When we come to therapy, we hope to be in a safe environment. We expect that they will not condemn and criticize us, but will treat us with respect and understanding. Unfortunately, not all psychologists and psychotherapists follow professional standards. We offer a checklist to check your specialist.
Why do you need to check it at all? To understand whether a specialist does even more harm with his even insignificant actions. By evaluating the quality of therapy, you protect yourself. Learning to protect yourself is an important part of the therapeutic process. It’s not about distrusting a specialist, it’s about your safety.
Let’s say you’ve booked your first session and want to know what to look out for. How do you know that this particular specialist is right for you? Of course, you do not need to fill out the checklist right during the meeting — it is better to focus on the therapy itself, your feelings and emotions. But reading the checklist in advance and filling it out after the session is very helpful.
If you’ve been seeing the same specialist for a while, this list of questions will also come in handy. Just remember how you usually feel in a psychologist’s office? What do you feel after the meeting?
The questions on the checklist may not apply to all situations, so don’t worry if you find it difficult to rate in some way. And don’t worry if not all of the answers are positive, that’s fine. But still, the number of positive answers should outweigh. The most important question is located at number 14, but it is better to take into account all points.
Checklist for evaluating a psychologist/psychotherapist
For each question, choose one of the options provided.
1. Was the office comfortable and clean enough?
- Yes, the office was comfortable
- No, the office seemed uncomfortable and cluttered.
2. Did the specialist come on time or warned in advance that he was being delayed for a serious reason? If he was late, was the session time extended?
- Yes, the specialist was punctual and tactful
- No, he was late for no good reason / shortened the session time because of this
3. Did the specialist maintain healthy boundaries in terms of physical contact, was there any inappropriate touching?
- Yes, he respected healthy boundaries and did not try to break them.
- No, his ideas about boundaries seem strange to me, and touching is inappropriate.
4. Was the specialist happy to provide you with documentary evidence of his qualifications?
- Yes, he showed me the documents at the first request / offered to show me himself
- No, he did not show them to me / He obviously did not like this request
5. Did the specialist clearly answer all your questions regarding his qualifications or did he offer to study specific resources that detail his methods?
- Yes, he answered all the questions and made sure that I understood everything
- No, he did not answer or his answers were incomprehensible
6. Do you get the feeling that the specialist empathizes with you and cares about your feelings?
- Yes, I felt it right away.
- No, it seemed to me that he did not care about my feelings
7. During the first meeting, did the specialist ask you a lot of questions?
- Yes, he asked a lot of things
- No, he asked few questions
8. Did he listen carefully to your answers?
- Yes, I felt that he was listening to me carefully.
- No, it seemed to me that he was constantly distracted
9. Did the specialist ask you about the conditions and quality of life, wrote down the answers? (Sometimes it takes more than one meeting to complete this process, but it should start in the first session.)
- Yes, he asked me about everything and recorded everything
- No, he didn’t ask for anything in particular.
10. He asked you basic questions: who are you and what do you do, are you aware of any features of your own mental health, do you abuse alcohol or drugs, what is your physical health? (This, too, may require more than one meeting.)
- Yes, he asked me all these questions
- No, he didn’t ask about anything like that / didn’t ask about everything
11. When you asked what the future collaboration will be like, was he able to clearly and clearly answer?
- Yes, he explained everything in detail
- No, he did not explain anything / I did not understand anything from his answers
12. He didn’t insist on setting up the next meeting?
- Yes, he did not force me to do this in any way.
- No, he convinced me that the next meeting was necessary.
13. Are you satisfied with the ratio of how much you spoke and how much the specialist spoke?
- Yes, everything suits me
- No, I would prefer the ratio to be different
14. In general, are you comfortable with this specialist and do you think that he will be able to help you?
- Yes, I feel comfortable with him, I feel safe
- No, I don’t feel comfortable with him, I don’t feel safe
Source: blogs.psychcentral.com