Do therapists set homework?
Some do, and the approach decides it. Cognitive behavioural therapy leans heavily on between-session tasks: thought records, activity scheduling, graded exposure steps agreed in the room. Psychodynamic work asks for reflection rather than worksheets. EMDR sessions usually end with grounding techniques to use if distress resurfaces during the week.
The Valens Clinic states the position plainly in its patient FAQs: preparation is unnecessary unless you receive forms or questionnaires to complete, and some therapeutic approaches involve between-session assignments. Ask your therapist which camp your treatment falls into during the first or second appointment.
Unfinished tasks are worth mentioning rather than hiding. A therapist who knows the homework went undone can adjust the difficulty. A therapist who assumes it went fine will keep building on ground you never covered.
What is normal to feel between sessions?
A dip after a heavy session is common, particularly in trauma-focused work. The mind keeps processing after you leave the room. The two or three days after an intense appointment can feel worse before they feel better.
Progress rarely runs in a straight line either. Good weeks and bad weeks alternate for most people in active treatment, and a single bad week says very little about whether the therapy is working. A pattern across a month says considerably more.
Keep a short note when something notable happens: a panic episode, a conflict, a night of broken sleep. Two lines written at the time beat a reconstruction from memory a week later.
Clinic hours in Dubai, and what happens outside them
Dubai clinics run on a local working week, and the difference catches new arrivals out. The Valens Clinic operates from 8.30am to 5.30pm Sunday to Friday, with Saturday as its closed day. Its patient FAQs state the limit directly: no dedicated out-of-hours hotline is available at present.
The clinic asks patients to attend the nearest Emergency Department when immediate medical attention is needed. Patients already registered receive a contact route by email or WhatsApp, answered only in an emergency. A new enquiry waits for working hours.
Honesty about the limit is more useful than a vague promise of availability. A private outpatient clinic is not an emergency service, and a plan built on the assumption of one will fail at the worst moment.
Who to contact when the clinic is closed
For a medical emergency anywhere in the UAE, 998 reaches the ambulance service and 999 reaches police. Emergency Departments at Dubai hospitals accept mental health presentations around the clock.
Dubai also runs a free mental wellbeing hotline, Itma’en, on 800 506. Dubai Health launched the service in March 2026 alongside the Community Development Authority and the Dubai Health Authority. Counsellors answer in Arabic and English, daily from 9am to midnight, for citizens, residents and visitors of any age. A caller needing medical follow-up gets referred to a specialist team.
The hours matter. A line closing at midnight leaves the small hours uncovered, so 998 or an Emergency Department remains the route between midnight and morning.
Agree the plan in advance with your therapist rather than improvising during a bad night. A written list of numbers, kept somewhere you will find it, does more good than a half-remembered conversation.
What to bring back to the next session
Lead with what changed, not with a summary of the week. Therapists work from specifics: the trigger, the response, what you tried, what happened next.
Flag anything you avoided as well. Avoidance carries diagnostic information, particularly in anxiety and OCD treatment, and it usually points at the next piece of work.
Medication side effects belong in the room too, even where a psychiatrist rather than a therapist prescribed them. Your therapist can raise it with the prescribing doctor, and at a clinic where psychologists and psychiatrists share a team, the handover takes a conversation rather than a referral letter.
Speak to a therapist in Dubai
A first appointment is where the between-session plan gets agreed, including homework, contact rules and what to do out of hours. Browse the clinician team and book at The Valens Clinic.