Best Psychologist: Knowing if Your Therapist is Good or Not

Most of the clients are not familiar with the “standards of practice,” or “ethics in counselling” while visiting a psychologist. Before you search “psychologist near me,” make sure you know character of a good therapist both ethically and legally.

Regardless of whether you are seeing an online or offline psychologist, you as a “client” have a right to know about your therapist, counsellor and psychologist, as it saves you from malpractice or misleading people. To know if your service provider is good or not, the first criterion is to see how well your therapist fits your expectations in terms of professional conduct and ethics in therapy (counselling).

Ethics in Counselling

Before you google “psychologist near me,” make sure you know what a good therapist or counsellor looks like. An ethical therapist will always provide you with a “counselling or therapy contract” and a list of “therapy ethics” they follow. These ethics are set and formulated by professional associations such as the American Counseling Association (APA) and the Rehabilitation Council of India, and every country has its own professional organisation, but these ethics are more or less universal.

The counselling ethics, which make a therapist a “best psychologist” or “best counsellor,” and separate them from misleading and untrained professionals, are as follows:

• • A good therapist will give you a therapy contract. This contract contains information on informed consent, ensures confidentiality, explains under what circumstances it can be breached, outlines a possible number of sessions, outlines a competitive fee, and provides information on referral-making if needed.
  • Therapists should be good at what they do, which means they should have been trained in the therapies they say they are experts in.
  • Making referrals if a therapist is unable to help you.
  • Clients can’t have a dual relationship with a therapist for the next two years since their last session with the therapist.
  • A therapist would not charge you more than a competitive price for the therapy. For illustration, in Indian metropolitan cities, the average counselling session cost is now 700 INR, and in the USA and Canada, it’s approximately 100$ for a session of 40 to 60 minutes, whereas in rural India, it varies from 250 to 500 INR.
  • A good therapist always stays engaged with ongoing training and skill development.

Based on my experience in psychological practise, I want you all to know that I have completed over 5,000 hours of counselling sessions, assessment sessions, and therapy sessions.

My PhD research was on counselling interventions for heroin addicts, where if the clients were family-referred and had no motivation to change, the therapist (I) must be competent and have empathy, patience, and a neutral attitude. In my career, I referred many clients to a more competent psychologist, and many people left therapy because they were not ok with me, and it is completely OK.

Clients Right in Therapy

As a client in therapy, you have some basic rights that protect you from maltreatment. They are as follows:

1. You have the right to know your therapist’s academic level, extracurricular qualifications, achievements, and whether they’re licenced or not.
2. You can bargain for the therapy or counselling fees and even ask for a discount or instalments.
3. Are they qualified to investigate your case if they are not licenced?
4. You have the right to choose the types of therapy you want to continue.
5. Know that no therapist can do counselling for all people and all issues with a single approach, so instead of getting upset, you can ask for a referral or leave the therapy.
6. You can ask for a refund for the payment you made in advance (if any) and discontinue service.
7. If your therapist breaks the rules about privacy or wants to have a dual relationship with you, you can definitely file a complaint with MCI, RCI, and local law enforcement.

To know more about the rules and principles for better outcomes in psychotherapy and other questions, you can write to us.

Most of the clients are not familiar with the “standards of practice,” or “ethics in counselling” while visiting a psychologist. Before you search “psychologist near me,” make sure you know character of a good therapist both ethically and legally. Regardless…