How to Choose a Therapist
Spring has sprung – and with it new growth and the whispers of hope. Perhaps you have been considering therapy for some time and feel stirred to take action. If you find yourself feeling dread or anxiety about the process of finding the right therapist, you are not alone. Perhaps you’ve had a harmful experience with a previous therapist or are simply daunted by the sheer volume of directories and therapist websites to sort through. Many of my clients tell me that they’ve made a dozen phone calls only to have one or two be returned. And this is after hours of internet research! I’ve been there too!
Here are my top tips for streamlining the search process and making good therapeutic choices! After all, the quality of the therapeutic relationship is the single most important ingredient to a healing course of treatment.
1. Set intentions. Therapy is a journey and setting intentions helps you determine where you are headed. What are the key issues you want to address in therapy? Where do you find yourself struggling in life? By getting clear on what you are hoping to address in therapy, you can better identify therapists with the training and experience to meet your needs. If you find yourself, coming back to issues with your spouse, you may consider couple therapy. If you’re feeling disconnected and isolation, group therapy might be good fit. Individual therapy might be better container for trauma or depression.
2. Make a doable plan. Think about the pragmatics of making space in your life for therapy. How do you plan to finance therapy? If you are using insurance, what are your benefits? What is your monthly budget for therapy? Frequency matters with therapy and, I encourage you to set a therapy budget allows you comfortably attend weekly. Consider how you will set up an ideal setting for therapy, with privacy, reliable technology (for virtual sessions) and hopefully a bit of down time after the session.
3. Identify Specialty. Now that you’ve identified what you are working on in therapy and how therapy will fit into your life, it’s time to turn to identifying what type of therapist is a good fit for you. Consider what modalities are evidence-based for your treatment concern. Have you read self-help books or followed blogs related to your concerns? Let what has resonated with you previously serve as a guide to the type of therapist you choose. If you’ve worked with a particular therapy before, are you interested in continuing with this type of therapeutic approach? Or is there a complementary approach you are interested in exploring?
4. Get personal referrals. Ask for referrals from friends, family and others in your support system with whom you feel safe and comfortable. Often your primary care provider or psychiatrist will have a few therapists who they refer to.
5. Navigate online directories. Now this step is what can get so frustrating – toggling between directories. It’s a pain but maybe my strategy will help cut through some of the wasted time. Psychology Today is the therapist directory I use most frequently. It allows you to narrow your search by specialties, insurance, type of therapy and more. From here you can begin to develop a list of candidates for that likely meet your treatment needs. Be sure to verify insurance status as this can change and directories are not always kept up to date. Another approach to finding a specialist is to explore specialty directories. For example, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for trauma and attachment wounds offers a directory of therapists who have completed training/certification in this modality. Similarly, there is a directory for AASECT certified therapists. At this point, you might be toggling between screens narrowing down therapists that have the training and approach you want and fit within your insurance/financial parameters.
6. Explore websites. Now that you’ve got a handful of therapists that would be a good fit, it is time to read through their websites. This is a good opportunity to way to learn about their areas of interest and education/training background. Be wary of therapists that claim to be experts on a wide range of presenting problems. For example: a specialist in trauma is unlikely to also be an autism specialist and perinatal depression specialist. All of these specialty areas requires years of additional continuing education to qualify as a specialist. While you are reviewing websites, get your intuition involved. I’d invite you to pause in your reading and ask yourself, “How does this feel in my body?” “Do I want to dive deeper or pull away?”
7. Interviews. Congratulations for making it this far! Now it’s time to interview potential candidates. I encouraged folks to plan to meet 3-5 therapists, either on the phone or during a brief telehealth consultation. This is your opportunity to gather more information about their therapeutic approach and areas of specialization. You may want to ask potential therapists how they stay grounded in their clinical practice? Do they have peers or a consultation group to support their clinical work? Having access to peer support and consultation is key as research suggests that therapists are most likely to transgress against clients when they are under personal stress and working in isolation. Again, I would invite you to check in with your intuitive reaction to the therapists you are speaking with, asking yourself if you feel safe letting this person hold you in your pain, revealing and exploring conflicts that are difficult to face at times. Your gut has a lot of important information to impart and I encourage you to take some time to tune into your own inner source of discernment.
I know the process may appear daunting at first, but starting out a journey of healing is a trip worth planning carefully. The trusting relationship you build with a therapist is the foundation of rediscovering your own wholeness.