How to find a psychologist to attend therapy: 8 tips

There are those who, knowing that they need to attend psychotherapy, do not dare to jump into it simply because it is difficult for them find a psychologist who meets your needs.

However, the truth is that although some people may find this process intimidating, it is not as complicated as you might think, even in countries where this type of service is not very good regulated. Finding a mental health professional is, among other things thanks to the Internet, something increasingly simple and accessible for all types of audiences.

In the following lines we will see several tips on how to find a psychologist who treats our case in a personalized way, taking into account your knowledge and our main specific needs.

• Related article: "The 8 benefits of going to psychological therapy"

How do I find a psychologist to treat me? 8 steps

Finding the most suitable psychotherapy professional for your case may seem complicated at first, but in reality it is not so; Keep in mind that psychologists are already used to people who have never done therapy before coming to their consultation the first day with many doubts, and they advise. In addition, if they notice that what you need is not part of what they are prepared to treat, they can refer you to other professionals they know and who do address cases like yours.

Follow these guidelines to find a psychologist or a team of psychologists at a psychology center that is right for you.

1. Determine the severity and nature of your problem

In practice, even if a psychologist sees that he cannot work with a case like the one you present, he will advise in the best possible way so that you can be attended by someone who is specialized in that kind of problems. However, if you take a little time to think about what happens to you, you will have a better chance of getting it right the first time (Taking into account that it is very likely that you do not have an objective and realistic vision of what really happens, and that it is normal that even you are wrong in this regard).

So ask yourself questions. The first is what kind of problem you have: is it something that has to do mainly with your social relationships, or does it affect only you in a relatively isolated way? Does it have to do with your feelings, your perception of things, or both? Is it something automatic, or something that has to do with your way of making decisions?

The second question is how serious is it, what is the intensity of your discomfort or of those who come into contact with you.

Depending on these questions, later you will have to look for psychologists with one or another specialization, and with certain requirements more or less demanding experience taking into account your availability and your ability to contract therapy sessions with they.

2. Set your spending limit

You have to be realistic and think long term, bearing in mind that you will need several hours of work from the psychologist. Therefore, take into account all the expenses that this reasonable amount of hours will suppose you, including seemingly minor aspects such as transport costs, and set a maximum amount of money to dedicate to this.

By the way, you may be interested in the cheapest option of online therapy, which, as we will see, is also an alternative to consider.

3. Decide if you are looking for face-to-face, online or mixed therapy

Many psychologists offer the possibility of attending to their patients through the Internet, by video call or the like. What's more, It is a format that allows you to cut costs and that also has other obvious advantages, such as saving travel time or being able to have services even with illnesses that reduce mobility.

Therefore, depending on your needs, decide if you are looking for only one of the two ways to attend therapy, both will suit you, depending on the circumstances. This step to find a psychologist also has to do with the one that we will see next.

4. Make a first selection of psychologists

If you are interested in face-to-face therapy, you can specifically search mental health professionals who work in your neighborhood or city, either in your own consultation or psychotherapy office, or at home. For this, a very useful tool to find these professionals are the directories of psychologists, like for example this, which works to search for psychologists in Spain. If you live in another country, here are other directories: one for Mexico, and other for Colombia. You can also do Google searches, although in this case it may cost you a little more to compare.

At the beginning, it is good that you look at two fundamental criteria: price and location (the latter especially in case you are not interested in online therapy). Once this first filtering is done, you can go on to see the type of specializations you are looking for in a psychotherapy professional, the ages of the patients they serve, their languages, etc.

5. Make sure they have the official titles to practice

Check that the people you have selected in the first sweep have their number of collegiate in the Official College of Psychologists of their country, which will guarantee that they have completed the training path that enables them to practice psychological intervention in clinical or health settings.

6. Check their specialties

Do not just look at what the person says they specialize in: check that they have the graduate degrees that they have been given a foundation of experience and theoretical foundations in these clinical settings. Keep in mind that the courses and workshops can be for a single weekend, while to receive the Expert degree requires many more hours, and to obtain a Master you must invest in it at least one year.

On the other hand, you can also look at whether the professional has completed a general program, or a more specialized one focused on what you are looking for.

7. Take a look at their online presence

Psychologists who are active and who dedicate body and soul to this profession are usually in contact with psychology websites, directories, general media... In other words, it is an indicator of reliability that you perceive that the professional in question dedicates time to leave your office and make yourself known and collaborate with other organizations and make your profession.

There are even professionals who take part in radio or television programs. That is positive to the extent that it can give us a certain notion of whether we are facing a benchmark in their field., with a consolidated network of contacts that allows them to transcend the routine of their consultation and reach a wider audience. For example, in the blog of Psychology and Mind Psychologists and psychotherapy centers collaborate who are great references in different fields.

8. Pick a few professionals and ask

In this last phase of the search, you can find out more in depth about the services offered. If you have doubts, which is likely, ask, but choose well what you are looking for answers to and formulate your doubts by going to the point; reading great texts in which someone who is not a client describes her problems and looks for answers to everything is not to anyone's taste and, in any case, your problems can only be explored in depth in the evaluation phase, in the first sessions.

So, from this last step, you should already be able to choose.

Bibliographic references:

• Ardila, R. (2004). Psychology in the Future. Madrid: Pyramid.
• Change, D.J. (2010). Empirical evidence on the use and effectiveness of telepsychiatry via videoconferencing: implications for forensic and correctional psychiatry. Social Science & Medicine, 71: pp. 1308 - 1315.
• Morris, C. (1997). Introduction to Psychology. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.