How to Choose a Therapist

Determining What the Therapist can Help You to Achieve

Know what a therapist can do. A therapist can: Be an understanding and supportive listener. Help you develop your ability to cope with life's difficulties. Help you develop some of your life-skills: more effective communication, better problem-solving, better impulse-control, etc. Help you look at your problems in different ways and with a different perspective. Help you gain more insight into your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. Work with you to help you make changes in how you function and feel. Offer advice on how to find services which they aren't able to provide.

Know what a therapist cannot do. A therapist cannot: Undo hurt feelings and painful events. Change other people in your life, and cannot tell you how to change them, either. Create instantaneous change in you. Personal change requires hard and dedicated work.

Determine what part of your problem can be helped by a therapist. Write a brief (two or three sentences) summary of this using the above steps on what a therapist can and cannot do. Spend some time thinking about what exactly you want help with and what you envision the end result to be.

Finding a Therapist

Obtain the names of therapists from sources that you trust. These can be family members or friends, favorite teachers, school counselors, your family doctor, your pastor or rabbi, and any other person whose opinion you value. Use online referral listings too, as there is a wealth of resources available online, often with an informative blurb about how each therapist works, their fees, etc.

Search online or in the phone book for universities and graduate schools and find those that have graduate programs in Counseling Psychology if on a budget. Many of them will have counseling facilities in order to train their students. The students will be supervised by qualified professionals and teachers. Call up charitable and religious institutions that you are involved with or that you respect. Many of them maintain lists of therapists that may give you a price break. Some therapists that are not necessarily low-fee may have reduced fee slots available. Ask about the fees. Tell them what you can afford. Some therapists will be able to accommodate you. If they do not, they may know someone who does and can give you a referral.

Assessing the Therapists

Call each of the recommended therapists. Ask lots of questions and take notes. You could ask the therapist about their training, or about whatever else feels important to you to know (for example, do they have experience working with people of your ethnicity/sexual orientation, etc.). You're essentially acting as an employer who is giving a job interview, and you're going to determine whether you want to hire this therapist as a consultant. Keep this idea in mind during each call. Ask the therapist about how they handle conflict: therapists who are able to repair the rupture in the relationship when there is conflict tend to have a better outcome than their conflict-avoidance colleagues.

Check the therapist's website for testimonials. Try to see if the therapist that you like has any patient or client testimonials that relate to the condition that you have. If your therapist does not have a results or testimonials page check to see if other clients or patients wrote testimonials on another website like Yelp.com

Aim to call several therapists before you make a decision. Compare your findings to the tips and warnings below. Do they return your phone call in a timely manner? Do you like the way that they talk to you? Do you feel relatively comfortable talking to them about what is going on with you? When a therapist seems warm, personable, intelligent, and knowledgeable, and doesn't display any of the warning signs below, consider hiring that person.

Check for license requirements in your area. Different countries and states require therapists to hold different licenses and certificates to practice, so you will have to check whether your therapist holds the appropriate license for your area. Holding a valid license for therapy helps ensure that the therapist has met in-depth educational requirements, is up-to-date in their training, and is held to a code of ethics and practice in dealing with patients.

Think about payment. If you're paying out of pocket for therapy, make sure you can afford the hourly rates. If you're relying on health insurance to pay for your therapy, make sure that the therapist choices you're considering accept payments from your insurance company. While financial matters shouldn't restrict your ability or drive to get good therapy, you still need to consider how you're going to pay the therapist (if you don't have sessions provided by your insurance or a national/local medical care system). Do your research before matching with the given therapist so that you don't find yourself back at square one if you determine that the financial relationship won't work.

Make a choice. Once you have interviewed all the prospective therapists, take some time to think about the best choice. If you plan on using insurance, call your insurance company to be sure that the therapist you like is covered, or if that therapist will provide 'out of network provider' statements to you.

Remember that your therapist is someone you have hired. It's important to bear in mind that some problems will take longer to resolve than others, so treatment duration can vary considerably. But if you notice absolutely no change in your problem after the first couple of months, hire a different therapist.