Link – How to Find the Right Therapist

“Searching for the right therapist is sort of like dating.”

This is somewhat true. I’ve talked to a lot of survivors who gave up on the idea of therapy after one date. I hope they will go read this article, though I do have one small disagreement. I don’t believe there is necessarily “the one” therapist. I think there may be a therapist for where you are right now in your healing, and another that may be better suited later on. For example:

I saw a therapist or two early on that just didn’t work for me. After my first real breakdown and lost time, I was thrust into a relationship with a therapist who was wonderful at helping me understand what had happened, and why. She was great for me, at that time. As the work got harder, and the second breakdown happened, my case was a bit too much for her any more, and I was recommended to another therapist. This one was much more intense. In fact, I saw her five times a week. This, also, was what I needed then.

After leaving therapy and frankly, not doing so well, I finally wound up with a third therapist. This one helped me focus less on the healing process, and more on learning how to adult, if you will. How to take care of myself, how to make decisions for myself, etc. Again, she was the right therapist for that point in my healing, because I had been through a lot of work on my past, but I didn’t have the skills for my present, and needed help with those.

So, as the article says, it’s OK to try different therapists until you find one that clicks, and I also think it’s OK to “graduated”, if you ill, into different therapists as your process continues.

Anyway you look at it though, don’t get discouraged if it takes a little while to find the right fit. That’s actually pretty normal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/smarter-living/how-to-find-the-right-therapist.html