How to find a psychologist to attend therapy: 7 tips

January 13, 2025

There are those who, knowing that they need to attend psychotherapy, do not dare to throw themselves at it simply because it is difficult for them find a psychologist that suits your needs .

However, the truth is that although some people may find this process intimidating, it is not as complicated as one might think, even in countries where this type of service is not very well regulated. Finding a mental health professional is, among other things thanks to the Internet, something that is increasingly simple and accessible for all types of public.

In the following lines we will see several tips on how to find a psychologist to attend our case in a personalized way, taking into account your knowledge and our main specific needs .

Related article: "The 8 benefits of going to psychological therapy"

How do I look for a psychologist to take care of me? 7 steps

Follow these guidelines to find a psychologist or a team of psychologists in a psychology center that suits what you are looking for.

1. Determine the severity and nature of your problem

In practice, even if a psychologist sees that he can not work with a case like the one you are presenting, he will advise you in the best possible way so that someone who is specialized in that kind of problems can treat you. But nevertheless, If you take a little time to think about what happens to you, you will have more chances of hitting the first (taking into account that it is very likely that you do not have an objective and realistic view of what really happens, and that it is normal that even you make mistakes in this regard).

So, ask yourself. The first is what kind of problem you have: is it something that has to do mainly with your social relationships, or does it affect you only in a relatively isolated way? Does it have to do with your feelings, with your perception of things, or with both? Is it something automatic, or something that has to do with your way of making decisions?

The second question is how serious is it, what is the intensity of your discomfort or who come in contact with you.

Depending on these issues, later you should look for psychologists with one or another specialization, and with more or less demanding experience requirements, taking into account your availability and your ability to hire therapy sessions with them.

2. Set your spending limit

You have to be realistic and think long-term, keeping in mind that you will need several hours of work from the psychologist. Therefore, keep in mind all the expenses that this reasonable amount of hours will entail, including seemingly minor aspects such as transportation costs , and set a maximum amount of money to devote to this.

3. Decide if you are looking for face-to-face, online or mixed therapy

Many psychologists offer the possibility of attending to their patients through the Internet, by video call or similar. Therefore, depending on your needs, decide if you are looking for only one of the two ways of attending therapy, both of which are good, depending on the circumstances. This step to find a psychologist has to do with what we will see below.

4. Make a first selection of psychologists

If you are interested in face-to-face therapy, you can search specifically Mental health professionals working in your neighborhood or city , either in your own practice or psychotherapy office, or at home. For this, a very useful tool to find these professionals are the directories of psychologists, such as this, which works to find psychologists in Spain.

You can also search Google, although in this case it may cost you a little more to compare .

At the beginning, it is good that you look at two fundamental criteria: price and location (the latter especially in case you are not interested in online therapy).

5. Make sure you have the official titles to exercise

Check that the people you have selected in the first sweep have their collegiate numbers in the Official College of Psychologists in your country, which will guarantee you that you have made the formative trajectory that enables you to exercise psychological intervention in clinical or health settings.

6. Check your specialties

Do not look only at what the person says to specialize: check that you have the graduate degrees that have brought you bases of experience and theoretical foundations in those clinical areas . Keep in mind that the courses and workshops can be a single weekend, while to receive the Expert title many more hours are necessary, and to obtain a Master's degree you have to invest in it for at least one year.

7. Choose a few professionals and ask

In this last phase of the search, you can learn more in depth about the services offered. If you have doubts, which is likely, ask, but choose well what you are looking for answers and ask your questions to the point; read great texts in which someone who is not a client describes their problems and seeks answers to everything is not to anyone's taste and, in any case, your problems they can only be explored in depth in the evaluation phase , in the first sessions.

So, from this last step, you should already be able to choose.