Ok, have to share my story (quickly).

I finished with my t after 4 years. I felt like I was DONE with therapy. No more, you know? Ready to take on everything on my own and leave the safety net behind.

Two months later I'm talking to this girl I knew from one of my old churches - mind you we hadn't talked in years. She tells me about this guy who is an awesome T, but truly faith-driven (which is something I'm really open to bc I want to strengthen my faith).

I email with the guy, he tells me a little bit about his style. My friend tells me he's in one town, he tells me he's in another town (all the same general area). I go to meet him and he says he'll meet me outside the building. I'm familiar with the area, but not too much with these specific buildings. I find him after a couple times up and down the block. He takes me up a little ramp, down a hallway, up a flight of concrete stairs, across a room with a bare toilet, up a half flight of stairs to this random landing and two rooms past the landing. I was FREAKED. Here I am going into some creepy darkish building with a man I've never met before.

The room had one of those vinyl couches that you'd see at a dr. office, a desk chair for him, and a little metal file case that he put his coffee on. TOTALLY bare. No laptop, no desk, NOTHING.

It was looking dicey. I was impressed with him when we talked because he seemed even better than my previous t, but seriously. I go home and google the crap out of him, and there is absolutely NO web presence except that he did a spot for a local radio station once and his former employer (a campus ministry).

I went back the next time after trying to confirm with my former friend that this guy is actually legit. She says she's been seeing him for two years.

Turns out, he moved into that new office THAT week - like two days before he first saw me. He does have a practice webpage but it doesn't show up in google. He is NOT licensed, but totally legit. He's not licensed because it allows him to work with people all over the world (missionaries and whatnot), but he has insurance and everything. I was able to verify him through some other channels (turns out he's a member of my church - it's a big church, found his practice #, talked to a couple people who knew him/his family), but yeah.

He's been WONDERFUL. Seriously.

But I had some serious concerns that first session.... What put me at ease though was that he was good. I could tell he's had training and a lot of experience.

That said - you HAVE to feel safe there. If it's giving you a seriously bad or scary vibe, get out!

ETA: not so short story - sorry guys