Print This Post

The following list of questions is the boilerplate I will use in evaluating my therapists. I don’t think I’ll be asking them word-for-word necessarily, because how I feel about their answers and the interaction is just as important, if not moreso, than what their answers actually are.

With that said, I’m opening this up for comments: are there any questions that might be good to ask in addition to what I have here?

1. What sort of training did you receive to become a therapist?
2. How did you decide to become a therapist?
3. How do you characterize your relationship with the client?
4. Did you experience abuse or neglect during your childhood?
   1. If so,
      1. What have you done to pursue healing?
      2. How do you protect against unconsciously influencing your patients?
      3. How are you experiencing these questions?
   2. If not, how do you empathize with a patient that has experienced abuse?

It’s worth mentioning that my health plan covers 20 therapy (non-biologically-based) sessions per calendar year, with the out-of-pocket expense being a $10 or $15 copay. Not bad; I don’t imagine for a moment that just 20 sessions will do it, but it’ll be nice to save that $2k up front.

RSS feed | Trackback URI

6 Comments »

Comment by Joey

2008-06-10 17:17:31

During graduate school I took an ethics class that was mostly concerned with the clinical psych people. Most of the cases presented were from people who have filed complaints against their therapists to some kind of board or organization (i.e., the ACA or APA). One could also go to places like http://www.counseling.org/ and ask them for resources.

When you go to a new therapist you fill out some papers and terms of agreement. If at anytime you experience abuse from this therapist you can report to whatever organization that is their umbrella. So in theory you should be able to investigate a therapist like you would a doctor with malpractice suits.

Hope that helps.

Log in to Reply

Comment by James Pyrich

2008-06-10 23:27:48

Thanks for the information, Joey, but I'm a little confused about it. Are you talking about doing some pre-digging to see if they've had any complaints from previous clients?

Log in to Reply

Comment by Joey

2008-06-11 17:08:02

Yes, although I am not %100 positive one can do this. From that ethics class I should have asked if a potential client can do such a thing. You can certainly file a report if the therapist is doing something seriously wrong and action will be taken, but it would be helpful if one could see some potential problems with a therapist from past complaints.

The draw-back to that method is that only serious things are taken seriously and minor things, such as just not being compatible with the therapist, is not something you can report on.

Log in to Reply

 

 

 

Comment by charlotte

2008-06-10 20:54:52

I would ask "how are you experiencing these questions" to every therapist, not just ones who have undergone childhood trauma. :)

Hm... as to other questions... I would ask them if they believe in one specific therapeutic approach, and if so, what. If you get a straight CBT therapist who isn't interested at all in your childhood... maybe not so much. If they don't take one specific approach, there's probably another question to ask, but I can't think of it now.

Great list.

Log in to Reply

Comment by James Pyrich

2008-06-10 23:24:33

I don't even think I would get to the question about child abuse with a therapist that was repressing his or her own history! I think I would end up feeling so much tension and/or fog when asking about how they decided to become a therapist and how they relate to their patients that I would thank them for their time and hang up/run away.

Yeah, a question about what methodology(ies) they like to use might be good. I'll think about it. :)

Log in to Reply

Comment by James Pyrich

2008-06-10 23:29:12

And... I am assuming that child abuse is quite widespread and that a therapist will have experienced a particular brand of abuse... but that if they're going to be worth their salt, they'll have come to some terms with it.

Log in to Reply

 

 

 

Click here to cancel "reply".

Name (required)

E-mail (required - never shown publicly)

URI

Subscribe to comments via email

Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)

You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

CAPTCHA Code *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Trackback responses to this post