I have been to a lot of therapists. I like therapists who are intelligent and insightful and able to understand how a person's childhood might connect to the present, or how something they say could be taken in many ways. I think "training" matters as far as the amount of practice they've had doing therapy, and the amount of time they've had to become comfortable expressing and understanding a variety of issues. I find social workers tend not to be good for me because they don't have as much practice doing therapy and sometimes they seem less insightful (but maybe that's due to lack of practice).

If they are intelligent in the sense of knowing a lot of data, I can take it or leave it. I briefly went to one t who constantly talked about the journal articles she had read that were related to my issues. It was more like listening to a professor lecture than going to therapy I thought. She was interesting, but I need more emotional connection than that. From what the first poster in this thread said, I don't think I'd like a therapist who isn't very warm or emotional. I wouldn't mind reading, since I read a lot anyway and it can be useful, but I don't think it should take the place of being caring.

I also need a therapist who is very nice. Not a therapist who is hot and cold, supportive then pushy in an insensitive way.

I used to want a therapist who was expressive and talkative to keep the conversation going. The one I had like that was a jerk it turned out. He was extremely expressive and dramatic, but it was mostly an act without much depth. Even if he acted very dramatically about something in one session, he would have forgotten by the next session. So now I want a therapist who doesn't dominate the conversation so much. And a therapist who reviews their notes from one session to the next and remembers at least something from the previous session.