If you’re feeling lost and don’t know where to turn, it might be time to find a therapist. A good therapist can help you work through tougher moments, past trauma or difficulties, relationship struggles, life transitions, identity-based traumatic stress, and can also provide much-needed support during difficult times.
But, finding a therapist in North Carolina can be daunting. How do you know if they’re the right fit for you? What if you don’t click with them? And how do you even find therapists in your area?! This blog post will help make the process of locating a North Carolina therapist a little easier.
Be intentional about what you feel you need.
As you begin the search for a therapist in North Carolina, it’s important to be intentional about what you think you need. What are your goals? Are there specific issues in your life that you are seeking additional support around? What has worked, and what has not worked, in the past? Being able to be as specific as possible about what kind of therapy, or therapist, would work best for you is key in finding the best person to offer you the support you deserve!
Search online and ask your friends for recommendations to find the therapist that’s best for you.
After you have zoned in a bit on what you are seeking support around, search online for therapists in your area. Ask friends for recommendations, and consider reading reviews. However, keep in mind that most therapists’ ethical codes prohibit them from soliciting reviews from clients. Moreover, some therapists actually advise clients against leaving a review, in order to best protect confidentiality.
Some directories to consider in your search for a therapist in North Carolina include:
- Inclusive Therapists
- Psychology Today
- Therapy Den
- Open Path Collective – this is intentionally for sliding scale services; all providers agree to accept individual clients at a rate of 30-60 dollars.
- National Queer and Trans POC Network
- Therapy for Black Girls
- Therapy for Black Men
- Therapy for Latinx
Many therapists are able to do brief videos describing themselves and their practice on these online directories. This is a great option to explore, to see if you can get a gut feeling as to if they’d be good to work with or not!
Additionally, if the name of the therapist or practice sounds familiar at all that’s usually good sign! Still, don’t be afraid to ask them about their background and other questions that are important to you. If a potential therapist can’t give you an answer, that may be an indicator that they may not be the best fit for you!
Do your research.
It’s important to research the therapist you want to work with. Some questions to consider might include:
- Are they licensed in your state? And, what is their licensure type?
- Do they have experience working with your specific areas of concern?
- How long have they been in practice?
- Do they have experience working with clients with similar identities as you? Maybe that means asking about their experience supporting queer, trans, or gender-diverse folx? Maybe it means asking them about their experience and approach in supporting Autistic clients, or ADHDers, or AuDHDers? Perhaps it is inquiring as to their training in antiracism.
- Ask if they offer telehealth, walk-and-talk, or in-office appointments.
- What hours do they see clients? Do they anticipate that changing in the near future?
- Do they accept your insurance? If not, can they provide more information on private pay or superbills?
One thing that could hold back your therapeutic progress would be not finding the “right fit,” or poor therapist-client match. A good way to lessen this is to ensure you are asking questions on the front end, ideally during a free consult!
Schedule a free consult!
Once you’ve got a few therapists in mind, reach out and ask if they offer free consults! Although not every therapist or practice does, it never hurts to ask! In our experience, we believe free 20-minute consults to be invaluable in ensuring adequate client-therapist fit – which research notes is one of the strongest predictors of a positive therapeutic outcome.
Free consults help clients to determine a lot of important things, such as:
- Does this therapist seem like someone you could work with regularly?
- If telehealth, does it seem like your WiFi and space is supportive of that means for therapy?
- If telehealth, does the software they utilize work for you?
- What is their fee structure and availability?
- An additional chance to elaborate on the questions in the section above – ensuring the therapist has the appropriate background, training, and experience to give you the support you deserve!
At Be BOLD, we believe there is nothing more frustrating for the client (and therapist alike) to invest their time, money, and emotional labor in a detailed intake session, just to come out of it and realize that this therapist may not be the best fit for you. This can set clients back significantly; as such, we prioritize offering free 20-minute consults to all clients to ensure they feel fully comfortable before investing in and beginning their treatment relationship with us.
In short: Trust your gut instinct about whether or not this person is right for you. If something doesn’t feel right during the consultation process, trust yourself enough not to pursue further sessions with them, and explore other options that will be a better fit for you. The right therapist for you is out there!
Ready to Begin Therapy With a Therapist in North Carolina?
It’s important to find a therapist who is right for you. You want someone who understands your needs and can help guide you through your problems in a way that works best for you.
At Be BOLD Psychlogy and Consulting, each of our highly skilled therapist in North Carolina have a different specialty, approach, and style. Still, the good news is that all of our clinicians are trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+ affirming, neuro-affirming, and committed to an anti-racist practice. So, any clinician you choose will be supportive of your various intersecting identities.
Looking for a new teammate in your healing? Learn more about team of 10 therapists in North Carolina!
Ready to begin?
- Email us! Reach out to info@beboldpsychnc.com. Share a bit about what you’re looking for, and our amazing admin team can help get you connected to a therapist in North Carlina who can be the best fit for you!
- Text/Call 919-525-1873 and our admin team would be glad to help get you started!
- Self-schedule a free 20-minute consult in 2-minutes via our online appointment request page!
We can’t wait to meet you! Be BOLD, y’all!
