[stopdog]

Do you know how long the therapist you see has been practicing? Did it factor into your decision to hire that specific therapist?

[Argonautomobile]

My T's been practicing for about a decade. I can't say I exactly "hired" him, but I don't think years of experience would be terribly important to me except insofar as it correlates to age. Sorry to be ageist, but the thought of seeing a T younger than me (25) makes me kind of queasy. :/

[stopdog]

I would not hire one younger than I am either. I asked the therapist when I interviewed her on the phone if she was older than I am - I gave my age and asked and said I would only see one older.

[AllHeart]

Same here. The only factors for me were that she be female and at least 10 years older than me.

I saw a few T before the one I see now. They all came highly recommended by my GP all with 30 + years of experience. I hated all of them. I found my present T myself, he had only been practising for 8-9 years mainly with children. He listened to me right from the start where I felt the others had an agenda and were trying to direct me. So no length of experience did not enter into it. In fact my GP was a bit taken aback that I didn't like the others (all female) as other patients had said they were motherly (yuck)

[stopdog]

I have never seen one who I thought was motherly.

Because of the issues with T1 (who had only been qualified for about 3 or 4 years) I specifically looked for a T with lots of experience second time round. My current T has over 35 years experience as a therapist and 25 as a supervisor.
It's proven to be a good move for me, and his experience has been important.

[RedSun]

Originally Posted by AllHeart

Same here. The only factors for me were that she be female and at least 10 years older than me.

Same, mine needed to be older. And have good hair.

I put 5 to 10 years, but she was a qualified counsellor before that so overall it's longer, but as a T not so long.

[ThingWithFeathers]

I voted 15 - 20 years. I'm not actually sure how long precisely, but I know at least this long. She has a certificate given to her for the work she has done over the last 10 years in the organisation (dated a few years ago). She works for a csa sa and dv organisation, and would have needed to have a number of years working before that, as is the requirement for the orgs recruitment requirements. So, I don't know how long, but at least 15-20.

The therapist I currently see has over 30 years of experience. She has supervised medical students in psychoanalysis for the past twenty years while maintaining her own small private practice. I picked her specifically because she practices relational psychoanalysis and even more importantly because of her years of experience. I like the fact that her age gives her solid life experiences, she's well trained, has a professorial appearance (that's the snob in me), and she's totally unflappable (which I think relates back to her age and life experiences). Some people want a young therapist, I prefer someone with some well traveled roads under his/her feet--if they've experienced some bumps along the way, I'm hopeful they can ease some of those bumps for me or at least, give me some pointers for navigating them with the least amount of pain.

[nottrustin]

Over 30 years. It was important that the person was older than me, female and had a good amount of experience. It didn't need to be a much as she had but it worked out perfectly.

When I was seeing my T she said she has been a therapist for 18 years.

[atisketatasket]

One of mine has 35 years of experience, the other 37. My initial criterion for hiring No. 1 was that she have some experience in a certain area. This meant she wasn't going to be a newbie but I wasn't looking for age and experience at that time. No. 2 was referred by No. 1, so I didn't consider experience there either.

Now that I know more about therapy, I'd say I'd need someone with at least 15 years of experience and around my age (a few years younger would be OK, but it has to be the same generation - I don't want to be explaining 80's life to someone who stares at me blankly). Also female.

[Chummy]

Mine has been working as a T for about 6 years. She's only 3 years older than me. I didn't exactly chosen her, I chose the practise whe worked at because they had experience with social anxiety.
I was worried about her being so young, not because of her experience but because it was so close to my age. But it worked.

Before my current T I had a T who wasn't that long ago graduated and she wasn't really useful to me.
I've also had much older T's and they didn't really knew what to do with me either. So age and experience don't say everything.

If I would ever need a new T, I want someone who's over 30, but too old won't work either, I think.

[rainbow8]

I seem to be in the minority here. My T was practicing about 8 years when I started seeing her. That didn't matter because I'd already seen a couple of Ts with much more experience. I was more interested in her orientation and whether we fit together.

I don't understand why most people want a T much older than they are. My T is about 15 years younger than I am, and it doesn't matter. That's probably because we're both "older". Her kids aren't so much younger than mine and she was married a long time. So at this point the age difference doesn't matter but I'm not sure if it would matter at all if the T had the experience and orientation I was looking for.

[Petra5ed]

Mine is 20 years older than me, has 30 years + experience. I too would have never seen someone younger than me, or actually, anyone that was less than 10 years older than me, LOL. Also probably would have balked at anyone with less than 10 years of work experience. I am picky when it comes to someone I am going to divulge a bunch of stuff to.

Edited to say, important he was older than me because I have always had older friends. Not that that makes him my friend, but that I'm more used to talking to older people. I've always been told I'm an old soul. A lot of people my age, mid 30's, just don't have the life experience yet that I know a guy cresting 60 will have.

[ruh roh]

I wanted one who was older, experienced, secure with herself as a person and professional, and have an open, curious mind. The ones who practice formula therapy scare me.

[junkDNA]

my T has been practicing for 9 years... he is 10 years older than me. i would not want to see a therapist that is younger than me since i am only 28

[Myrto]

My therapist has 9 years of experience, I thought she had more since she's 53 but this is her second career.
Nine years experience is fine for me, I would not want a newbie but the most important thing is for her to be older and a woman. I would find someone younger or closer to my age humiliating to talk to, I would compare myself too much to them, it would not be good or useful for me.
I also find "older" comforting, especially older women (although of course not all of them are!).

Don't know ... Don't care ...

It's a good fit and we're making progress
on my C-PTSD and that's all that matters
to me!

I voted 15-20 years. He is a bit older than me, but still in the same age range. I wouldn't want someone a lot older, because I don't feel they could relate to me as well.

[laxer12]

My T has been practicing for only 3 years but she is about 40 years old so for me, her life experience on top of the few years of professional experience was enough for me to respect her. I'm 24 and I don't think I would be able to work with someone who was younger than 30. I think therapists need to really know themselves and have some life experience behind them. I'm not saying someone younger than 30 doesn't have those qualities or that someone older than 30 does, but I like my chances better with someone older. However, I'm also not willing to spend $100 a session so I'm kind of stuck with someone who has less experience.

Looks like I'm in a minority!

My T is a very recent graduate from her clinical psychologist doctoral program. Other than her doctoral internships, she's only had about one year of experience.

She's under 30/ exactly 30 years of age. I'm just past mid 20s so I'm the same age range as her.

She seems to know herself well, is good at portraying confidence, but I don't know about her life experiences.

I'm scared of older clinicians however, so her youthfulness suits me. I wouldn't want someone who is motherly, but I like how my T can be like I slightly older mentor / guide.

[skat]

My therapist has been practicing for about 10 years. She's older than me, which is important to me.

[velcro003]

Mine is about 6 years older than me, but has been practicing long enough to where I felt comfortable that she had enough experience to deal with me.