Ep 01: How to Find a Therapist Who’s a Good Fit For You
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Are you a Maryland resident looking for therapy services?
Resources
8 Questions to Ask a New Therapist — Worksheet
Making the Most of Therapy Journal — Paperback
Transcript:
Welcome to the Starting Therapy Podcast Series. I’m your host, Melissa Wesner, Founder and Owner of LifeSpring Counseling Services in Maryland where our mission is to provide hope, healing, and empowerment through the collaborative process of counseling. This podcast is for anyone who is thinking about signing up for therapy! Let’s dive in!
If you’ve never been in therapy before, searching for a therapist can be a daunting task. You might not even know where to start. On top of that, we’ve all been hearing about the mental health crisis, how nobody’s accepting new clients, yadda yadda yadda. Here’s what I have to say about that: Don’t let those rumors prevent you from reaching out, taking action, and finding out for yourself. If you’re the person who’s like, well…I heard nobody’s accepting new clients right now. Guess I won’t even bother calling, Don’t do that!
Today’s episode is all about how to find a therapist who is a good fit for you.
I’ll be covering two initial steps with you: Self-Reflecting and Searching.
Reflect:
Identify what you want to work on. Do you want to work on your anxiety, overwhelm, depressed mood, relationships?
First name that, because that will guide your search. If you are struggling with skin picking or hair pulling behaviors, but you reach out to providers who don’t have experience in that area or who don’t advertise that kind of work, you’ll find yourself making lots of phone calls. In general, I tell people that if you are feeling uncomfortable feelings frequently, intensely, or if they are impacting your functioning, then you want to consider counseling as an option that can help.
Next, think about the kind of therapist you want to work with.
Is there a particular treatment modality that you want to try out?
Do you have a preference for the providers gender, race, age, religious or political stance?
Online, hybrid, in-person
Are you looking for group therapy, individual therapy, or couples therapy. This will guide your search as well.
At the end of this episode, I’ll share some resources that can help you out!
Over the years, we’ve had lots of people who reach out to our office for services that we don’t actually provide. This tells us that people might be a little confused about how to find a therapist who will meet their needs.
Here’s how you can search for a therapist who’s the right fit for you.
Call the number on the back of your insurance card for a list of recommendations….now….this can be a frustrating topic. Might have to wait on the phone with your insurance company or you might make lots of phone calls to the people who are on the list they provided only to find out that those individuals aren’t accepting new clients. Yes, that’s annoying, but that’s the process.
Use popular online directories such as TherapyDen, PsychologyToday, TherapyTribe to search for therapists in your area. Use the filters on those website to look for therapists who accept your insurance and who have experience and training in that area. From those profile pages, you can email those therapists, call them on the phone, or check out their websites.
Read profiles to see which pictures/profiles resonate with you the most. –We’ve all heard the phrase, don’t judge a book by its cover, and yet, I’ve heard countless individuals tell me that they’ve chosen their counselor based off of their picture, so there must be some truth to that. Pay attention to the profiles and pictures that resonate with you.
From there, look at the therapists’ websites to get a feel for their counseling practice, their values, who they are, the services they provide, and their fees.
When you’ve found therapists of interest reach out to them with your questions and/or a request to schedule or seek a 15 minute consultation call.
Next episode we’ll be talking about questions you can ask the therapist when you reach out to connect with them. In the meantime, I hope you’ll use this information to help you start get started. Consider what it is that you want to work on therapy. What type of therapist do you want to work with? From there, take a look at online directories and websites to find therapists who seem like a fit. Don’t forget to reach out. If you’re in Maryland, and you want a quick way to apply this information, you can always check out our website: LifeSpringcounseling.net to read about our office, our services, and our therapists. Talk to you soon!
Thanks for listening to the Starting Therapy Podcast Series. If you’re a Maryland resident looking for online counseling services, or if you’re someone who is looking for Brainspotting, check out our website at lifespringcounseling.net or give us a call at 410-497-8451. We have great resources for you in the show notes too! We’re here to support you as you make the decision to start therapy!
