You don’t need to prepare. There’s no reading to do and no skill to bring. The most useful thing you can walk in with is a willingness to say when something isn’t working, which is worth more than any amount of homework.
What gets asked
Standard intake, mostly. What brings you, what you’ve tried, medication, safety, who’s in your life. A somatic therapist will usually add a few questions about your body — how you sleep, whether you notice hunger, whether there are places you never feel much, what happens physically when you’re stressed.
They should also ask about medical conditions, chronic pain, and anything that makes certain sensations frightening rather than just uncomfortable. If they don’t ask, tell them anyway.
You’ll probably be asked to notice something
Often something neutral on purpose — the weight of your feet, the chair against your back. That isn’t filler. It’s a calibration. They’re finding out whether the inside channel is open, shut, or overwhelming, and the answer shapes everything after it.
If you notice nothing, say so. It’s extremely common, especially if you’ve spent years getting by on not feeling, and it’s a starting point rather than a failure. If instead you notice far too much at once, say that too. It changes the pacing completely, and it’s the more important thing to flag.
Worth saying early
That you find this kind of question awkward, if you do. That you’d rather not be touched — you can say it before it ever comes up, and a good therapist will simply note it. That you’ve a history that makes closing your eyes unpleasant. That a previous therapy pushed too hard and you’re wary now.
None of this is hard for an experienced practitioner to hear, and all of it saves weeks.
What a good first session leaves you with
Not a breakthrough. Ideally a slightly clearer sense of how you work, a thing or two to notice during the week, and the impression that the person opposite is competent and not in a hurry. If you leave flooded, raise it immediately. That usually means the pacing needs adjusting, which is easy to fix and much harder to fix if you don’t mention it.
How long to give it
Six to eight sessions before you judge. The first two are mostly logistics and getting a feel for each other. If by session eight nothing outside the room has shifted, that’s worth a direct conversation about whether this is the right approach or the right person. A good therapist will welcome that conversation instead of taking it personally.