How to Find a Therapist
Getting Started

If you are feeling seriously depressed, anxious or have other intense upsetting emotions, behaviors or conflicts with others over a period of two weeks or more, mental health treatment may be helpful to you.

The two main kinds of mental health treatment are talk therapies and medication therapies. Talk therapies and medication therapies can reduce depression, anxiety, and troubling feelings and behaviors. Medications address the biological and chemical aspects of mental illnesses. Talk therapies can teach you to make changes in the ways you relate to other people. They can also help you learn to understand and manage symptoms and cope effectively with stress.

Mental health treatment can be useful to both adults and children having emotional and behavioral problems. When a child is in treatment, the therapist also meets with parents so that they can work together to make changes in the child’s life. For teenagers, therapists usually have some contact with parents, but less than with younger children. Therapists working with adults may have contact with family members and friends if the adult agrees.

Is Mental Health Treatment For Me or My Child or Other Loved One?

The decision to get mental health treatment is not an easy one to make. People are sometimes afraid that therapy will not help them or that changes will be too hard to make. They may feel embarrassed by their problems or by the problems of their children or other loved one. For these reasons, many people never get the help they need.

Emotional and behavioral difficulties are real problems, sometimes associated with genetic or biological causes, which can be treated successfully. If you think mental health treatment might be helpful to you, your child or other loved one, you may want to find a therapist and have a few meetings to learn more about how treatment can work to address the problems you have.

Finding the Right Therapist

Once the decision has been made to get more information about how treatment might help or to begin treatment, the next step is to find a therapist. You will want someone who is trained and experienced in dealing with the problems you are having, as well as someone with whom you feel comfortable and who has fees you can afford. Finding a therapist may take some time and effort, but good results from therapy depend a lot on working with the right therapist.

The following guidelines will help you get started.

• Frequently people find therapists by getting recommendations from their doctor, a trusted friend, family members or a member of the clergy.
• The Yellow Pages of your local telephone book contain listings of therapy providers under such headings as “Psychologists,” “Social Workers,” “Psychiatrists”. Unfortunately, the telephone companies do not require therapists to offer proof of their credentials when listing them.
• Other people feel most comfortable going to a therapist at their local community mental health clinic. Such clinics are licensed by New York State and require their staff to have the proper credentials.