I'll stick to answering your title question as it seems like this thread could have multiple discussions in one...

My direct experience is pretty piss-poor. I've dealt with private providers and public providers. I can't honestly say that one sector was better than the other. My diagnosis? PTSD. My trauma was as a young child and I displayed symptoms almost immediately yet wasn't diagnosed for over 25 years because my symptoms were "atypical". I honestly think that providers put their little blinders on and don't know what they don't know so they slap a label on you that *seems* to fit without really getting to the root of things. Yes, I realize that my diagnosis is a bit newer in terms of DSM chronology, but at the same time I am a bit bitter that nobody could see that my erratic behavior throughout childhood was because I was abused.

I'm a bit sad that good trauma counselors are hard to find. I live within an hour or so of two major metropolitan areas yet I still have to drive down to the city to find anyone even remotely qualified to handle this diagnosis. My most helpful therapy I'd say is on the cutting edge of trauma therapy but because it doesn't fit within standard insurance guidelines (I think that's only 2 or 3 hours of therapy a week?), I had to pay out of pocket to the tune of nearly $10k for a 2 week program. Funny though, as if you multiplied this all out, this treatment would actually SAVE the insurance companies lots and lots of money. Sad though, as its such a new type of treatment that it doesn't get a lot of recognition within the psychological community.

Which is another issue..... The psych community tends to stick with older (sometimes bad or simply unhelpful) therapy styles simply because that's what's been around for forever. I don't know who decided that "talk" therapy was so wonderful, but in reality it accomplishes nothing other than being a once a week ****** fest. I haven't ever had a "talk" therapist who did much more than TALK. Maybe this is ok if you have garden variety problems such as "its Monday and I'm sad because I have to go to work" but I think that for many of us, we need a therapist who is going to push us, challenge us, and do a bit more than just "talk" to us.