Sometimes a person in your life might want to come into a therapy session with your therapist, or you might want to bring someone along. I am speaking in the context of individual therapy and bringing a person from your life into that session for support, or a person in your life asking to come speak with you and your therapist. Sometimes this can be helpful, and it is allowed if you and your therapist agree to the idea. I say agree as sometimes it might not be a good idea to invite people into the therapy space. That is a decision you should discuss with your therapist.
I have had people bring their parents or partners into session. Sometime this is to try and communicate something that might be difficult to communicate. The support of a therapist with healthy boundary-setting skills can often facilitate this. Perhaps you want to set a boundary or ask something of an important person in your life who might be difficult. These situations can be supported through a therapeutic process.
I have also had partners and parents want to come into session to make sure that I am hearing true statement from their loved one in therapy sessions. These examples are not always healthy or benefit-of-the-doubt supportive attempts to help the client. Sometimes, these individuals want to tell on the client and harm the relationship the therapist has with said client. Manipulative attempts to hinder the safety of the therapeutic alliance are not good uses of bringing someone to a session. Often a therapist can tell who might be manipulative based on their behavior. This is the importance of discussing with your therapist before showing up to a session with extra participants.
If you want to bring someone to a session, reach out to your therapist and ask if they think it might be a good idea. Create a set of goals you would like to accomplish in this meeting. Remember this is your session, not the visitor’s.