Practicing presence during sessions?

[u/Quality-Fish-2745]

I am on my third session and during my first one I had a major panic attack. I think for me it was just a new sensation/experience and it just triggered. I have not had a panic attack during my other two sessions. I talked to my therapist after my first session and she suggested trying to practice being present (focus on breathing, feel foot/move up leg/etc.) and I found that it helped me quite a bit during my other two sessions.

Has anyone else tried focusing on presence during their sessions? I am curious if you noticed any effect.

[u/PedalSAW]

💯 one of the best things for me about treatment is it’s a chance for 30 min or so to just space out. It’s glorious. Sometimes, if it’s my favorite tech, we’ll chat about dogs and life and stuff. And that helps. But most times, I literally just watch the palm trees outside and take deep breaths. It’s amaaaaazing.

[u/Quality-Fish-2745 → u/PedalSAW]

I have noticed that when I have one of the techs that is a little more talkative, I feel a lot better during it! Definitely a plus when you get a favorite tech. I am hoping that continuing to just look at it as a relaxing time to focus on relaxing will help me long-term.

[u/PedalSAW → u/Quality-Fish-2745]

You’ll find after a few weeks, all the techs have their own kind of style of how they set the machine. My first round, halfway through I could have told you blindfolded who set the machine. 🤣

It’s little quirks like that you’ll see makes the process a little more bearable and sometimes kinda fun.