What to ask before the first session: the questionnaire that saves 10 minutes and orders the interview

The first session with a new patient has its own rhythm. It is necessary to collect basic information, understand the reason for the consultation, establish the link and, if there is time, begin to guide the work. Ten minutes spent asking for a name, date of birth, family doctor or if you've been in therapy before are ten minutes left over everything else.

A well-designed pre-session questionnaire solves that. The patient arrives having already answered what can be answered in advance, and the therapist enters the session with context, without having to start from scratch.

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What kind of information makes sense to collect first

The key is to separate what can be asked in writing from what requires direct conversation. A pre-session questionnaire collects data, it doesn't do therapy.

Information that works well in questionnaire format:

Identification and contact details Full name, date of birth, telephone number, email, general practitioner. Data that the patient can fill in in two minutes and that the therapist otherwise writes down by hand at the beginning of the session.

Reason for consultation in your own words An open and simple question: What brings you to the consultation? or What would you like to work on? The written answer has its own clinical value: the patient, without the pressure of a live conversation, sometimes expresses things with more clarity or detail.

Basic therapeutic history Have you been in therapy before? For approximately how long? Are you following any psychiatric treatment or taking related medications? Closed-ended or short-answer questions that provide context without delving into sensitive clinical terrain.

Basic life situation Work situation, cohabitation, if you have children. Not to make a previous diagnosis, but so that the therapist comes to the session with a minimal map.

Expectations about therapy What do you expect from the process? Have you had any previous positive or negative experiences with psychology? This question helps to guide the first session and to detect possible friction or misunderstandings about how therapeutic work works right from the start.

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What should be left out of the questionnaire

There is information that seems useful to collect in advance but that actually works better in session. Questions about specific symptoms, traumatic situations, or complex family relationships can cause anxiety in the patient before they have established any connection with the therapist. This area is best worked on in direct conversation, with the context and pace given by the session.

The pre-session questionnaire covers the logistical and the contextual. Deep clinical practice begins in consultation.

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How to submit it for the patient to complete

The time of shipment matters. If it comes too soon, the patient may forget about it. If you arrive on the same day of the session, you may not have time to fill it out calmly.

A criterion that works well: send the questionnaire in the same confirmation message as the appointment, 24 to 48 hours before. The patient has the context fresh, has enough time and receives it together with the practical information from the session.

The format also plays a role. A questionnaire that arrives as an attached Word document is much less likely to be completed than one that is opened directly from the mobile phone with a click. The less friction, the higher the response rate.

With Eholo, the questionnaires for psychologists are sent directly to the patient and the answers are automatically linked to their file, without the therapist having to transfer the information manually.

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Standardize without stiffness: a base template with room for adjustment

In centers with several therapists, having a common basic questionnaire makes sense. Having all new patients answer the same starting questions facilitates process consistency and makes information comparable between records.

That doesn't stop each specialty or therapist from adding specific questions when needed. A psychologist who works primarily with teenagers can add questions about the school context. One that works with couples may include a specific section for that modality.

The recommended structure for a basic questionnaire:

1. Identification and contact details.
2. Reason for consultation in the patient's words.
3. Basic therapeutic history.
4. General vital situation.
5. Expectations about the process.
6. Optional open field: Is there anything else you want to tell us before the first session?

That last field collects information that the patient considers relevant but that the previous questions have not captured. Sometimes it's the most useful part of the whole questionnaire.

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The answers in the history: that the information is not lost

Collecting pre-session information is only valuable if that information reaches the therapist before the session and is recorded in the patient's history. If the answers remain in an email or a download folder, the process loses much of its usefulness.

Ideally, the answers to the questionnaire should be available in the patient's clinical history before the first session begins. The therapist comes in, reviews the answers in two minutes, and comes to the conversation with context. Without searching, without asking things that the patient has already answered, without wasting time.

This also connects with the consent process: if the pre-session questionnaire is accompanied by informed consent, the patient completes both before the first session and arrives with all the documentation in order.

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A first session that starts where it should start

When the patient has already shared the basics in advance, the first session can be dedicated to what matters: listening, asking, exploring, establishing the link. The therapist has context and can go to the bottom right from the start.

To see how questionnaire management works in Eholo, Here you can see a demo.