How to choose a therapist: a clinician's checklist

In brief

Credentials to verify, questions to ask, and the red flags I would act on — the search process I give my own friends and family, written down.

When friends ask me how to find a therapist, they expect a name. What I give them instead is a process — because the right clinician for your neighbor may be wrong for you, and because the search is easier when you know what actually matters.

Verify, then interview

Check the license against your state board — it takes two minutes and catches more than you would hope. Then treat the first call as an interview: What do you specialize in? What treatment would you likely use for my situation? How do you know when therapy is working?

Red flags I would act on

Vagueness about methods. Promises of guaranteed results. Discomfort with questions. No discussion of goals or endings. And the subtle one: sessions that feel pleasant but produce no change, month after month, with no curiosity from the clinician about why.

Fit matters — the research is unambiguous — but fit means safe enough to do hard things, not comfortable enough to avoid them. Choose the person who is warm and asks you to work.

About the author

Dr. Elena Voss, PhD

Ph.D., ABPP · Board-certified clinical psychologist

Dr. Voss is a board-certified clinical psychologist specializing in assessment, anxiety disorders, OCD, and trauma. Fifteen years across MGH, the VA, and private practice inform everything she writes here — evidence first, plain language always.