I have tried therapy before and found it difficult to find the right person. I actually never have. How do you determine who to match people on your site with to best insure they get the most out of the experience?

Hi! It may feel like entering a new frontier each time you seek a new therapist, even if you’ve benefited from therapy in the past. But the process isn’t entirely unfamiliar. In many ways, finding a therapist is like dating. You may have looked up his or her online profile before you met. You saw the picture, read a short but sweet bio and got a flavor for their personal philosophy. But until you two are sitting across from each other, you don’t know if there will be chemistry. It should be obvious pretty quickly. Ideally, each of you is comfortable around the other. There’s something in common between you, maybe a shared attitude. Just because there’s chemistry doesn’t mean the union will be effective, of course. There’s still plenty of work to be done. But if the chemistry isn't there you can’t keep seeing this person, just to be nice. It makes more sense to move on. Personally, I believe that there is no cookie cutter approach to therapy. Every client and every session is different and I individualize my techniques for what you as the client would want and need. The client must click with the therapist and vice versa. Sometimes, even a therapist can feel they are not a good match! Once a match is made, the therapist should be working to learn about the client to assess what approach would work best not only for the situation but the client as whole! If you can afford it, consider seeing a few different people and trying to find the best match. Not indefinitely–that would be confusing for you and unethical for them. But consider meeting up with maybe two or three different people, just once. Evaluate your mental health and check in with yourself after each meeting: was the conversation labored or effortless? How do you feel about them? More importantly, how do you feel about yourself? Are you hopeful for how things between you might progress? Once you find someone that you click with, how much personal information should you reveal in the beginning? Some people spill everything right away. As if unburdening themselves for the first time, there’s an outpouring of the most painful and difficult events in their lives told in chronological order. Others choose to hold the more sensitive material back until they know they can trust the other to respond with compassion. That makes sense. Trust is always built over time. Hope this helps!