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Psychology vocabulary · Therapy and Counselling

Session

Meaning in psychology, with examples

/ˈseʃən/nounCore term

In psychology, session means: One meeting between a therapist and a client, often lasting about 50 minutes, or one period of testing in a research study.

In Turkish: seans, oturum

How it is used

Therapists talk about the first session, weekly sessions, between sessions and missed sessions; a course of therapy has a set number of sessions. Researchers say testing session or experimental session.

Example sentences

  1. In our first session we agreed on three goals for therapy.

  2. Each testing session lasted about forty minutes.

Common collocations

  • therapy session
  • weekly sessions
  • between sessions
  • miss a session
  • end the session
  • psychotherapyTreatment of psychological problems through a structured, confidential relationship with a trained professional, mainly using conversation rather than medication.
  • clientA person who receives psychological therapy, counselling or another professional service; in therapy this word is often used instead of patient.
  • therapeutic allianceThe collaborative bond between therapist and client, including trust, agreement on the goals of therapy and agreement on the tasks used to reach them.
  • confidentialityThe professional duty to keep what a client or research participant shares private, except in clearly defined situations such as a serious risk of harm.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Therapy and Counselling

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.