How to Find the Right Therapist Advice from a Therapist
Finding a therapist can be very challenging. Navigating availability, costs, insurance and personality can be daunting but they do not have to be a deterrent. Below is my suggestions for looking for a therapist to get the quickest response possible and to encourage you that you can find help, and with help you can feel better.
1.) Decide if you want to use insurance, pay cash or seek sliding scale (not all therapists offer sliding scale and rates will vary).
2.) Determine your insurance (if any) and benefits.
Identify if your insurance has coverage for behavioral health treatment, deductible, out of network and copay/coinsurance benefits. This can help you determine/narrow down the provider you want to work with.
3.) If you will be using insurance – refer to your insurance company’s web site for a list of providers.
4.) Use your list of providers and cross reference with https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/therapists (this is the number one site that therapists rely on for referrals).
5.) Psychology Today allows you to search for therapists in a variety of ways; zip code, insurance, specialty, gender and etc.
It can be helpful to be honest about the type of person you want to work with – think of your favorite teacher, or coach – someone that you trusted in the past. What sort of traits did they have?
You can identify specialties, issues, client focus and special communities that the therapist might have special training or awareness
Some therapists will list if they are accepting new clients on Psychology Today and some won’t.
Peruse the therapist descriptions to get a feel for how they therapist may work and the type of approach that they use.
6.) Be prepared to make several calls.
Therapists are often full depending on the time of year, location (especially rural and smaller counties) and specialty
Choose around 5 top choices, either call or use the email function – The email function can be very helpful as you can inform the therapist of your insurance, primary concern, preferred times of day etc (bonus- you can just copy and paste this to the various therapists).
If you reach out via phone, email or other contact forms, include your insurance this will assist your therapist in determining if they can serve you.
Wait. Sometimes it may take a couple of days (or even a week) to get a response.
It is unlikely all the therapists you contact will have availability for new clients, and unfortunately some might not give you a call back at all.
Be aware that if a therapist does have availability they may not be able to schedule an intake for a couple of weeks.
6.) Interview the therapists you talk to as if you are interviewing someone for a job. Some helpful question are “what does a typical session look like,” “How would you describe your personality and approach,” “How do you help people make change.”
Don’t be afraid to ‘waste their time’ it is okay to talk to all the therapists and then make your choice later. “Thanks it has been great to talk to you, I have a couple other therapists to talk to can I can you back to schedule an intake?”
It is okay to have one or two sessions, not vibe and to choose another therapist, we get it!
Note: Regarding Covid
Most mental health clinicians are seeing clients primarily by ‘telehealth’ while this may seem uncomfortable we are finding a lot of advantages.
You can see a therapist anywhere in the state. This makes finding folks with availability, specific specialties and training much easier.
Telehealth offers a lot of flexibility in scheduling appointments and getting access in more rural communities, around school and work schedules.
Many clients and therapists are finding that telehealth is just as effective for most mental health concerns and is no more difficult when it comes to building the therapeutic relationship.
Many therapists are planning to return to in person sessions but many plan to continue with telehealth.