Hannah Rose shares her struggle finding a therapist in Asheville, where most inquiries went unanswered. She argues that therapists who avoid responding to clients will only get worse when they scale to a group practice. Before expanding, practitioners need to be honest about what they can actually handle.
When I was looking for a new therapist down here in Asheville, and I sent maybe 10 different people inquiries on Psychology Today, one got back to me. The other 9 didn't even say, "Oh, I'm on a waitlist," or, "I'm full," or, "I can't." Just no response. And that seems to be the norm. And I don't think it's because therapists are shitty people by any means, but I think some of us are overwhelmed and avoid it. The window of willingness when a client reaches out for therapy might be really small. And if they're like, "Okay, I'm finally gonna do it," the amount of courage that it takes for them to finally do that, and then we don't respond? If avoidance and letting things pile up is a pattern, it's going to get so much worse in group practice. So my invitation is to just be honest with yourself about where you're at.
