Help Me Find a Therapist!

TL;DR: There’s more that goes into finding a psychotherapist than where to look for one. This article introduces a series discussing some things to think about when shopping for a therapist.

“Can you help me find a therapist?” This is a question I get more than you might think. It might sound like an insult, seeing as I am a therapist. But it’s actually not. You see, first and foremost, it’s very important to me that anyone who sees a psychotherapist feels that their particular therapist is a good fit for them. As much as I need to keep my business thriving, whether or not it’s me they choose is ultimately not as high a priority as making sure that the therapist-patient pairing is “good enough.” In full disclosure, this is actually a question I hear more from family members or from folks who are moving to a state where I don’t practice. (See more about why that’s an issue here.)

Since this comes up a lot for people, I thought I’d do a series of articles on how to go about getting a therapist. Why a series? Because landing yourself a psychotherapist more than just figuring out where we’re all hiding: there are a variety of factors that differentiate one from another. To help make sense of it all, I will be posting articles covering the following:

• Theoretical orientation (say, what?)
• Why “fit” matters in a psychotherapy relationship
• More details about some of the theories and methods which differentiate one from another (a.k.a., “What are all these acronyms???”)
• Different types of licenses (a.k.a., “OMG, even MORE acronyms!!!”)
• How much the psychotherapy community LOVES acronyms (OK, maybe this topic doesn’t need to be covered in this series…)
• How insurance might come into play

In short, the idea is to help you make an informed choice before you even begin your search so that you can narrow down the huge list you’re liable to encounter after you’ve followed steps in the last article in the series:

• Where to look to put together a list of psychotherapists to contact about meeting with them

All of this coming soon to a blog near you. In the meantime, if you’re curious about me as a psychotherapist, head on over to my Web site. I’ve got some information there about my own ways of working, whether I’m taking new patients (probably yes), and information about insurance. And if you still have more questions, you can always contact me. I very much look forward to connecting with you.

Until next time, be kind to you.

Dr A.