Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Mi amiga va a terapia una vez por semana y en cada sesión habla de sus emociones. - My friend goes to therapy once a week and in each session she talks about her emotions.

Because amiga refers to a female friend and amigo to a male friend (or a friend whose gender is unspecified but grammatically masculine).

amigo = male friend
amiga = female friend

The possessive mi (my) does not change for gender, only for number:

mi amiga / mi amigo = my (female/male) friend
mis amigas / mis amigos = my (female/male) friends

So the sentence is talking specifically about a female friend.

Why isn’t there a subject pronoun like ella? Why not Ella, mi amiga, va a terapia…?

In Spanish, subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) are usually dropped because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

va is the 3rd person singular form of ir (he/she goes).
The noun mi amiga clearly tells us who “goes”.

So Mi amiga va a terapia… is completely natural and actually more typical than Ella va a terapia…, unless you really need to emphasize she (as opposed to someone else).

Why is it va a terapia and not va a la terapia?

When talking about going to certain activities or services in a general, routine way, Spanish often uses the noun without the article:

ir a terapia – to go to therapy (as an activity)
ir a clase – to go to class
ir a misa – to go to mass

If you say va a la terapia, it sounds like you’re talking about a specific session or specific therapy already known in the context, and that’s less natural here. The sentence is talking about therapy in general, as a regular activity, so va a terapia is the normal form.

Why is the preposition a used in va a terapia and not para terapia?

A is the standard preposition after ir to indicate a destination:

ir a casa – to go home
ir a la escuela – to go to school
ir a terapia – to go to therapy

Para is more about purpose or intended use:

Dinero para la terapia – money for therapy
Voy al médico para un chequeo – I’m going to the doctor for a check-up

So with ir, you normally use a, not para, to say where someone is going.

Does va a terapia have anything to do with the “going to” future (like “going to talk”)? Is va a terapia a future tense?

No. Va a terapia here is not the “going to” future. It’s just present tense of “go” + a noun:

va a terapia = she goes to therapy

The “going to” future in Spanish is ir + a + infinitive:

va a hablar = she is going to talk / will talk

In the sentence:

va a terapia – goes to therapy (present, habitual)
habla de sus emociones – talks about her emotions (present, habitual)

Both verbs express a regular, repeated action.

Why do we say una vez por semana instead of una vez a la semana or cada semana?

All of these are possible; they’re just slightly different ways to express frequency.

una vez por semana – once per week
una vez a la semana – once a week
cada semana – every week

In everyday speech in Spain, you’ll hear una vez a la semana and una vez por semana both quite often. Por and a here are both used in frequency expressions and mean roughly the same thing.

The sentence chose una vez por semana, but you could also say:

Mi amiga va a terapia una vez a la semana…
Mi amiga va a terapia cada semana…

All are correct; it’s mostly a style preference.

Why is it en cada sesión and not just cada sesión or todas las sesiones?

En here means in / during and links the action to the time frame:

en cada sesión = in each session / in every session

Compare:

En cada sesión habla de sus emociones.
In each session, she talks about her emotions.

You could drop the en and still be understood:

Cada sesión habla de sus emociones.
This is grammatical but sounds a bit less natural; Spanish usually likes a preposition like en or an adverbial expression before a time phrase in this kind of sentence.

Todas las sesiones would mean all the sessions, slightly more absolute than each session, but close in meaning:

En todas las sesiones habla de sus emociones. – In all the sessions she talks about her emotions.

En cada sesión is a very natural way to say “in every session”.

Why is it habla de sus emociones and not habla sobre sus emociones?

Both hablar de and hablar sobre can be used to mean to talk about something.

habla de sus emociones – she talks about her emotions
habla sobre sus emociones – she talks about her emotions

Nuances:

de is the most common, neutral choice.
sobre can sometimes sound a bit more formal or topic-focused (like “on the subject of”), but in everyday conversation they’re very similar.

In this sentence, de is perfectly natural and maybe slightly more colloquial.

Why is it sus emociones (plural) instead of su emoción (singular)?

Because the idea is that she talks about different emotions she experiences, not just one single emotion.

In Spanish, the possessive su/sus agrees in number with the noun:

su emoción – his/her emotion (one emotion)
sus emociones – his/her emotions (multiple emotions)

Here, she talks about her emotions in general, so sus emociones is the natural choice.

What exactly does sus refer to in sus emociones? Could it be someone else’s emotions?

By default in this sentence, sus refers back to mi amiga:

Mi amiga… habla de sus emociones.
= My friend talks about her emotions.

In Spanish, su/sus is ambiguous in that it can mean his, her, its, your (formal), or their. Context usually tells you who it refers to. Here, there’s no other obvious subject, so it naturally refers to mi amiga.

If you needed to be crystal clear that they are her own emotions, you could say:

…habla de sus propias emociones. – talks about her own emotions.

But normally sus emociones is enough.

Could I change the word order and say Mi amiga, en cada sesión, habla de sus emociones or Mi amiga habla de sus emociones en cada sesión?

Yes. Spanish word order is quite flexible, especially with time or place expressions. All of these are correct:

Mi amiga va a terapia una vez por semana y en cada sesión habla de sus emociones.
Mi amiga va a terapia una vez por semana y habla de sus emociones en cada sesión.
Mi amiga va a terapia una vez por semana y, en cada sesión, habla de sus emociones.

The differences are mostly about emphasis and rhythm, not about grammar or meaning. Native speakers often move en cada sesión around depending on what they want to highlight.

Does mi amiga mean “my girlfriend” in Spanish, or only “my (female) friend”?

Mi amiga literally means my (female) friend.

In Spain, mi novia is the standard way to say my girlfriend (romantic partner). Mi amiga is not normally understood romantically unless the context makes it very obvious.

So this sentence is naturally understood as talking about a female friend, not a girlfriend.

Is ir a terapia the usual way to say someone is in therapy in Spanish?

Yes, ir a terapia is a very common and natural way to express to go to therapy / to be in therapy:

Está yendo a terapia. – She is going to therapy.
Va a terapia desde hace un año. – She has been going to therapy for a year.

You can also hear:

ir al psicólogo / a la psicóloga – to go to the psychologist
recibir terapia – to receive therapy (more formal/clinical)

But in everyday speech, ir a terapia is very typical and sounds natural in Spain.