How do you pick a T when it is just a bunch of names on an insurance list?

Whew, that is a long title! I stopped therapy about 8 months ago, and am thinknig about starting again, but maybe with a different T. The thing is, my insurance just lists names and phone numbers, and I think therapy is the one profession that has about zero online presence. I haven't gone through all the T's, but so far i've found none with a website for even professional purposes. It took a lot of effort for me to call a few therapists 6 years ago when I first went, and I at least had a photo/specialties listed on this T I selected. I absolutely do not see me cold calling a bunch of T's and interviewing them. Ugh. Thoughts? Are therapists really just not on the internet?

Chances are if you call between the hours (rather than just before the start of an hour) you'll get an answering machine or secretary. You can weed a lot out simply by those who return phone calls and those that don't.

Sometimes you can find reviews online, though its possibly more common for psychiatrists than for therapists. Still, I think Vitals.com has some good info. In my area, Yelp.com has quite a few reviews of therapists also.

velcro, they might be listed in the Psychology Today therapy finder or even psych central's but i thought those usually come up in google searches. it's strange none have had websites or those listings as so many Ts do. a couple others are goodtherapy.com and alltherapy or alltherapists, something like that. i have no idea if your insurance company would actually recommend any in particular but it might not hurt to ask. if the list is really long then you could ask your GP, etc for recommendations and see if they are on the list.

i'll try those, thanks

I looked up the T's in the Psychology Today finder. Most had pictures and a brief profile. My T does have a website and a few others did too. I actually didn't realize my T had a website until I had been seeing her for a while - I based my decision off of her Psychology Today profile and talking to her on the phone. Also, on the PT finder, some T's have an option to send them an email to request a phone consultation. That's what I did...it was easier than trying to cold call a T - they had my email and could reach back out to me.

I found my current T by accident while I was reading profiles on psychology today of the names my pdoc had given me. Her profile was on the same page as one of his names, and her picture caught my eye and then I read her profile that mentioned dream work and I called her instead!! Turned out to be the best "accident" ever as she has helped me SO much in 2.5 years. No accident she would say - synchronicity!

All of the Therapists I have seen have been selected by the practice I went to.

I found my T off an insurance list. I started by narrowing down by location which got my choices down to like 6 or 8. I eliminated females because I prefer a male therapist. That go the list down to like 4. Two of them worked in the same practice as a very highly respected psychiatrist, but the other two had no affiliation that I could tell. I figured the pdoc probably doesn't allow slouches into his practice and went with those two. My insurance company had information about each provider on their website and I chose mine for his credentials.

I have found therapists and pdocs who pull most of their clients from major insurance companies don't do much, if any, advertising because they just don't need to. They generally have plenty of clients coming to them, so spending money on advertising, including websites is just not needed.

My own insurance company doesn't do this, but I stumbled across another insurance company serving the same area that does. Odds are many of the therapists on your list accept more than one insurance, so maybe you can use the provider search of other insurance companies to find information about your providers?

I always show the list and ask my pdoc or gp and see if they have any suggestions.

I would do a couple calls; just call the phone number, see if they have a secretary/office staff or answer the phone or what happens and ask do they have a web site or material they could send you and if it is a recording, maybe give an email address and/or ask them to confirm they take your insurance. After that go round I would narrow down the information I had received and call again to set up a single appointment. I'd go and decided did I want to see "this" therapist.

If a therapist answers straight away, sounds okay, etc. I'd maybe share I'm looking for a therapist and set up an appointment. I would remember that I don't need to contact all the people on the list, don't need to "compare" them, I just need a therapist that will do for me and that could be the first number I call. No matter what, you will have to evaluate "each" person you call/talk to, whether that is one person or 25.

yeah all the ones i've searched so far had zero online presence, i've found little luck with psychology today website, but maybe i should specifically look on the site instead of hoping google found it?
I wish my insurance company put specialities on there, but they don't That is a good point about not needing any adverstisement.
Oohh interesting thought, except i would have no idea what insurance companies to look up. Mine is Anthem BCBS, but it is a tiny subsection of it that still confuses me.
yeah this is what intimidates me the most.

thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

It depends on where you live. (If you do a Psychology Today search for providers near you, you'll see a list of insurance carriers that are accepted by your search results on the left.)

In my own area, I have consulted the following insurance directories.

Megallen Health Services: lists provider's office hours and ethnicity

Cigna: lists the year that the provider got their professional degree, which will tell you how experienced they are; also lists the specialties of providers, but only if you select a specific concern (e.g. "sexual/child abuse") at the beginning of the search

MHN: gives a list of conditions that the provider treats. Many providers claim to treat most conditions, so they are either generalists or liers. The most interesting in my opinion are the providers who list only a small number of related conditions because that might indicate that they have a true specialty in something. (e.g. one provider lists trauma, abuse, anxiety, depression, personality disorders only - I once got a referral to him specifically as a trauma therapist).

Integrated Health Plan: lists the birth year of each provider, which will tell you their age

Personally, I tend to stick to the older and more experienced therapists because I've had bad experienced with young therapists sticking rigidly to the categories and treatment plans they were taught in graduate school. The older therapists, in my own experience, tend to be more comfortable in their role and more flexible in their approach.

The most important thing to find out is what type of therapy they offer. I called Dozens (I know! Really!) to find ones that do the sort of therapy I needed. It was a matter of phone calls and asking whoever answers what the specially is. It weeds out a lot of names...
Then cross checking with doctors for additional input.
I hope that helps.

oh wow, thanks!
I know, but i so am not a question-asker and wouldn't even know where to begin and would hate it and it makes me very anxious to think about.

This is a really good point. My pdoc said this exact thing to me- the less specialties they list, the more specialized they really are.