How do I stay present in emotionally draining therapy sessions?

You can hold space now, but staying present through the hardest sessions still drains you. That drain is not a sign you are doing it wrong. It is the cost of doing it well. To truly be with someone in their pain, you have to open yourself to it, and that openness has a price your body keeps track of. The goal is not to feel less. It is to stay grounded while you feel, so the other person's storm does not pull you under. Presence does not mean absorbing everything. It means staying connected to yourself at the same time as you connect to them, one foot on your own ground while you reach out with the other. Practice a small anchor you can return to mid-session: your breath, your feet on the floor, the sense of the chair holding you. When a session goes deep, touch that anchor and let it steady you. And protect your recovery between clients as seriously as the work itself. You cannot pour from a self you never refill.