That's were a competent therapist will recommend a client seeks a different therapist who is more experienced and skilled in working with any particular issue that they are not really able to do themselves. Unfortunately, either (a) the therapist doesn't do this, or (b) even if the therapist does this, the client may take it as a rejection rather than a recommendation and refuses to leave, getting sidetracked on issues of feeling rejected, which isn't really what is going on, rather than staying focused on getting the correct assistance for their issues.

As consumers of these services (therapy, medical, etc), we have to take the responsibility of trusting our gut when things don't feel right and moving on until we find the right service provider. This isn't just a therapy thing. We deal with it with physicians in my family because my husband requires very specialized medical care; we've done a great deal of trying out AND leaving specialists who were not knowledgeable enough, not communicative enough, etc. It's stressful and a pain in the drain, but getting the right care and quality care takes some determination, research, and awareness.

My last therapist and my pdoc were open enough to allow for the possibility that they might not be the right providers for me when my symptoms were seeming to not improve. My pdoc went so far as to recommend I get a second opinion to be sure he wasn't missing something. I followed through with that second opinion with a physician I chose on my own; the 2nd opinion doc didn't think my pdoc was missing anything but did have some additional recommendations that my pdoc followed which were helpful. I chose to stay with my therapist because I knew he certainly had the knowledge base and skills for working with my diagnosis and issues; my gut told me I was just stuck and things would eventually shift in the right direction, which they did.