Use this page with the client at the beginning of a session. An agenda can organize attention, but it remains flexible. Safety, urgent needs, or new information may change what the meeting requires.
Invite the client first
Ask what would make today's meeting useful. Include practical concerns, relationships, symptom changes, and questions about therapy. Offer your clinical priority transparently instead of treating the planned worksheet as the session's purpose.
Choose a workable focus
Name one primary goal and, if useful, a second topic. Discuss what can fit in the available time. A broad concern such as "my relationship" may become "practice asking for a pause during difficult conversations."
Agree on how to review
Ask what the client hopes to understand or do differently by the end. Reserve time for feedback and a next step. Revisit the agenda if the chosen activity feels irrelevant, too intense, or inaccessible.
Reflection prompts
Use these questions in conversation, on paper, or in the downloaded PDF. You may adapt or skip a prompt.
The client's priorities in their own words
Clinical needs or follow-up that require attention
The agreed focus and intended session outcome
Topics deferred and how we will revisit them
Facilitator notes and adaptation
Do not use agenda setting to bypass assessment, client questions, or rupture repair. Document a changed focus when relevant. Adapt pace and format to language, literacy, neurodivergence, and the client's preferred participation style.
Sources behind the concepts
These sources inform the concepts in this original resource. They do not validate or endorse this specific page.