Helping Your Patient Find a Therapist

Hey, everyone, it's Chris from Patient Centered Training. Today's video is a little bit different. It's much more of a how to. I'm going to show you the exact steps I use to help empower my patient to seek out help from a mental health professional when that's something that they'd be interested and we think could be helpful. And this specific approach it takes them from just being going, oh, I should probably work with somebody to actually feeling like, oh, great, I can do that. And I actually started using this with friends and family. First of all, I had a couple of loved ones who, you know, knew that they kind of could do with seeing a therapist. They were having a tough time and we'd talk about it and I'd say, yeah, it's probably a good idea. You should do it. But I noticed that I had a few conversations over a few months and they never actually took the leap and did it. And I realized, you know, the reason for that is because there was a big leap from where they were and where they wanted to be. There's a big gap there. And they didn't know how to bridge that gap because saying, oh, yeah, I should have some therapy, I should see a therapist, I should see a counselor, that's one thing. But actually going out and finding that person, if there's someone who's never had experience with a mental health professional before, that is a huge leap. You know, that's a big deal for them. It's quite scary. They don't know how to do it. They often don't know where to look. You can't use Google reviews because of the nature of the work. People aren't leaving public reviews for their therapists, and they often don't know where to go and where to look. And it's something that's quite vulnerable. It's a big thing for them the first time to go and find someone that they're going to open up to about the things that they don't feel they can talk to other people about. So this process is very quick and easy, but it just demystifies the whole thing. It shows them how easy it is. It gives them actionable steps. And I had this with a patient recently. I took a couple of minutes to show her this, and she went from somebody who thought about it for a while to that week, went, found somebody, started working with them, emailed me straight away saying, oh, thank you so much. It's been really helpful. I found this really lovely therapist. I really appreciate you taking the time to show me how to do this. And they brought this up a couple of times in session since then, so it was a really big deal for her and it really just took a couple of minutes. So I'll show you how to do this. I'm going to share my screen here. Now, this is the UK website to use if you're in another country, you'll need to find out whatever the register is for mental health professionals in your area in the uk. This is bacp, stands for British association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. And there's a register here. There's lots of free advice and guidance and things like that. But you want to find the therapist directory. So here, it's a nice button right away there. You may have to find a different association in your area, but for the uk, this is how you do it and it'll automatically take you to the therapist. So you could put the particular problem you're struggling with. Don't know why we've got caps on that. You can put your area as well. And literally they just put this in. They hit enter and it's going to bring up a whole list of different therapists that they could work with and they can then even sort it, they can start going down. What type of session do you want? How far are you prepared to travel? Are there particular things you need help with? Who's the therapy for? You know, they want couples, is it for a young person, for a child? So there's lots of things they can do there. And then this next bit is going to seem really counterintuitive, but bear with me. So they're going to judge a book by its cover. So the way I recommend people do this is they just scroll down and they just look at the photos of people and they stop when they see someone and think, oh, yeah, this person looks friendly, this person looks like somebody I could open up to. This looks like a therapist I could work with. And they really are judging on the picture. Now, the reason for this is because that first impression is going to give them a feel for who this person is. That photo is not just the person they're going to be talking to, but. But how they choose to represent themselves and that's gonna affect somebody here. They might go, oh, this person here, Nicola, she seems quite friendly. She seems a little bit older, like she's been doing this for a while. I bet she's experienced. Somebody else might go, oh, you know, if it's someone in their early 20s, they might go, I don't know if I can relate to this person. Are they gonna be that relatable? Are they gonna get what it's like with my life? And it may be that there's someone who reminds them of a family member. This person might remind them of an aunt they really got on with, really could open up to, or they might remind them of an aunt that was really strict and stern and they didn't like. All these sorts of things are going to affect the therapeutic relationship, they're going to affect the start of it. So they're not just choosing based on the picture but actually going through and seeing who jumps out as all this person seems friendly is a really nice way to start. And all they're going to do is just pick people and just. I say open them in a new tab, just scroll through anytime you see somebody. And then I have preferences for male or female a lot of the time as well. And I would just say scroll through this. And obviously they can filter it based on price. If somebody's price is, you know, they're not looking to spend £70, that's fine, they can filter it based on that too. But really just go through and open up the tabs on the people that they see where they think, oh, this person I think I can connect with. And then all they do from here is to go and then they can read a little bit more because now they've seen this person, they think, oh, they seem approachable, now they can find out a bit more about them. So they'll have their bios here, they'll have more information about what they do, what they work with, their approach, all this sort of thing. They'll often have their details here as well. You could even go and look at the person's website to see that. But when they've got three to five people, that's when I recommend they dive into it and have a read through and hopefully end up with three people where they think, yeah, this person seems like they're on my way for it. This seems like they could be a good fit. And then when they do that they can contact them. Now they can do this using a form on the website here or, or they can just reach out via email there. Doesn't really matter how they go about it, but you want them to contact at least three. And I always say to people as well, this is based on my experience, I don't have data for this, but I say it's unfortunate. Often certain therapists don't always get back to people. I don't know why, but Quite a few aren't great at actually replying for some reason. This is a common thing, I just want you to know that. Because if they don't get back to you, it doesn't mean that they're not interested. Unfortunately, there's a good percentage of therapists who either are tech savvy enough to do it or just don't seem to bother getting back to people, which is a shame because people are really putting themselves out there, even by writing an email. So I reassure them that if that happens, unfortunately it's just one of these things that happens, but don't think it's about you. And the reason I say get in touch with three is because there may be one or two here that actually can't see this, can't offer them a time that works for them, or aren't taking on new clients at the moment. So hopefully they get at least one who they get in touch with who says, yes, I can do that. And then I tell them, you're just going on a first date. Don't think, okay, now I've done this, I've made a commitment, I have to work with this person on an ongoing basis. I say you should shop around and by all means go on a couple of first dates if you're not sure. Now, often what's happened in my experience is the person has done this and they've met someone, they've got a really good, great connection and they just work with them straight away. Because by going through this process of actually screening people based on how they present themselves and then looking at what their experience is, they've usually picked somebody who's a good fit already. But they need to know that it's okay to shop. If they're not sure about it, then by all means try see someone else and then you can come back to them. And I always tell them, if this therapist has any problem with you doing that, that is a red flag and don't work with them. If they're going to feel judged, then unfortunately they're not somebody who's done enough work in themselves to be able to help you there. You know, it's very rare that I've ever heard of that happening, but it reassures people that it's okay, they're not making a commitment and they're really just going on a first date. A lot of people here, like this person here, offers a free of charge, 15 minute phone call. So a lot of them will do like a spinal screening or a spine check or that kind of thing because they know that it's important to actually meet the person, build a bit of rapport before the client can make a decision who they're going to work with. But really I just, I show them this very briefly. I've done this. I've taken a lot more time than I normally would. The patient talk you through the steps there. But I'm just showing them this and then all I do is I follow up with an email. And it's a template email. I've written it once and you can send it out again. And I have the link not just to the bacp, but I have the link to this page here. Let's go back, we'll do it again. So you can see. So I'm linking to the actual directory page. So where it says search therapist, wherever that therapist directory button takes you, then you want to go to there. I realize you can't see the screen now, so I'll pull that back up. But the URL I'm sending them is the one tooth is such it's one less thing for them to have to work out because when they go home they forget where the button is. So give that a try with patience. If you think that's something that they could benefit from by doing this and actually demystify the step makes it much easier and it can take somebody from going to it, sort of being quite worried, anxious, not sure what to do, and often just putting it off and procrastinating to actually taking that step, working with somebody and starting to really enjoy that support. And when they do that and you've helped them get there, they credit you with helping them get there as well. So they will trust and they will appreciate you even more. The patients I've done this for are really, really grateful. It's really helped solidify the therapeutic relationship I have with them as well as helping them get the results there. So if you have patients where you think, yeah, it would be useful for them to see someone, don't just recommend it, blanket actually show them the exact steps they can do. So BACP website, go on that and really just judge a book by its cover, find a few people they like the look of, read a bit more about them and then reach out to at least three. And if they're not sure they can do this again, if they reach out and all three are busy, same process works, they can go and look for a few more people there. So I hope that's been helpful for you. It's made a big difference for a number of people. I've worked with made a big difference. Some of my friends and family as well. I'm sure it can for your patients, too. So give that a try. And I'll see you soon for another video. Take care, guys.