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Workbook
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Ariadne's Thread  

A Guide to Help You Find the Right Psychotherapist for You 

Ursula Wagner, Ph.D.

Welcome.  The information in the following pages comes from the book I wrote.  I hope that you find the information here useful in your search, as well as validating.

The process of looking for a therapist can be divided into 7 steps:

These steps can be helpful to anyone searching, whether it's your first time or you have searched several times before.   It can be particularly helpful to those who have had a bad experience.

You can click at any time on the wheel for a description of each stage.

These steps offer a linear way of organizing your search. They are valuable in allowing you to do two things -- to place yourself in a certain point in time so that you can remind yourself that you are at a certain stage in the search process. At the same time, it allows you to place yourself outside of the framework, enabling you to say, "I am in a therapist search process." This is important because issues and emotions that belong to the search process often have been mislabeled as issues of therapy by both the  therapist and client.

Ariadne's Thread

What is important about the process as a whole is that it does not end after you make an appointment with a therapist or after you have seen one. It is designed to take into account that the first therapist you see may not work out and that you may then begin the process all over again or that you may have therapy, then end and continue the process when you want to go back to therapy. You retain control as you go through the process, not only of searching but of therapy, always actively evaluating whether this is right for you. The stage of evaluation and integration allows you to learn from each experience and apply it to your next search if there is one.

The Emotional Impact of Searching

There's an emotional impact to searching. There are not just logistical problems involved in the search process, the process itself may intensify emotions you are already feeling and trigger other emotions. Many of the tasks, such as, telephone screening, completing the interview process before deciding, and negotiating may be new to you. While in distress, you are being asked to do something very difficult -- to find a therapist, a stranger to whom you are going to entrust the most intimate details of your life. Following these steps will hopefully reduce negative emotions, such as fear and anxiety, associated with searching and make you feel more in control in this difficult emotional situation.

ORDERING A COPY OF THE WORKBOOK

CHOOSING YOUR PSYCHOTHERAPIST:  A Guide to Help You Find the Right Psychotherapist for You (Copyright, 1996)

A spiral bound copy of the workbook is currently being revised.  The cost is $20.00 plus $1.50 for shipping and handling.  E-mail me if you are interested in receiving an announcement when it is completed.

If you would like to share your search experiences or have comments about this web site, send me an e-mail.

December 1999