Choosing a good therapist might at first seem like a difficult or complicated task, but in actually, knowing some basic facts supported by a large body of research, will greatly help in making the right choice.
The basic professional and legal requirements are that the therapist have at minimum a master's degree in social work, psychology, mental health counseling, or a PhD or PsyD in clinical psychology, or a MD in psychiatry. The therapist should be licensed in the state they practice, and should get further training in a variety of specialties such as addictions, eating disorders, sexual abuse, marital and/or family therapy, sex therapy, play therapy, etc.
Assuming that the therapist has these official credentials -- how does one choose a therapist based on other criteria?
Sometimes the years of experience is important in that the therapist has worked with your particular issue and has a broad and deep understanding of your problem. As an example, a therapist who has worked 15 years with oppositional adolescents, often has a rich understanding of how to deal with this problem and would know how to engage an adolescent with this type issue.
Having said the above, there are sometimes very talented therapists with little experience, but their talent is so good, that they can actually be better than a therapist with many more years of experience or training. The natural question is how does a person judge or see whether or not a highly experienced therapist is better than one just starting out in the field of therapy?
From my many years of therapy experience (43), and from the most recent extensive research on this issue, there are some answers, but first we have to step back a moment and look at some "truths" about the concept of "help".
Sometimes a person has been helped by a therapist, and sometimes a person has been helped by a teacher, a rabbi or rebbetzin, an older relative, a family doctor, a supervisor at work, a very close friend, or even some member of your shule and/or an interested member of the community. Many people have reported being significantly helped in life by someone of the above. What do all of the above have in common? What can we learn from this to apply to the issue of picking a good therapist when we go the route of wanting a therapist instead of a rabbi, teacher, etc?
The most recent and comprehensive research has shown that the single most important factor in the successful outcome in psychotherapy is simply what we call "the relationship" - how you and the therapist get along, trust each other, feel there is growth in your life occurring, and the belief that there is HOPE. This "relationship" FAR exceeds the therapist's stated approach - Cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioral, etc.
Interesting enough, when someone grows or heals in a relationship with a mentor, rabbi, rebbetzin or teacher, etc, they report the exact same phenomena - the "relationship" was the key reason for growth.
Therefore when picking a therapist - you can't often tell ahead of time that the "relationship" will be good, but if you find yourself NOT wanting to see your therapist over a period of time, feeling HOPELESS, or just seeing your therapist as money hungry and there isn't much of a positive relationship, then you probably picked the wrong therapist.
However, if you look back in time and feel that you have a good relationship with your therapist, and there has been progress (even small steps), and you feel HOPE - you made the right choice!
Dr Dovid Schwartz PsyD, LCSW has 43 years experience as a therapist, specializing in couples, addictions, eating disorders, trauma, sexual abuse, relationships, sexual addiction, PTSD, grief and loss. He has a private practice in Brooklyn