The Skinny on Therapy and Finding Your Fit (Therapy 101 Series)

Show Notes:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! I prefer giving over receiving, so for my birthday week I declare a blitz giveaway of my full resilience training program, Beating the Breaking Point, designed specifically for First Responders and Front Line Workers!! Go to the page and click to register before 11:59PM on Monday October 18th. Use code BIRTHDAY to get this 7-part online training program for ONLY $99!

Today we’re continuing our series on therapy 101 – focusing today on where to look for a counsellor; what to look for in a counsellor; what to ask a potential counsellor (and how to go about doing that); and what to expect from counselling (particularly early on). 

Where to look for a counsellor: Different people stumble into counselling through different routes, and it’s important to acknowledge that there are lot’s of ways to find a professional support person. 

-        Google, how did we ever live without it?? The great thing about google is the ability to find someone conveniently located to you or to search for someone who specializes in a particular area of need. The downside to google and scanning clinicians’ websites is that it doesn’t disclose a lot about the persons personality and whether they’ll be a fit for you.

-        Online counselling-specific directories, tend to ask specific fill-in-the-blank questions that allow prospective clients to compare and contrast clinicians skills, interests and so on a bit more side-to-side. 

-        Professional association directories, offer some amount of safety in knowing that the clinicians represented on the directory meet some minimum criteria for education, training and experience. 

** NOTE: I know I shared at length in last week’s episode about how counselling is not regulated in many areas, so this might seem confusing. Professional associations are not the same as regulatory colleges – professional associations are run by the group they represent. An example of this is the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors – I register with them, meeting their inclusion criteria, and I pay them annually to be allowed to represent myself as a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC). They have an ethical guideline that I am required to abide by to remain a member in good standing, but the guidelines are formed and enforced within the group, and the only ultimate outcome of failing to abide is to be barred from membership but can’t strip me of my ability to continue to practice since the profession overall is unregulated where I live and work. A regulatory body is intended for public safety to ensure that practitioners meet expectations and offers recourse if expectations are not met including being barred from continuing to practice altogether. Professional associations role is to support their members, but they do offer a layer of protection to the public in having some specific criteria for acceptance. **

-        A referral from your GP 

-        Word of mouth referral from a friend or someone you know

-        Other professionals who are often connected to counsellors they’ve worked in parallel with – like lawyers, chiropractors, naturopaths, or other para-medical professionals tend to know clinicians whom they trust to refer to.

-        Non-profit or government funded agencies can offer referrals or direction including crime victim assistance, ministry of child and family development, community mental health, legal aid, and first nations health. These groups tend to be well-connected to their respective community organizations and privately operating mental health professionals and can suggest who might be a good fit for your needs. 

What to look for when looking for a counsellor: 

1.      Education. The main professional associations across Canada require that their counsellors have a Masters Degree in psychology. Individuals who have completed this level of education will have done a four year undergraduate Degree as well as a Masters program typically between two and three years in length. These programs include training in assessment, treating psychological disorders, working with individuals/couples/families/children, and working with a variety of wellness concerns including relationship issues, work issues, addictions concerns, grief and loss, etc. These programs also include intensive practicum/internship experiences where students complete a given number of hours directly counselling clients under the supervision of a professional.

2.      Registration with a Professional Association (if not in a regulated area). You want to see letters after their name. In areas that are regulated, this is taken care of for you. But for those in unregulated areas, look for registration with a professional association which helps to protect the client. Finding a registered counsellor acts as a bit of a safeguard – you know they had to pass specific criteria to get registered which means that they have the fundamental things they need to effectively help you. Belonging to a professional association requires your counsellor to abide by specific ethical guidelines and it gives clients a place to voice any concerns/complaints. In addition, belonging to an association means that your counsellor is getting regular information about training, resources, and other information that allows them to be even better at their job.

3.      Be specific about what you want. 

a.      First, be clear about what kind of clinician you are looking for. Check with your extended medical coverage to see what credentials they cover, and look specifically for someone who meets that. It stinks to go see someone and connect with them only to discover that you can’t get reimbursed for those sessions after the fact. Clinicians do not know which medical programs cover which credentials, so you have to do this piece of diligence to ensure that you are finding someone who will be covered. 

b.      Second, be clear about what you are needing counselling for and find someone who specializes in that area. Just like there are GP’s who are generalist medical practitioners, and then there are specialists who focus on a specialized area of medical practice, therapists similarly have generalists who work with a range of needs but aren’t necessarily deeply versed or trained in any given one, as well as highly specialized clinicians who invest in dedicating themselves to a specific area of treatment. So if you’re looking for relationship counselling, don’t go to someone who tends to focus on depression. If you’re looking for counselling around a recent or past trauma, don’t go to someone who prefers to do career counselling. If your work factors in as a significant aspect of what you hope to work on in therapy, I would really encourage you to seek out someone who has a specialization in working with trauma, as well as experience working with other First Responders and Front Line Workers, as you are a somewhat unique demographic and tend to benefit from someone who gets your unique challenges.

Alright, you’v...