Therapist Selection Essay, Research Paper

Over the years, the use of therapists or psychologist has increased dramatically. As a result, the number of psychologists available has increased. This in turn caused an increase in the diversity of therapists. Due to this wide availability of therapists patients have a wide selection of therapists to choose from and so makes it more difficult to find one who is suitable. Some of the things a person should look at when evaluating potential therapists are ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, religion and sexual orientation, among others.

In my opinion, ethnicity is a very important factor when deciding which therapist best suits you, specifically cultural background. It is best if you and the therapist have similar cultural backgrounds and beliefs. This is because if the client and the therapist do not have similar beliefs it might cause a problem with problem resolution. For instance, if there was an American woman who was being abused by her husband and went to a therapist who was also a woman but was from Afghanistan. Due to the fact that women in Afghanistan are abused their entire life, the client might be told that there is nothing that she can do about it and she should better not complain, instead of being told where she could go to get help.

Another important factor to consider when trying to determine which therapist is best suited for you is sexual orientation. This is very important because sexual orientation is a very touchy subject and people have very strong feelings on this topic. Even though homosexuality has been accepted as normal behavior not all therapists would agree with this. Therefore, if a person who was gay went to a psychologist who felt strongly against homosexuality. They might be told that they are very sick and that they should suppress their feelings and not let anyone know how they feel. This could really affect a person because they would fear being exposed and not being accepted by people they love and care about.

A third factor that is very important in the matching process is religion. Most people have very strong religious beliefs and will not accept any other beliefs. This could cause a problem for client and therapist, in that religious beliefs are very different from one religion to another. There are some religions that worship animals, like cows for example. If a person with these type of beliefs was to go to a therapist who was a Christian they might be told that they are mentally insane and out of touch with reality, even though the person is probably in perfect mental health.

These are just a few of the factors that could cause a problem between a client and a therapist. These among other things should be considered when selecting a therapist. If all these factors are careful considered and thoroughly evaluated, a client should have a good therapeutic relationship with their therapist, and are one step closer to understanding himself or herself.