How to Interview With a Clinical Psychologist

Interviewing psychologists is an important part of choosing a person to treat yourself or a child. You want to make sure the match is a good fit and that you are both comfortable with each other.
Clinical psychologists assess, diagnosis, treat and strive to prevent diverse mental disorders. There are many specialties and subfields within clinical psychology such as individual, family or group psychotherapy. Most clinical psychologists communicate with and interview patients daily, so asking questions and getting clear and thoughtful answers should be easier than with a profession that deals less with human interaction.

Instructions

• 1

  Contact the Society of Clinical Psychology or sites such as www.healthgrades.com to locate a few clinical psychologists in your area. Explain to the secretary why you need to interview with a clinical psychologist, how long the interview will be, and what types of questions you will ask. It is best to contact a few since some may not be available and you want to be able to get a variety of options and opinions. Many times, during an interview you will learn something that you would like a second opinion about. Be clear on why you are interviewing and what problems you hope to resolve. You may want to take notes during the interviews and create a spreadsheet with data from each interview.

• 2

  Identify the areas of importance to you such as cost, experience in family or addiction counseling and issues such as appointment times and proximity. After you have conducted at least three interviews, you should have a detailed comparison chart of the benefits and weak areas of each psychologist. During the interview, the psychologist may raise an interesting point such as that she never counsels children alone since problems must be resolved by the whole family. At your next interview, you may ask the doctor if he feels its appropriate to counsel children alone, and why. If he brings up a valid point, see if you can call or email the first doctor and ask her what she feels about the point the other doctor made. Don't use names since this could affect answers. At the end, make a decision about who makes the most sense and would be the best for your situation.

• 3

  Decide what type of therapy would be best for you. There are many types. Some focus more on understanding the past and motivations for actions, other formats are more behavior-focused and will help people in eliminating phobias and self-defeating actions. Ask the psychologist what theories she works under, what types of problems she has helped people resolve and why she feels this approach is best. When you have selected a psychologist, tell her the process you went through and why you chose her. If you admired her honesty and directness, and that made you chose her over ten others, then she knows that is a great value of yours and will be sure to use it to your advantage during therapy.

• 4

  Weigh what areas you feel are important. One may be closer, but more expensive. Another may have more experience with children, but can only make appointments on weeknights. Focus on questions such as cost, training, accreditation and if he has experience in working with children, families, or drugs and alcohol addiction.

• 5

  Be sure you do not spend years interviewing different psychologists and never begin therapy. Work out an agreement with the one you chose that you both would like to see certain goals accomplished within a certain time. Be clear that this is not a threat, only that you want the therapy that is most effective for you. The psychologist may be the best in the world, but if it takes two hours to drive to his office and this causes incredible stress, you may have to settle for second best.