The builder's guide to finding a therapist

This is a lightly updated version of a piece I’ve previously published on my personal blog and in Psychology Today.

Preface: Therapy versus coaching versus…

The guidance below focuses on the question of how to find a therapist: i.e., a trained mental health provider who can help you work through the psychological challenges that stand in your way of building—and enjoying—your own best life. Much, though not all, of this guidance would equally apply to finding a psychiatrist, or an executive coach, or any other professional focused on helping you (or your company or your marriage) improve. Each helping profession has its own idiosyncrasies, and there are confusing overlaps between them that would take several posts to even begin to disentangle.

With that said, some of the same fundamental principles apply whether you’re seeking out one or another type of professional, or whether you’re deciding which type to seek out in the first place, if any. The full stack of judgments involved in thi…