I Need a Therapist, But Who?

How do you find and choose a therapist? You do not have to go to any random person that somehow is assigned to you. You have the right to seek out a therapist that interacts well with you and has an approach which fits your needs.

Trusty referral sources who can give you a good lead include:
your general practice physician who may suggest that therapy could be beneficial to you, or
friends or family who may have worked with a therapist they liked and recommend that person to you.

You might also see advertising, blogs, social media, or web sites of a therapist which give you an opportunity to learn about the person.

If you have not been referred to someone in particular, a good place to start is with your insurance company. 

1.  Make sure you have a mental health counseling benefit and find out how much insurance will cover and what your co-pay will be. This might be most easily done by calling the customer service number on the insurance card. 

2.  Look through the counselors that are contracted to be in network with your insurance. You should be able to use the insurance web site’s search feature for a professional. Or, if you are on the phone with customer service, they might run the search and e-mail it to you. 

3.  Look at the convenience of each counselor’s business location to your home and work routes. This may seem superficial, but people are more likely to continue with counseling on a regular basis when payment is assisted by insurance and it is easy and convenient to get to the counselor in your busy life.

Choose a few therapists to call. By the way, the terms therapist and counselor are interchangeable, meaning the same thing, usually a licensed professional with a masters level degree. Other designations you will find include psychologist with a PhD or psychiatrist which is a medical doctor in psychology who specializes in prescribing medication.

Think of your search for the right therapist as an interview process. Essentially, therapy should be a team effort with you and the therapist working together. You want to find a therapist whose experience, approach, and presentation fit with you. 

There are many types of therapy methods. An effective type is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) which focuses on the present issues and helps you improve by addressing thinking patterns and practicing actions to change habits. This therapy and a more recently developed version, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), are proven treatments for many issues.

Other therapies may include art or music therapy, experiential or Gestalt therapy, trauma focused therapy, systems approach, interpersonal or therapies which access the unconscious. It is important that the type of therapy is an approach which appeals to you. Also, actually enjoying talking with the therapist is immensely helpful.

Call each of the therapists you have selected and ask a few questions such as if they work with issues like you are experiencing and what type of treatment approach they use. You might be speaking first to a receptionist. See if you can speak either by phone or in person with the therapist to see if this is someone with whom you want to work. Some will be willing to have a brief conversation free of charge to establish if you want to enter into therapy with each other.

Here are some questions you could ask:

What license do you hold with this state and what is your education? How long have you been practicing?

I have these difficult issues occurring in my life and I have these symptoms. Do you work with clients with issues like mine? What types of clients do you work with: children, adults, families, couples? What type of therapy do you use and is it helpful for my issues?

How soon could you get me in for an intake session? Do you have availability for a weekly session, more or less frequent?

What insurance do you take? Are you contracted with my insurance company? Do you bill the insurance? Do you ask that the co-pay be paid by me at each session, or do you bill me for my co-pay after insurance has paid? (If you don’t have insurance which covers that therapist, ask if they have a sliding scale fee and how fees are determined.) Are you willing to establish a payment plan?

After speaking to a few therapists and asking the above questions, determine the one with whom you would like to officially begin therapy. Call back and schedule an intake appointment. This will include a diagnostic interview. The first session is longer than the subsequent regular sessions.

Therapists will typically discuss such topics as confidentiality, nature of the therapeutic relationship, treatment goals, and how you may take a break from or end treatment.

Find a therapist that you will experience as supportive and trustworthy. They should be able to give you honest feedback, recommend skills for you to learn and practice, challenge your thinking, and guide you in growth towards your goals.