How Choosing the Right Mental Health Professional Can Positively Transform Your Life

So many people suffer silently under the weight of flawed assumptions: I am not doing well, ok, sure. My anxiety has gotten bad. I’m stressed so often that it has become my new emotional baseline and—is that depression I’ve been feeling? Early indications say yes.

But the person feeling this way is fifty years old. A businessman with an upper six-figure salary and clients on every continent except Antarctica. He doesn’t see himself as the sort of guy who would seek mental health services. For most of human history, that assumption would be correct. 

We now live in an age that is much more receptive to the idea of seeking mental health treatment. You don’t have to be on the brink of hospitalization to benefit from self-care, the same way you shouldn’t wait until you are on the verge of dying to seek physical healthcare services. 

In this article, we take a look at how choosing the right mental health professional can positively transform your life. 

What Does “the right” Mental Health Professional Mean?

Well, it doesn’t mean the alternative to the “left,” mental health professional. There are actually two different meanings:

• Professional category of service. The same way there are different types of doctors practicing physical medicine, there are also different categories of mental health services. Psychiatric nurse practitioners. Therapists. Counselors. Psychologists. While there is a ton of overlap between each service, they are all unique enough to bear individual consideration.
• Personal chemistry. You also want to get along well with the person. This is ideal for any healthcare service, but downright necessary when it comes to mental health care. 

For the former consideration, it will help to do research. Most people benefit from “talk therapy,” in which they disclose their problem and work on it through communication with a healthcare professional. 

This type of treatment can be administered by any of the professionals described in the bullet point above. If you require prescription medication, the considerations shift a little. You’ll require a mental health professional—psychiatrists and nurse practitioners, for example. 

Psychiatric NPs are a particularly good route to consider in that they have similar responsibilities to doctors, but because the certification requirements are a little more accessible, there tends to be more options. 

NPs are nurses who have upgraded their BSN to a master’s degree. They can write prescriptions and diagnose patients similar to how a doctor does in many states. 

In terms of chemistry, the reason it is so important is simple: A bad fit won’t get anything out of you. You don’t have to like your general physician. Any trained medical professional can tell you that your blood pressure is high and what you need to do about it. 

You do need to find a mental healthcare provider that you can trust with your most intimate interior experiences. In the next heading, we will take a detailed look at how to find the right person.

Finding the Right Person

How can you know what experience you will have with a mental health professional? Even a well-reviewed therapist might not be your ideal fit. Maybe there is a personality clash. Maybe they just remind you of that person you always kind of hated in high school. 

It doesn’t matter why you don’t get along with a mental health professional. What does matter is that you are able to find someone you trust. To do this:

• Seek referrals- No, they aren’t perfect. Yes, they can be a good place to start. If you have a good relationship with your general practitioner they will be a good source of referrals. You can also look for recommendations from people within your social network. Not only will this potentially connect you with someone awesome but it will have the secondary effect of getting you to disclose what is going on with you to your support system. That can be very powerful in its own right. 
• Play the field- It’s not inappropriate to see several mental health professionals in the early stages of this experience to see who is the most compatible with your personality type. You may find that the best person for you is the second or third professional that you try. 
• Expand your travel radius- No, you shouldn’t be booking a flight to Cleveland each week. Yes, you might need to accept a willingness to drive. There are healthcare shortages in every aspect of the profession, but those administering psychiatric help are in particularly short supply. You may need to be willing to drive a little bit to find the right person. When choosing a travel radius, sustainability is important. These appointments might be weekly. You don’t want to pick someone an hour away if you aren’t willing to keep up with it. 

Keep in mind that you might not feel an immediate connection to anyone. This is particularly true if the concept of interacting with a mental health professional is new and uncomfortable to you. It’s important that you give the process a little bit of time. 

That Didn’t Work

You followed our advice, but there still isn’t a good fit near you. That’s a common problem—particularly for people living in relatively remote areas where there may only be one or two mental health professionals within a large radius. 

If you have tried in earnest to find the right professional and you just aren’t having any luck with it, you might benefit from telehealth services. 

Remote therapy is a great way to expand your options infinitely. It is often more affordable, and it can be a good way to find specialists. Even communities that do have a wealth of mental health professionals may not find someone who is amazing at dealing with the things you are going through. 

Your insurance coverage should work for telehealth services the same way it would for those of a doctor you are seeing in person. 

All of our earlier advice still applies. You will want to do plenty of research—possibly more research, in fact. Credibility is always a heightened concern in virtual spaces, after all. 

Don’t be shy about bouncing around a little bit as you settle into the idea of telehealth. There are so many options online. You’ll find the right one eventually, but it might take time. 

The important thing is to commit. Half-hearted attempts at therapy don’t do much good for anyone.