Mental Health: Here’s how to find the right therapist

When you start looking for a mental health professional, you should not give yourself more anxiety.

As smooth as it sounds, finding the right therapist should be your first step towards getting mental happiness; not the last one to step out of mental unhappiness.

You are 90% done with mental health counselling, the moment you get the right therapist for yourself.

Today’s challenging world has forced us to seek expert counselling during times of distress. While the need of an expert is inevitable, the right way to find a therapist seems to be unknown to many.

Mental health and well being is gaining more attention these days. Hectic office hours, overburdened work timings, the inability to cope with work pressure, the lack of capacity to manage work-family life balance and so more.

Here are few steps which would guide you on finding the right therapist:

With a smartphone and a nice internet connection you can dig up information on any person. But when the volume of information is huge it is difficult to sort out the best results. When looking for a therapist, good online research can do a major part of your job. While looking for a therapist take note of a number of things like rating, language, timing, location and references.

If your therapist has a good rating, that means he or she can be trusted. Options like location and language are of immense importance as they will decide how effective your counselling will be. You will not like travelling 3-4 hours to a therapist centre. You may not also like interacting with a therapist who is not proficient with your native language. It is advisable to opt for someone who is fluent in the native language so that nothing’s left unsaid.

Other options like timing are also important because you have to focus on your daily chores as well; a therapist should be accommodated in between day to day activities.

Check if they have been referred or not. An easy way to do this is through social media. These days people share everything on social media for public reference. So, soon after your therapist fits into your location, language and other preferences, check how trusted he or she is. Everybody talks about and loves to refer a good therapist, no doubt.

Now, social media is not as beautiful as it looks. To further enrich your search, you should check the credentials of the therapist. Also look for a psychologist, one who can provide you therapy not a psychiatrist who is only qualified to prescribe medicines.

After you have narrowed down the therapists as per your preference, you need to make a list of them. If required, you can further narrow it down based on pricing, or location or other factors as suits you. If you have a good number of choices, then narrow it down as strictly as you can so that you have the best lot with you.

Before you schedule an appointment, interact with the therapist during the introduction session. Most therapists will seem good on the internet, but won’t be gentle in person. So try to have a 10 minutes session with the shortlisted therapists before taking the final call. You need to remember, if your dynamic with the therapist is not right, it won’t give you any benefit. Try to feel the connection during the intro session, if there isn’t any leave it.

There is no harm in changing therapists. The relationship between a client and a therapist depends solely on trust and faith. If you feel a void from the person you are seeking therapy from it is advisable to move on.