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7 Reasons It’s Hard for Me to Find the Right Therapist
It feels almost insurmountable.
Almost 18 years
That’s roughly how long I’ve intermittently been in therapy. All of the diagnoses I have now took over a decade. I have seen probably close to 50 different therapists, but even remotely helpful ones have been few and far between. Here’s why.
1. Logistics
Sometimes, they don’t take my insurance, or any insurance at all for that matter. I have had the fortune to be able to pay upfront and submit superbills at times, but insurance claims are their own 10th circle of hell. Every few months, due to being a grad student, I travel between opposite sides of the US, where arbitrary licensure rules make a person licensed in California, but not Massachusetts unable to see me and vice versa. When it comes to two of my diagnoses (autism and inattentive ADHD), many therapists refuse to see people my age and think I’m “too old”.
Occasionally, a therapist seems promising, but works out of a scummy group practice that’s always looking for more and sneakier ways to take more of my money. The waitlists at some practices can be indefinite. It’s like pulling teeth to get providers to talk to each other. I also have very low frustration tolerance for getting on the phone, wading through…
