Be an understanding and supportive listener. Help you develop your ability to cope with life’s difficulties. Help you develop some of your life-skills: more effective communication, better problem-solving, better impulse-control, etc. Help you look at your problems in different ways and with a different perspective. Help you gain more insight into your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. Work with you to help you make changes in how you function and feel. Offer advice on how to find services which they aren’t able to provide.
Undo hurt feelings and painful events. Change other people in your life, and cannot tell you how to change them, either. Create instantaneous change in you. Personal change requires hard and dedicated work.
Spend some time thinking about what exactly you want help with and what you envision the end result to be.
Call up charitable and religious institutions that you are involved with or that you respect. Many of them maintain lists of therapists that may give you a price break. Some therapists that are not necessarily low-fee may have reduced fee slots available. Ask about the fees. Tell them what you can afford. Some therapists will be able to accommodate you. If they do not, they may know someone who does and can give you a referral.
Ask the therapist about how they handle conflict: therapists who are able to repair the rupture in the relationship when there is conflict tend to have a better outcome than their conflict-avoidance colleagues.
Holding a valid license for therapy helps ensure that the therapist has met in-depth educational requirements, is up-to-date in their training, and is held to a code of ethics and practice in dealing with patients.
Do your research before matching with the given therapist so that you don’t find yourself back at square one if you determine that the financial relationship won’t work.
