I freely admit that I read reviews on all doctors and mental health professionals. Yes, there are some that are rants, but I often read these reviews and recognize red flags that the person writing doesn't even know are red flags that are helpful to me in knowing that the person they're reviewing is a poorly trained therapist or arrogant and ill-informed physician. I really like reviews. I have to admit that if a review is TOO positive, I'm more inclined to reject it than one that is a total rejection of the professional's worth. I guess that's the pessimist in me.

Personal Experience: I was taking a new therapist for a "test drive" and didn't do my homework ahead of time. I thought she was pretty good. I was feeling pretty confident that she was well-trained, compassionate, willing to accept her end of the relationship and was open to continuing training and education. I saw her for about three months. At one point, I did a better, deeper search on her credentials on the internet. I found that she had a serious ethical charge brought against her by a client and she was sanctioned. She didn't lose her license, but she had to seek out further supervision and take an ethics course. Not a terrible "punishment" but I figured that her infraction wasn't terrible. Well, I found through further search that her former client had posted the ENTIRE judgement against her on the internet. Boy, was that thing informative. It told me exactly how this therapist had failed this client and how she was unable to accept or recognize her mistakes--her defense was in the document. I quit immediately and looked elsewhere. I appreciate that the woman (former client) was willing to expose herself to that degree to inform others. Her name was blacked out, but I know it was a risk for her. Kudos to her!