2 Tips for Choosing a Therapist

Categories: Choosing a Therapist

What are some of the things to look for when choosing a therapist?

We strongly urge you to ask some questions before you decide to see a particular therapist. If a therapist will not offer you the opportunity to briefly speak with them on the telephone or offer you some way to find out about their training, qualifications, specialties and experience, then we suggest you look for another therapist.

It’s okay to make a list of questions you want to ask. There are many areas to consider. The following video from the American Psychological Association (APA) features Dr. Keely Kolmes, PsyD.

• TIP 1: in the first section, Dr. Kolmes provides some advice on areas to consider when choosing a psychologist. She offers some questions to ask a psychologist before making an appointment.
  
• TIP 2: later (at 2:24 min), Dr. Kolmes offers advice on “How do you know if a potential psychologist is a good fit?”

At the end of the video there is a screen that says “to find a psychologist, visit locator.apa.org”. If you choose to use this locator, we want you to know that it is not a complete listing of APA members. It only consists of members who have paid a fee in addition to the association membership fees in order to be in their locator directory. If you are trying to locate a CBT therapist, we recommend you begin with the Academy of Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies (see FINDING A CBT THERAPIST for reasons why this is our #1 recommendation).

For more tips about locating a therapist, visit our webpage Find CBT Therapist

Photo credits: Questions by Oberazzi is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 2.0