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Spend some time before your first session to determine your needs and what goals you would like to achieve. The process of setting goals in therapy should be a joint effort between you and your therapist. You should be involved in choosing your goals. Don't let the therapist choose goals that make you uncomfortable. Make sure your goals are established before you leave the first session. Be wary of the therapist that presents you with a list of written goals for your approval that were written by them between sessions without your input. Ask your candidates about their education. Ask for their license number and check with your state licensing board to verify they have an active license. You can practice by clicking on this Florida Licensing Board link and searching for my license number (SW5008). Find out what their areas of specialization are and how many clients they have seen in that area of specialization. If they are relatively new to specializing in your area of need find out who they are using for supervision in that area. An ethical therapist will have another licensed therapist that specializes in that area identified for consultation. Find out how they approach therapy. What methods do they use? Do they use homework? How do they measure progress in meeting your needs? How many sessions will it take to meet your needs? The therapist should be able to address these questions in a straight forward manner and appear comfortable discussing them with you. In some cases the number of sessions can not be exact, but the therapist can provide you with a reasonable range based on their experience with others that have needs similar to yours.
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Send mail to
earl@earlledfordlcsw.com with questions or comments about this web site.
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Therapy
can be very worthwhile. The time and trust you will put
into therapy will be heavy investments. The first thing
to remember is that your therapist will WORK FOR YOU. As
with any major investment shop around for the therapist
that you will hire. Feeling accepted and trusted are
important in your process of change. If you don't feel
comfortable with your therapist after 2 or 3 sessions,
move on and find someone else.