How did you meet your T?

Referral from a professor I trusted in the counseling psych department at a local university. I wanted someone who I thought would be like the professor I asked the referral for. My t has been great.

Met him as my consultant psychiatrist on the psych ward I ended up in. He became my T a month later, after suggesting the idea to me.

Treatment centre I was in said I needed more than they could offer, so gave me a number of a therapist they respected.

I've had:
- A T that a friend's dad recommended (he was a doctor and referred patients there)
- A T that had been my college psych professor many years prior
- A specialist that another T asked me to see for a consult
- Lots of referrals from the specialist
- A referral from a psychiatrist that I never met (a T referred me to him, I didn't want meds, but did email him asking for referrals for my issue).
- And current T who I found online. I liked that he has a pretty thorough website with a lot of information about himself and his practice, and that he wasn't associated with any of my past Ts, who kind of screwed things up a bit.
- Oh, and an email-T once, that I found in an old online directory of Ts that would do remote work (I think the directory isn't up to date anymore)

Best referral, eva' (cuz my T is the best T eva'! LOL)! My T isn't in Psych Today, or any other of those type of listings. If you know which type of therapy you are looking for (ie. IFS, CBT, Somatic, etc) then start there. You could ask your general physician for suggestions too.

Good luck!

My therapist was holding a free short-term therapy group for undergrad students in psychology and I went to that group. We started individual therapy after the group ended.

My previous T recommended him as a pdoc, because I needed to discuss my medication. The first time I met with him to talk about meds, I found him much easier to talk to, and much more understanding of where I came from, than my then-T was. So a couple of months later, when I had terminated with exT, I asked pdoc if I could see him for therapy, and he agreed.

I attended an organisation that specialises in trauma work. The first T I started seeing there went on holiday 4 weeks after I started working with her, and she recommended I see her colleague while she was away. She said that when she got back I could decide who I would prefered to work with. That whoever I chose would be fine. I got along well with the first T, but I connected with her very sweet colleague almost straight away. Needless to say, I have remained with the colleague ever since.

Every therapist/therapy I had was a directory from another one. They all didn't help. So after the last one who didn't help me, I thought I'll try it one more time. I google for therapy that was speciallised in social anxiety. And this organisation was and they were in a city close to me, and the insurence covered it. I had an intake, and they assigned one of their therapist to me. And they assigned me probably their best one. This is the only one who has ever understood me and was able to help me.

Basically my GP referred me for an emergency assessment with an outpatient Psych clinic after things had become unstable (hallucinations, almost daily self harm, severe depressive symptoms etc) - I was initially assessed by a Psych Nurse and Social Worker at home, and then set up for an appointment with a Psychiatric Registrar (Psychiatrist in training) at the clinic itself. It was determined at that point that, while I was obviously unwell, I wasn't quite unwell enough for the clinic to actually take me on as a patient. They dealt primarily with severely mentally ill clients in acute crisis, as a short term care unit, and I required longer term care/therapy. So that was that, at least until the following day when the registrar rang me back and said that one of the lead clinicians had reviewed my notes, and he was very interested in my case, and would I like to come in for an appointment and possibly have him take me on as a patient. I said 'Yes', and that's how I met my Pdoc who I've now been with for close to 5 years (and three clinic moves).

I wanted to apply to psychodynamic group psychotherapy and there had to be some introductory meeting done with one of the therapists that are leading the group. I contacted her for that meeting and when I was there, she recommended me individual therapy and said she would like to see me. That was it, basically she wanted me

I got the name of several therapists from my insurance company and passed them along to my psychiatrist who made the recommendation. We hit it off and that was over two years ago.