Finding a psychotherapist

Finding a psychotherapist

Making the decision to find help is hard enough. Why should you have to get even more stressed out hunting for the right therapist? It’s like searching for a needle in a haystack unless you have some guidance.

• Ask friends or family members if they can recommend someone.
• Ask a professional you already work with and trust. Preferably you can start with your family doctor but your accountant, lawyer, dentist, physician – any professional you have a relationship characterized by confidentiality can be good resource. These people all run businesses as well as provide services, as do many psychotherapists in private practice. They are well connected in the community and refer to each other all the time.

ATTENTION Sometimes even the general physicians can be biased due to the stigma imposed on the mental health disorders and deny making a referral. The worst case scenario is when they themselves try to handle psychiatric disorders.

• Use a known therapist as a resource. If you have a friend or a friend’s friend who is a therapist, ask them for a referral. Therapists refer to one another all the time. They will understand that you don’t want to see them (for whatever reason, you don’t have to say) but you want a recommendation from them.
• Refer to structures of the national mental health system for referrals.
• Use the Internet- Do a Google search. Once you have a few names go ahead and google them. If they have a blog or a website, explore them. Often you can get a sense of who they are, their expertise by what they write or what is written about them.

• Skype and telephone. If you live in an area where it is difficult to find a mental health professional locally, you can always turn to tele-sessions using the telephone or Skype.

• Visit 2-3 of them in person, ask them about their techniques and diagnostic approach before committing yourself in a long term therapy.

Types of Mental Health Professionals

Ο A Psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has been systematically trained in the diagnosis and therapy of mental health disorders. Just like the rest of the doctors they can order diagnostic medical tests and prescribe drugs. In the majority of the cases psychiatrists during their residency are obliged to undergo training in the basic types of psychotherapies.

ATTENTION A common notion that a psychiatrist treats mental health problems only with medicine is misleading. There are specified criteria defining the need of applying pharmacotherapy in certain cases.

A Child psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has undergone a systematic training in diagnosis and treatment of mental health pathological states in childhood.

A Psychologist is a professional who studies psychological phenomena constituting the human behavior. They are not graduates of Medical School. Usually the Department of Psychology in Universities is closely affiliated to the Branch of Philosophical studies. Some psychologists are trained through post graduate courses in Clinical Psychology. Others have undergone training courses to a form of psychotherapy. They are entitled to prescribe medicine.