Is it normal to feel exhausted after a session?

It’s the end of a counseling session, and you’re immediately onto the next thing. Picking up your child from school, heading home to cook dinner, or logging back in for your next meeting. But you’re feeling exhausted, more so than when you started the counseling session. You feel like you did some good work in the session, and thought that getting all of the emotions out would rejuvenate you. But you’re just wiped out, and it makes you kind of not want to do it all over again. Is this normal? The short answer is, yes.

I often tell clients that emotional and somatic processing is like doing weight lifting for the brain. You got vulnerable, you talked about all the hard and stressful things happening in your life right now, and allowed yourself to actually come to a stop to let everything come to light and sink in. Of course you’re exhausted.

I encourage clients to, if at all possible, schedule an easier day for themselves after a session. At the very least, blocking out 30 -60 minutes of time after a session to take care of yourself can go a long way. You may have to adjust your session day/time, and I encourage clients to bring things like this up so we can figure it out. This is part of self-work and making small tweaks in our routines or schedules can sometimes open up more space for us to heal.

What small step can you take to take care of yourself after a counseling session?