging what I was saying. The more this process went on, the more aware of my words I became, he was also super serious and I felt like I was talking to my own psyche, and it was like I could not bullshit myself.

I started using all this Jungian terminology that I have learnt in the past few years, and I was trying to impress him. But what really became clear to me was how I needed a mentor, to guide me through all the intellectual knowledge that I was gaining, and to put it all into practice in my own life in a way that I can not only become who I am supposed to be, but also to truly become someone of value to others, without felling like I am a farce or a hypocrite.

After nodding and acknowledging everything I said, he then opened his eyes and looked at me and asked, “why are you doing this work now?” I felt like I was talking to my own psyche again and I tried to explain in the best way possible, that I had been asleep until a few year back. I also told him that because my mid-life crisis came a bit later in my life and, that I felt I needed to do the work to find who I am supposed to be in this phase in my life. He seemed to be happy with that answer, but I am not really sure what he really thought about everything I said.

He asked me what I would like to work on first, and I said that I needed to integrate my shadow and my anima, discuss my dreams, but ultimately it would be his call to decide what to do first. He just said, it was too soon to know that.

He then discussed costs and time we could have our ongoing sessions, which I am still waiting to hear back from him. Even though, we did not go into any actual work on this session, I did feel very different afterwards, I felt a sense of direction I haven’t felt in a long time, and to me that must be my intuition and my soul telling me I am without a doubt, on the right path of self-discovery.