How To Find "your" Specialist?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

How to find “your” specialist?

Today I want to share with you a simple 5-step instruction on how to find your coach, psychologist or psychotherapist

Having slightly adapted, the instructions can be used to search for specialists from other fields.

If you are short on time - go to the very end of the text - the very essence is written in two sentences.

And for those who chose to read the full version - let's start.

⚡Step 1: write your question down in writing⚡

What would you like? What question to solve? What will be a “good result” for you? What kind of support / help would you like to receive from a specialist? At this point, it is important to transfer thoughts from your head to paper. In the form in which they are inside you. Your questions and expectations at the moment.

⚡Step 2: think about which of the specialists could help you + what criteria of the specialist himself are important for you⚡

I am sure that if the question is important, then at least once you tried to find an answer to it yourself: you read books, watched videos on YouTube, studied blogs of interesting people. Who were the specialists who caught your attention? What directions are they from? Are they psychologists? If yes - what schools and directions of psychotherapy? If not (this may also be the case), who are they - tax consultants, mentors, career consultants? Remember - experts from different directions can help you solve your question, but it is important to choose what is closer to you, clearer and, accordingly, will lead to the goal faster, since time will not be wasted on establishing “one” language of communication.

⚡Step 3: make a Long-list⚡

To draw up a list of "candidates" I suggest using several sources:

• Shared sites hosting profiles of several schools (Psy-Practce, Self-Knowledge, B17)
• Sites of specialized associations (almost all associations have tabs with specialists, many associations have qualification requirements for entry, check diplomas, so this may be a plus for you). But choose associations with history and reputation.
• Facebook, Instagram, YouTube - Keyword search.

Trust your intuition at this stage. Anyone who liked it - put it aside for further evaluation.

⚡ Step 4: form the short-list ⚡

This is the most important step and takes up most of the time. A few recommendations:

• Look for addicted people! Look for those who are interested in your topic.
• pay attention to education (where did you study, with whom, how long ago, how often the advanced training takes place, with whom, in what areas)
• ask if you had personal therapy (which school, for how long)
• ask if supervision takes place (how often, with whom)
• impose the "criteria" that you specified in point 2

Passion and professional interest - this is a guarantee that a specialist in your topic will know all the latest research, all trends, all approaches, all the best practices, and you will save time, since he will immediately offer the optimal solution.

Personal therapy for a coach, psychologist and psychotherapist, this is not only a solution to “their” needs, it is an opportunity to explore their boundaries, their characteristics of character and temperament in order to be as neutral and effective as possible when working with clients.

Supervision - this is a criterion for standards in work, since feedback from more experienced colleagues is a story of growth. Our psyche and mechanisms of psychic defenses are arranged in such a way that only with the help of the “other” we see ourselves.

I would also recommend making a short list of 3-5 important questions for youwhich you will ask by phone before you come to the 1st meeting - structures your conversations, allows you to compare and choose who to start with.

⚡Step 5: ACT! ⚡

The most important point. Sometimes, because of our inner perfectionism and desire to find the “best of the best,” we simply miss the most important thing - time. Don't delay, just try. Any step, any meeting advances you in resolving your issue.

Even if you happen to be seen by an absolutely terrible specialist … you will at least say your question again, as a maximum - you will have a list of criteria of “your own” formed in practice.

And sometimes the decision to change a coach, psychologist, psychotherapist is a huge step forward. Today, a person has made a decision that he will not continue therapy with a specialist he does not like, and tomorrow he will understand that he does not want to endure communication in a company that burns his inner resources and … will decide to go further and look for “friends”. And so his life will gradually change.

In the end, I would like to answer one question that I am often asked: do I need to look for a psychologist / coach with a "similar" to your story⁉

My answer is no. Look for someone who is interested in and working with your topic.

What are the disadvantages of a psychologist with "your" story? If the topic is not worked out, then he will go from a neutral position to "his", this will reduce the effectiveness of your work. If the topic is worked out and the question is not the topic of his interests, he will simply be “not interested” in the session and this will also result in lower efficiency. The point works only with coaches, psychologists and psychotherapists, if you are looking for a mentor or an expert - then you just need a person "from the topic", with his own expertise.

I wanted to write a short, understandable instruction, it turned out not very short, although I wrote only the most basic. I hope you found it useful and you will take some of the points into your arsenal.

If to shorten, then I would leave two points in the instructions:

(1) trust your intuition (you can sometimes choose the one you liked by the photo, by the way he wrote about himself in the questionnaire, or by some of his very personal criteria)

(2) take action, sometimes lost time is worse than consulting the wrong one.