Tip: The Most Important Quality in a Therapist

In my opinion, therapy is the single most important factor involved in reducing the impact of OCD in someone’s life. Therapists help structure a plan for success, provide helpful homework, and make sure that a person is staying on track to meet their OCD goals. I know I would’ve have been lost without mine and she has played a vital role in helping me take my life back from the grasp of OCD. And so because therapists often provide this enormous benefit, our automatic first suggestion to someone with OCD or some other mental health illness is usually “go see a therapist”. And while there is is absolutely nothing wrong with this advice, how can you make sure that your therapist is actually helping you and that they are “the right one” for you?

Now, I can only draw from personal experience here, but I do feel that all good therapists inspire certain feelings in their patients. You should always feel like you can trust a therapist 100%. This idea is non-negotiable. You have to feel as though your therapist has your back and that everything you share with him or her is completely confidential. I remember going into my first appointment with my therapist absolutely terrified. I was so scared that sharing my OCD thoughts with my therapist would lead her to recoil in disgust or kick me out of the room. Yet, when I did share, she reacted completely calmly and told me that my thoughts were very common. Her whole persona exuded professionalism and understanding and this helped to put me at ease and continue sharing. It just seemed like she had heard what I was telling her hundreds of times before (which she had). And throughout all my sessions with her, every new OCD thought or type I shared with her was treated in the same calm and reassuring manner. And I am sure that maybe there were some days when she was not feeling 100% or was tired, but whenever our session came around, she was always upbeat and positive and helped me believe that I could overcome OCD. So, when trying to decide if a certain therapist is right for you, make sure that you feel comfortable with them and that you feel as if you can trust them fully. However, although therapists provide a lot of useful support, the therapy experience doesn’t necessarily have to feel “perfect” as you can still not enjoy the thought of going to therapy. I often woke up thinking about how I really didn’t want to talk about my OCD that day as I just wanted to ignore it. But even with those feelings, I still almost always felt better after chatting with my therapist. And you also do not have to share your innermost thoughts with your therapist on your first meeting, but you should feel that if you were to share them, then you could trust the therapist with those thoughts. Obviously, you also want your therapist to be competent and organized (and ideally not obscenely expensive), but in my personal opinion, the most critical factor in my positive therapy experience was that I was able to feel completely at ease every session and trust that my therapist was working with me towards a common goal of lessening OCD’s significance in my life.