Rating Your Psychotherapist - Your Therapist Choice

Written by B.J.

Page 5 of 7

There are minor and occasional shifts in the time and length of sessions; a rare emergency hour.
There isn't really much of a fixed schedule.
When I don't come, I don't have to pay, and I can have makeup sessions.
As therapy was coming to an end, my therapist decided to reduce the frequency of my sessions - a sort of tapering-off strategy.
He/she has lapses, but rarely: extending or shortening an hour, failing to be there for a scheduled session.

He/she repeatedly changes the time and/or day of the sessions.
He/she often starts late because other patients stay past their scheduled times.
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He/she often lets me stay longer than my scheduled hour, particularly if there's no one else waiting to see him/her.
He/she has asked me to shift my hour so he/she can see some other patient during my scheduled time.
He/she has canceled sessions in order to vote, move into a new house, take his/her dog to the vet, etc.
He/she keeps recommending that I see him/her more often than I want to.
He/she often walks out with me and hangs around making small talk before the next patient comes in.

He/she is not deliberately self-revealing.
Total privacy and complete confidentiality have prevailed throughout the therapy.
When I ask my therapist about himself/herself, the response is an attitude of listening and exploration.
He/she has not prescribed medication.
He/she does not take notes and does not record the sessions.

He/she, on rare occasions, has offered a personal opinion or alluded to his/her professional status.
He/she is obligated to send specific reports to my employer.
He/she has to provide nonspecific information to the agency that pays for my therapy.
He/she occasionally offers opinions or information about himself/herself if I'm persistent enough.
He/she prescribed medication when I was in a state of extreme emotional dysfunction.
He/she does not usually make physical contact with me, but has done so on rare occasions, for example, when I was experiencing a sudden traumatic loss.
He/she sometimes takes notes when I'm talking.

He/she is more like a friend than a therapist - telling me about his/her own life, introducing me to his/her spouse, offering me the use of his/her books/home/car, etc.
He/she talks about my material in his/her books/lectures/classes.
His/her secretary clearly knows a lot about what I've said in my sessions.
He/she videotapes our sessions for use with his/her psychiatric residents.
He/she spends so much time talking about himself/herself that I have to fight for my own therapeutic space.
All I have to do is say I've been feeling depressed, and he/she will ask if I want medication.