How do you know who is the right therapist to treat your depression, your child’s anxiety and difficulties at school or your marriage issues? Maybe you struggle with substance abuse (though you hate to admit it) or you recently lost a parent and just want to talk to someone about it other than your spouse. Depending on where you live, there may be too many or too few mental health professionals that you could potentially choose from. If there are too few, your options are limited, but if you live in a city, where help is around every corner, it can be quite overwhelming to try and pick a provider for what is really, one of the most important parts of our health, our mental health. 

How do we choose the right therapist in a field, flooded with grief counselors, marriage counselors, social workers, eating disorder specialists and substance abuse clinics?

I wish there was one answer to all of these questions but the truth is, it depends. It depends on your particular situation and your personal needs. To make the task of choosing a therapist less daunting, I’ve narrowed it down to answering a few basic questions:

Question #1. What is your primary reason for seeking out professional help? Narrowing down the issue that you or a family member is struggling with can help you identify a professional, who either specializes in treating the specific disorder or who works with that population. Are you trying to cope with depression, anxiety, difficulties sleeping, rocky relationships, family problems, etc.?

Wondering if psychoanalytic psychotherapy is right for your child? It can be nerve-wracking to bring your child to a therapist, let alone a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. To help you make an informed decision about what kind of therapy you need for your kid and to give you a taste of what you will be getting yourself into if you choose psychoanalytic psychotherapy, let me share my process when I first meet a family, who needs my help.

Step 1: The diagnostic assessment: This typically takes between 4 to 5 sessions and allows me to assess the history of the presenting problem, the psycho-social and developmental history of the child/adolescent and their current academic, social and family functioning.

• Meeting with the parents: Usually, I request to meet with the parents first so that I can hear their concerns and begin gathering psycho-social and developmental history of the child. If the child is an adolescent, this may happen over the phone but I do request to meet with parents personally so that we can work together to best help their kid. In addition, I often meet with each parent individually as well to discuss their perspective of the child's struggles and assess the family environment.