4 Therapist Matchmaking Benefits: Beyond The Search

Have you ever wondered if therapist matchmaking could benefit you or a loved one? If you have a friend or family member in therapy, you’ve either heard positive or negative comments about their experience. Sometimes people won’t even tell you’ve they’re seeing a therapist until they start experiencing results. Others are very private about mental health therapy because in some cultures there’s still a stigma.

At Find My Therapist, we love to hear when people have had a positive experience! The problem is that it can be hit or miss when it comes to locating a provider who can actually meet one’s needs. In this blog post we’d like to go beyond the traditional therapy search and explore the benefits of therapist matchmaking. There are not many businesses focusing on this skill, however there’s power in educating others on this unique opportunity to be matched. First we’ll use the analogy of a car salesman to highlight what’s missing in the therapy industry.

THERAPISTS VERSUS CAR SALESMEN

Just as a car salesman meticulously matches a vehicle to a customer’s needs, lifestyle, and budget, a therapist matchmaking service connects individuals with the ideal therapist for their unique mental health needs. While the car salesman emphasizes features, such as fuel efficiency, and price, one who matches a potential client with a therapist would focus on therapeutic approach, personality fit, and expertise in specific issues.

Both processes prioritize understanding the client’s specific requirements to facilitate a successful and satisfying partnership. Car salesmen, however, likely receive extensive training at the beginning of their employment journey to maximize their success in the industry. Meanwhile, mental health providers may receive minimal training in this area towards the end of their masters program.

Many therapists report receiving little to no training on how to market themselves once they’re eligible for state licensure. The ones who do get this experience in their counseling or social worker master’s programs often report the course was an elective, and not required for graduation.

In those electives one may learn how to identify their niche, online and offline marketing strategies, legal considerations, and they may even learn a thing or two about positioning themselves as an expert in their mental health niche. This may look like specializing and pursuing additional trauma therapy training or even additional training on substance abuse or personality disorders.

Outside of the foundational courses, a potential elective on the business of psychotherapy, a practicum and internship, one might only learn how to position themselves as the ideal candidate to meet your therapy needs once they reach a private practice setting.

To sum this up, without being educated on how to position one’s value as a therapist, some providers miss the opportunity to effectively showcase their skillset and therapy style. This often leaves some consumers entering therapy without having a picture of how that provider would show up in the therapy room.

“The biggest challenge with finding a therapist is that the relationship is the most important part, and building a relationship takes time.”

THERAPY CONSUMERS

How does this all apply to you as the therapy consumer? You may find yourself on Google typing in “Counseling near me” and get pages of results with providers across specialities. Some of the top directories and tech backed platforms will be the top options waiting for your click. For demonstration purposes, let’s say you use an online mental health directory, filter down your options, and sift through pages of results. Many people report it’s not only exhausting to perform this search, it leaves them feeling hopeless. Will I ever find my therapist match?

Let’s take it a step further. You may reach out to multiple providers via email or phone and never receive a call or email back. This is not uncommon in the therapy field. Whether you’re trying to find a therapist for marriage counseling, couples therapy, family counseling or individual therapy services, finding the right match can sometimes feel like a needle in a haystack.

THERAPIST MATCHMAKING

Have you ever considered hiring a dating matchmaker to help you find your ideal partner? Some people sign up for popular dating apps and find their forever love. Others find a stressful experience on the other side of their subscription. A matchmakers job is to make your dating life easier. They search for, interview, and qualify potential matches and maintain a pool of eligible profiles they can pull from when new clients are searching for love. Even when a client goes on multiple first dates they have more confidence in the dating process because an expert did the initial work.

A Therapist Matchmaker is similar in many ways. Hiring a matchmaker to find your next therapist can save you time, money, and months of therapeutic relationship building that sometimes ends with a termination. Here are some key areas you might benefit from when hiring this type of service.

• Ditch the search: Finding a therapist can be time consuming and increase anxiety. A professional matchmaker absorbs the energy and emotions involved during the search for your matches.

• Time Saving: The therapist matchmaker reaches out to potential matches to narrow down the most ideal fit for your therapeutic needs. This means you do less searching, and instead, you can spend your time emotionally preparing for therapy.

• License Verification: Verifying the state licensure of a mental health therapist can be challenging since each state has their own board website, laws and rules. A matchmaker has experience in navigating those laws and rules so you don’t have to.

• Experience: A matchmaker whose also a psychotherapist understands how to navigate the therapy world, and can sometimes access a therapist when therapy consumers cannot.

Our goal at Find My Therapist is to connect people with their ideal private pay therapist. It’s ideal when people connect with the right therapist up front because they spend less time questioning therapy, and more time engaging in their healing.

In this article, we outlined the benefits of hiring a therapist matchmaker to find your next therapist. We hope you’ve found it beneficial.

If you’ve gotten this far and thought “This is the service I’ve dreamed of!”, feel free to learn more about a licensed psychotherapist whose made it her mission to connect people with a list of therapist matches so they can start their journey. Click here to learn more.