Hi everyone,

I've read numerous posts on how it's essential to find a therapist (psychologist) that is a good match for you. Having no experience with therapy before, I found one online which on paper seemed really good but going in I really didn't know what to expect.

I came in overwhelmed with problems, possible depression, previous issues with anxiety attacks, relationship problems, life problems and just general feeling unwell. I figured I could use some profesional help that everyone says it's so great. Since I don't have insurance that covers psychologists I have to pay to the tune of $250 for 1hr session out of my own pocket and treatments are to be once weekly to start so it's not cheap.

Well I have done two sessions already and can honestly say I feel very dissapointmed and I'm not sure if I'm just not giving it the right chance or if the therapist is not right for me. I'm hoping someone with more experience can give me some insight.

Here are my issues with this psychologist:

1. She was late 20 mins for my first appointment and 10 mins for my next. She said we would make up the time but given that I'm paying quarter of a thousand dollars for 50 mins of her time at least she could be on time not to make me late for work. I was her first appointment of the day.

2. She never seems prepared for our session, she uses our 50mins of time to scroll through my file and says things like "let me read through your file to make sure I know what I'm doing". If she needs to give me a printout of something to read she never has it with her she has to go to filing cabinet and find it and come back a few minutes later to give it to me and let me read it in the 50mins of paid time we have together.

3. I told her how I'm feeling and all that I'm going through ex. possible depression, relationship problems, feeling very down and cloudy, have hard time dealing with emotions and that I have experienced panic attacks before but they are better now. So out of all these things she picked up on panic attacks and said we should do CBT for that for the next 6 weeks. I reiterated that I havent had a panic attack in months and that it's a secondary issue now and she said lets tackle that first. I feel this is not a priority but I don't know if to turst her or just insit on treating the other things bothering me.

4. Overall in two sessions (some $500 later) nothing has been done expept she has learned some very basic things about me, showed me a chart on how panic attacks work (a chart which I later found online), and sent me off with homework for me to tabulate when I have physical sensations and emotional sensations and what goes through my head at the time as I get anxious so she can use that info for our CBT. This has been hard to do because I haven't really been experiencing panic or severe anxiety to the point where I have physical sensations. I feel that we are trying to tackle a secondary issue here.

So overall guys, I'm just not sure if I'm not being patient enough and expecting too much from two sessions or if it's time to find another therapist. On one hand I want to give this one a chance since I've already invested time and money into her but on the other hand it just doesn't feel like I'm getting my moneys worth and talking to her is not the easiest for me (not sure if its just opening up in general or her in particular).

Any suggestions folks?
Much appreciated,
Aston