Trainee therapists. Would you see one?

I was offered the chance to see student therapists sooner than the wait I am still waiting to see the most qualified person they have at my local clinic. I might feel differently if all of my diagnosis was done, and I agreed with it, and if I had been in therapy awhile. But being new to it, and sorting out the disorders I wanted the best of the best that I could find locally.

I would not, but that is due to my diagnosis of DID and mixed personality disorder. Before I knew that was the issue, I would have been ok with a trainee. But even working with ts who are experienced and good at what they do has not been very helpful. It's the T who has lots of experience with dissociative disorders who is the most helpful.

On the other hand, if trainee was the only option, I would check it out. There was a time in my life where I literally would not have survived without therapy.

I have seen interns and post-docs as most of the t's I've worked with. They were good for the time, and actually some I wouldn't mind returning to see if they were local.

The pros about a trainee are that they aren't necessarily burnt out on the job, and they can often think outside of the box (more creative). The cons would be more active interference from supervisors, though that is also the case with licensed t's in community clinics.

If I hadn't found my current t,I'd likely still be seeing an intern t.

I have not yet had a T who WASN'T a trainee -- I go to therapy at the clinic in my university so all the T's are doctoral students. I love my old T to death and I feel like she helped me immensely. Also, I never was bothered by supervisors or anything. She might as well have been private practice because she was the only one I dealt with or heard about. That said, she was my first T so I don't have a professional T to compare her to.

The place I used to go , used to have lots of interns and it was cheaper.. sometimes probono. so my daughter tried a few.. NOT good!!! and my son had a few that were actually good as far as helping him feel somewhat comfortable and have a good repor with him.. But.... I didn't feel comfortable with their level of experience should i need to go to court with his dad and they would need to testify.. In some ways you could tell they reallly didn't know what they were doing as much.. I would definately prefer not to see a trainee but sometimes a good connection with a trainee is better than zero cnonection or bad connectin with someone more experienced. Now that I'm with my current T I see the great value of experience and knowledge you get with that experience!!

I had a trainee therapist in IP once. She couldn't put her beliefs aside to help one of the patients. It got to be quite a mess. I'm sure not all trainees are like this, but it kind of soured me on getting a trainee therapist.

I also had quite a few pdoc residents as well. None of them could've figured out I was bipolar. They just kept giving me ADs and escorted me out.

most likely not...

Thank you for your responses. In the end I decided against seeing a trainee T. That was my gut feeling from the beginning but I didn't feel my reasons were valid. Now I have heard from other people about their experiences, I feel more confident about my decision.

My attachment issues are complex and I want to feel sure that the T I see is experienced in dealing with them.

I realize that I'm getting to this post late, but I hope that my thoughts on the matter will still be welcome even though you seem to have come to a conclusion.

For most of my life, I vetted therapists according to their intelligence and expertise in their fields. Despite a dozen or so therapists over the decades, I never found one that quite measured up. Then I met this one.

My T is confident that I know more about psychology and methodology than she ever will. She also states that I am the most intelligent person she has ever met - inside or outside her office. I think she's right on both counts. What she does have is an incredible capacity to care. You can't teach that. She also is an astoundingly competent listener. Last session I brought up something that I had mentioned to her once in passing when we first began seeing each other. She nodded and without hesitation, commented that it was in our second session. She was right - it was our second session. I knew that but never would have expected someone seeing a full caseload to be able to pin it down perfectly. She pays attention.

Education and/or a experience doesn't make someone a good therapist. If this isn't your first rodeo, then I suspect that you'd know - or at least have a very good idea if he or she is competent and someone that you can work with before the first session ends. Why not consider a single session without making a long term commitment?