I choose to see straight female therapists (I am lesbian) and I also have an age requirement that they be older than I am (it gets harder now that I am so old). I find therapy to be difficult enough without throwing a gender wrench into the mix for me. I have a hard enough time not finding a female t to be condescending and patronizing. It would be impossible with a male (although I cannot imagine how distrust and ruptures could be worse with a man for me than they already are with a woman). There is something else that I cannot figure out how to articulate that prevents me from considering a man. I have male friends and colleagues that cause no problems for me, so it is not that. This has been discussed in therapy as a consideration to help with the overwhelming feeling of badness I have about walking into the t's office - but the female t did not think a change in gender would fix the horribleness and neither do I. I am generally less interested (not quite the right word but can't figure out a better one) in men (not talking sexually here, which for me is a given) than in women.