Though there are many factors to consider in choosing a psychotherapist, the final decision will, and should, probably rest, as in choosing a spouse, on whether or not you “click” with this person. Some of the other factors are:

THE THERAPIST”S OWN PSYCHOTHERAPY: There is no perfect person, and, by extension, there is no perfect parent and no perfect psychotherapist. To minimize the possibility of blind spots, and of the therapist’s problems getting entangled with your own, be sure that your therapist has had substantial therapy of his/her own! At least one year of therapy is minimal, more is better. Also, be sure your therapist has someplace to bring his/her own questions about what is going on in your therapy. Your therapist should have someone s/he consults with regularly, i.e., some sort of supervision or ongoing psychotherapy. (Peer supervision is fine.)

With excellent health insurance, you may be able to choose a therapist freely. Some insurance companies have a list of therapists they reimburse. Some insurance companies use a managed care system in which a limited number of sessions are authorized at a time. The therapist has to make periodic reports to the insurance company (which I see as an invasion of my client’s privacy) to get additional sessions authorized. Many have no insurance. Paying for therapy entirely our of pocket can amount to hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Many therapists have “sliding scales”, but a private practitioner can only slide so far, and the further h/she slides, the fewer clients s/he can slide for. If either therapist or client resents the financial arrangement, it will interfere with the therapy! Clinics often have very low fees or will even see people for little or nothing. However, clinics vary in their willingness to let you change therapists if you are not happy with the first one. Many clinics have waiting lists, often several months long. Some areas have more than one clinic. Check for government, especially county mental health clinics, hospitals, charitable agencies related to religious denominations, family and children’s services and university psychology departments. These last often have clinics in which they train their advanced graduate students under faculty supervision. Students often make up in enthusiasm for what they lack in experience, but students usually rotate each semester, so you will have several therapists if you are in therapy for any length of time.

: There is no way to be absolutely sure of the competence or honesty of psychotherapists, lawyers, medical doctors, or auto mechanics. Seeing a licensed professional, however, a psychologist, clinical social worker, psychiatric nurse, or psychiatrist, at least means that your therapist has some reasonable amount of basic training. Furthermore, licensing boards have extensive power to discipline professionals. Therefore, if worst comes to worst, you have the licensing board and the professional association to complain to. Even the very few unethical practitioners know this, and may toe the mark because of it. With unlicensed practitioners, you have very few ways to check them out in advance, and very little recourse if things go wrong. Health insurance will not reimburse for unlicensed practitioners.

Psychiatry is a medical specialty, as is cardiology, gynecology or pediatrics. After four years of medical school, the psychiatrist earns an M.D. S/he is now a medical doctor, but not a psychiatrist. A residency in psychiatry means working and being trained in a psychiatric setting for four more years. A prolific psychiatric author, Dr. Chessick, writes in one of his books that a residency can be anything from an excellent training program down to “giving the new psychiatrist the key to the locked ward and saying ’go’”. Psychiatrists are experts on mental illness and on the interaction between biological and mental processes. In large metropolitan areas, you will find many psychiatrists who are highly trained and expert psychotherapists. In other areas most psychiatrists rely primarily on medication or other medical interventions, such as, electroshock treatment. Many of these psychiatrists have little training in, and do little or no psychotherapy

Psychology is a broad field with many specialties. Here, we shall deal only with those who work directly in mental health, clinical and counseling psychologists. These psychologists are experts in the processes of cognition (thinking), emotion and behavior. They are trained in various types of psychotherapy in order to