10 Tips for Choosing a Good Psychologist

Choosing the psychologist who is going to offer us your sessions may seem like a simple task at a time when the internet allows you to quickly locate the nearest consultation.

If we live in a small town, we may only have to find out which mental health professionals practice in our area, and if we are in a large urban center we will still have many tools to find out about all the nearby consultations. However, things get complicated when we introduce the variable “quality” into the equation.

Choosing a good psychologist is not always an easy task, since There are many factors to take into account and some of them depend on the specific type of service we are looking for

Tips for choosing a good psychologist

Of course, each case deserves to be studied and it is impossible to give specific keys to select the best of all professionals without knowing the characteristics of the patient and the psychologists available in the area. However, you can follow some general guidelines that will help you choose a good psychologist.

Here you have ten of these keys

1. Make sure they are a psychologist

The first point to choose a good psychologist is… make sure they are a psychologist It seems like a very obvious point, but it is worth keeping in mind. In the labor market, labels and names abound that make us think that anyone who uses them to define themselves is a psychologist. However, it is not true: today it is possible to present yourself as a “psychotherapist” or “therapist” without having completed a university degree in psychology. Cases of work intrusion have been reported.

Someone who claims to be a psychotherapist does not have to be a psychologist, although a psychologist can be a psychotherapist. To be sure that the person offering you the sessions has university training in psychology, you can check if they have a membership number and an official university degree.

2. Check that it has a specialization in what you are looking for

There are many types of psychologists, and Not all of them have to be suitable for what you are looking for To begin with, you should find out if the professional who is going to assist you is specifically trained in clinical psychology, since there are also psychologists whose specialization is focused on marketing, laboratory research or Human Resources. Keep in mind that, depending on the country in which you live, to be a clinical psychologist, a university degree may be sufficient or you may also have to complete at least a post-university master’s degree.

Once you’ve made sure you’re choosing from people qualified in clinical or health psychology, find out Which of these are specialized in the problems you want to treat?

3. Find out about the type of psychotherapeutic approach offered

A psychologist can offer psychotherapeutic approaches that currently do not have solid evidence about their effectiveness, such as past life therapy and other alternative therapies. This is not a reason to discard their services, but it is worth keeping in mind that certain practices are not supported by science

Alternative therapies may be more or less useful depending on each case, since whether or not they are useful is determined by the patient through their own subjectivity, but a good psychologist will not pass off one of these practices as ways of intervening with empirically proven effectiveness.

Before choosing a psychologist, you must keep in mind that The form of psychological treatment that has the greatest scientific support is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, although there are treatments that have been shown to be effective in addressing specific disorders. That is why the best thing you can do is ask for information about the degree of scientifically proven effectiveness of the treatments offered and, from that point, decide in one direction or another.

4. Make sure confidentiality is guaranteed

It never hurts to remember that During the sessions, the confidentiality of everything you say or do must be guaranteed As a general rule, your personal data cannot be disseminated by any psychology professional or by any company constituted by psychologists. If this confidentiality is violated in any way, that fact may be grounds for reporting.

5. You must sign an informed consent document

Before starting therapy, You should be given a dossier with information about the services available and, specifically, the type of therapy you opt for Attached to this type of dossier should be the informed consent document, in which you sign that you are aware of what will be done during the sessions.

6. Do you offer evaluation and diagnosis?

At the beginning of the visits, A psychologist must explore the patient’s problem through an evaluation stage that should not go beyond the first 4 or 5 sessions This will allow him to establish a diagnosis of your problems, and this diagnosis must be explained to you in plain words, so that you understand it.

If you notice that the person giving you therapy indefinitely extends the evaluation phase, mixes this phase with the treatment phase, or notices that their explanation of the diagnosis is deliberately confusing and esoteric, consider stopping the sessions.

7. Is your intervention proposal clear?

Choosing a good psychologist is also opt for a professional who knows how to communicate well with his patients and who does not reserve information about his plan to intervene through therapy That’s why they should be able to clearly explain to you the number of sessions planned and what will happen during those sessions.

Likewise, it must also be able to offer clear answers to all the doubts about the therapy that may arise.

8. The psychologist should not judge you

Psychological professionals should never judge their patients, since Their role is aimed at offering solutions and directing efforts towards clear objectives They are not in the business of being guardians of morality. It is essential that a psychologist knows how to promote good rapport, that is, an environment of trust that allows you to express yourself without ties.

In part, this is the reason that makes it possible for patients to behave sincerely during the sessions.

9. How does the therapeutic relationship go?

Clinical psychologists work to help find solutions, not to offer friendship to his patients or to get romantically involved with them Building personal relationships with patients goes against the psychologists’ code of ethics.

If you notice that the person offering you treatment behaves like a friend or lets you know that they are looking for the continuity of your relationship during the hours when they are not treating you as a professional, you should leave the therapy immediately.

10. Do you notice that it is useful for you to go to your consultation?

As a last resort, You must be the person who evaluates the usefulness of going to the psychologist Thus, psychologists cannot pressure you to continue with treatments nor should they tell you that you do not realize how useful their services are being.

The progress you may be making is of no use if in the final stages of therapy you are not the person who notices it.

Summarizing…

With these keys in mind, you should now be able to make a well-informed decision when choosing a good psychologist. Keep in mind, however, that the list you just read could be endless and that there are infinite issues to consider when choosing one professional or another, so it is worth it if you are the one to judge what you are looking for and in what. measure they can offer it to you.

If you have any questions about the role of the psychologist and the therapist-patient relationship, all you have to do is Leave your question in the comments (below the post) and we will answer you with great pleasure.