Stuff to Think About if You're Going to Be a Successful Therapist

Stuff to Think About if You’re Going to Be a Successful Therapist

Looking for a Therapist?

I was looking for a therapist. (And I have heard my story from countless others…)

I looked on my insurance company’s page, “Looking for a Therapist”, or something like that. There’s very little information, maybe a photo (too often from 10 years and 30 pounds ago), and a long checklist of stuff they claim they work with, from Asperger’s to Traumatic Brain Injury, to Transgender to Trichotillomania.

I’m like, really? NOBODY knows all 26 of those things you checked, so already I don’t trust you. You need clients. You’re willing to work with ANYTHING just to get them in. I get it. But I’m not calling you.

So I find a handful of prospective therapists, and look them all up in Social Media, Linked In, Google, and so on. Mostly, I get nothing. Not a peep. So now I go the opposite direction. I’m like, really? You are so full that you don’t even need to have a web page or a LinkedIn profile? I’m still not calling you.

Actually, what I REALLY think is that these are conservative, probably somewhat fear-based, hyper-boundaried therapists that do not want ANYTHING about them out there on the web. (OK, that is a joke, my FBI friend tells me—Anybody can find out anything about anybody, if they have a few bucks and the motivation.)

Therapists Have to Be Willing to Be Transparent

So here’s the punch line: I want to read about you, hear how you talk about your work, how you think. I want to see at least a picture of you, preferably a video. I want a sense of who you are.

That’s not easy to get.

PsychologyToday.com ads allow for a couple of paragraphs, so that helps some.

I see therapists’ big cards around town, and I see Deb Heikes’s web site. These folks are available, transparent, real. That’s what I want to see.

Think about it.

Conclusion

More and more, the world (especially the millennials and the Digital Natives) do not want Great Wall of Freakin’ China boundaries between them and their therapists. That is an old, psychoanalysis-informed position that is pretty archaic to these days. Them days are over. There is a new sensibility in the country. Authenticity, transparency, letting yourself be seen and known.

I’m thinking that’s the way to go anymore. How do you show up online?

Might want to think about it. Your clients will.

–Jim Nolan, Former President

DrJamesMichaelNolan.com