The Wall Street Journal explains the challenges in finding the right patient therapist fit and how those challenges can be overcome by asking three questions: How would you propose treating me? How long do you think it would take? How do you know what you do works?
Melinda Beck writes (excerpt):
One issue for prospective patients is that therapists generally specialize in one treatment approach and tend to see patients’ problems through that lens. A cognitive-behavioral therapist will focus on changing patients’ negative thinking patterns, while a psychoanalyst will want to probe more deeply into how the past is affecting current issues.
Some clinics and university mental-health centers offer consultations to help evaluate which treatment might be best. “Patients shouldn’t have to decide this by themselves,” says Drew Ramsey, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York’s Columbia University, who says he loves to play “shrink matchmaker.”