Yes, I tried out several. Not on purpose, and not recently. When I first started, a long time ago (like... 15 years or so ago!) I kind of got pushed into therapy by a friend who was trying to be helpful, but triggered a whole mess of stuff for me, and left me in a bad place.

I tried out a LOT of therapists back then. Some just for a session or three, before realizing they were not a good match. Some, I stayed with for a long time (and some kicked me out!). It was very difficult for me to determine what was a "good match" and who could help, especially because I was (and am!) not very open, so each time, I thought that I did not want to go back through the beginning of therapy again with someone new. It was too awful and hard.

I ended up taking a break for the last several years (~7) to stabilize myself. I think that was a good thing. I focused on my job, saving money, my physical health, and took some music lessons for fun.

With my current T, I didn't try out several. Just him this time around. And, I'm not 100% sure that he's going to be helpful (I want to quit quite often, like every other session!, but I think that's part of my "brokenness").

I don't know if he's "the one", but I think he can be "a one" - so like dating, I don't think he's necessarily the soul-mate of therapists for me, but I think that he can help me to a point, and I think he's very solid and stable and committed.

So, I am sticking with it. I hold on to the good signs:
- He is not defensive. He wants to know if something he says or does bothers me, and when I tell him, he never makes me feel bad. If it's something he can fix, he will.

- He adapts to me, if something bothers me, he stops doing it.

- He is the only T that I've had who has been able to pull me out of dissociation and silence. I get scared, and feel like I'm falling into myself. I get very quiet and unable to really carry on much of a conversation like this. Other Ts have found it difficult, and have reacted in ways that make it worse. I don't know how he's manages (he doesn't specialize in dissociation), but he always manages to throw me a lifeline, and *thank goodness* doesn't make me sit in silence for a long time, trying to get back all by myself.

- He doesn't seem to take my stuff personally, previous T did, and it was awful. He thought I hated him because I couldn't talk about stuff. *Argh*.

By the way, I don't know if it helps, but this T does a lot of work with addicts, and has been working for ~30 years. So he has a lot of experience, but I figured (and hope) that working with addiction meant he probably had a lot of experience dealing with people who were really struggling, sometimes not rational, and had some trauma in their backgrounds. Basically, even though he didn't specialize in my stuff, he specializes in difficult people... so I figured that might give him an advantage with my stuff. He also does a lot of family and child therapy, and since I've got dissociative issues (apparently possibly including a child part), I thought he'd be able to be sensitive/gentle when needed.

So far, so good. But it's a very slow process for me, and like I said, I'm not 100% sure. I'm hopeful, but not sure!

One of the things that I wonder for you... it sounds like you're trying to take a very logical ("left brain", analytical) approach. But, studies have shown that the most important factor in successful therapy is the relationship, which is a right-brain, non-verbal, creative thing.

I just wonder if it might be possible/helpful to worry less about the details like what methods they use, and try to focus on how you feel with them. Do they listen? Do they understand you? When they answer questions, do you feel like they understood what you're asking - and like they're explaining things in a way that you can understand? Do you feel like they care (assuming that's what you want) - and like they respect your boundaries?

I don't think you can get all this from one session, though some people do know it one session. With my T, I didn't. I didn't want to come back... but I kept getting pushed back by the universe (very long story, I posted about it here last summer). It took me... quite a while to feel like, "OK, this guy might be ok!" and some days, I still feel ready to quit!

I think too that it's important to maybe recognize that part of that might be wrapped up in your own issues. I come from a pretty crappy family with poor attachment and parents that weren't really interested in being parents. So, I'm sure that makes therapy hard for me... hard to attach, hard to trust, hard to see how this person can help, hard to stick around, hard to feel connected at the beginning of every session. It sucks (and I think you mentioned your family was similar?). But it's important to see that, because sometimes you have to realize that the feeling to leave isn't really because the T is bad, it's because you learned from your family that nobody is going to (or can) help you - and so you find a reason to dismiss T.

(But some Ts really are bad Ts, or bad fits, so I'm definitely not saying just pick one and stick with them!)

Good luck, I hope this helps!