How To Find the Right Therapist (Part 2 of 2)

Today, we’re going to talk about knowing if you need therapy, and what to look out for when you’re looking for one. Part 1 will talk about the common barriers and stigmas to therapy, and Part 2 talks about how to start looking and what to expect in therapy.

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How does one go about actually acting upon it, and go find their therapist?

Here, I’m going to explain: 

• How to book an appointment, and then - 

• what to look out for, and 

• How to know if they’re the right one for you -- which is super important for you to finally alleviate your symptoms and have a better life.

Source: Christian Wiediger, Unsplash

Step 1: Where to look & how to make the booking

To book one, you need to first find one. Research your issues and therapists that can help you with that in your area. For starters, you can also ask your treating GP and friends for recommendations. Look into their treatment approaches by checking out their work on their website, or maybe their YouTube channel or blog.

Once you’ve determined that you have the resources and energy to commit to treatment (say, 10 appointments across the next 12 months), then see if you could call to schedule a quick conversation with the treating clinician. If you can, then this is where you vibe-check before you schedule that first appointment.

Otherwise, trust that your research has led you somewhere and make that leap of faith to just go to the first one. Dive in. Book that appointment.

Step 2: What to expect

In your first session, expect it to be a mixture of administration work and initial assessment. That is, for them to explain to you the nature of therapy, the confidentiality and its limits, assessing risks, and understanding the treatment’s rationale and issues.

I think it’s hard for clinicians to guess how many sessions are required, but there has to be some reasonable expectation of response to treatment. Diagnosis or psychometric testing through questionnaires are often done to get a baseline of the patient’s symptoms.

So, before you go into your session - have a think about what you want treated, and why you think it has happened. Have reasonable expectations to get better, but also know that progress is non-linear!

In the session,

• Expect to talk about yourself a lot

• Expect to hear recommendations to attempt

• Expect that your psychologist is going to work towards fixing the problem as hard as you are

Step 3: What to reflect upon

Now, let’s say you’ve gone to one or a few sessions but you still want to just check if they’re still the right one.

Ask yourself:

• Did you get a sense that this clinician understood the problem you described?

• Did you have an understanding of the clinician treatment approach?

• Did the clinician listen to your concerns?

• Did the clinician validate your emotions and beliefs?

• Did you feel that the clinician was non-judgmental?

• Did you get a reasonable sense of confidence that this person can help you?

And if the answers are all mostly yes, then you should feel relieved to know that they’re worth going to! And if not - then that’s okay too. Going through the process of searching for the right one for you will be worth it. Your future, happier self deserves it.

I hope this helped you understand how to look for a therapist, what to expect and what to think about when you’re looking for the right one for you.