Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

  • Home
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
    • About
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Contact

October 13, 2016 By Admin

How to Find an Effective Therapist

How to Find & Choose an Effective Therapist

Recently The Harvard Health Newsletter posted some interesting questions to ask while seeking out a psychotherapist. I will add a few more details and areas of inquiry in this post. Keep in mind that these questions and inquiries do not anthonyquintiliani_mindfulhappinessmean you will be happy and improve with a therapist you selected via these suggestions.  However, it will mean that you have completed a reasonable investigation as to the proper fit for you, the therapist, the therapy, and the area/s you seek help for.  Safety, comfort, and hope are important variables in outcomes. The key area related to positive outcomes are the quality of the therapeutic alliance, the actual skill of the therapist, the match among various variables (therapist style, interpersonal qualities, type of problem/s, and your personal/emotional preferences). So let us begin to review your search process.

  1. Expertise is the key factor in successful outcomes. So questions about level and types of clinical training, specialty certifications, degree/s, length of clinical work experience, types of therapies offered, prior formal complaints or law suits, and word-of-mouth reputation and/or formal investigative search regarding clinical quality of the person you are
    considering. If the therapist becomes annoyed or impatient with you in this process, you may not want this person as your therapist. Therapy requires a great deal of personal honesty regarding your true (inner) self and your false (outer) self. Both are real!  If you feel you cannot open up deeply with the therapist, perhaps this is not the right person for you.
  2. Expectations for good outcomes may involve questions about pros/cons regarding the type of therapy offered to you, how that therapy mindfulhappiness_anthony-quintilianiworks concretely, and outcome expectations given your particular clinical needs.
  3. The alliance quality is a very important variable in effective therapy.  Skilled therapist know how to use certain psychodynamic methods to form a strong and positive therapeutic alliance.  If after a few sessions you are not feeling the power and emotional comfort of that alliance, it is time to discuss this with the therapist. And although psychodynamics of the alliance are essential for success, psychodynamic therapy alone may not be the answer.
  4. Does it work?  You will want the therapist’s opinion as to how long it may take before you experience some improvements.  As in medicine, this is not an exact science.  A very important variable is HOW the therapist will know you are improving.  Ask: How will you measure my progress? Likewise, you will want to discuss how you will know actual change is happening in the therapy.  Beware of therapist who make you feel very good in the session but over time there is no real improvement in your condition. Improvement must be measured and documented!
  5. Cost is very important.  Be sure to ask about fees, co-pays, “no-show” billings, if the therapist takes your insurance (if you have insurance).  What happens if you do not have health insurance?  Make sure your insurance covers the treatment and the person providing the treatment. mindfulhappiness_anthonyquintilianiIn today’s health care marketplace, where for-profit insurance companies exist, you need to be very clear on financial expectations and realities.
    Remember some medical and psychological providers refuse to accept medicaid and medicare.  They claim it fails to pay adequately.  Sometimes this is true, and sometimes the provider is simply too greedy.
  6. Failed treatment is not as uncommon as people think, especially if your clinical condition involves the norm of co-occurring disorders (alcohol/drug AND other mental health issues) or if the condition is very serious in complexity (serious attachment problems, serious chemical dependency, serious trauma, serious co-occurring medical problems, etc.). If after two or three months of weekly session (more or less) you are not experiencing some positive changes, it is time to re-visit the choice of treatment and/or the therapist. Discuss your impressions with the therapist.
  7. Medications may be needed to support improvement in your clinical condition/s. However, remember that effective medications may improve personal emotional experiences, but they cannot effectively deal with past patterns of behavior/habits (self-medication, anger, isolation, etc.) and skills deficits that may have resulted in the clinical condition you suffer from. So the best model is biopsychosocial-spiritual NOT purely biological.mindfulhappiness_anthony_quintiliani
  8. Spirituality can be an important variable in your improvement and recovery .  If you are a spiritual person, ask if your therapist feel comfortable and skills enough to support you in this area.
  9. Lastly, some therapist spend all of their time trying to fix a problem.  In the reality of clinical practice, exaggerated documentation requirements,  and low clinical payment rates this often makes sense. However, there are two ways to look at clinical problems: one way is to fix something that is not functioning well; another way is to improve the quantity and quality of positive life experience – even personal happiness. In the end, combinations of both approaches often work best. There are only 24 hours in a day; so reducing suffering and expanding joy may be part of the recovery picture.
  10. I wish you great luck and good fortune in selecting your personal therapist.  This person may become one of the most significant people in your life. Select her/him very carefully!

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

ChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Filed Under: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, Featured, Therapist Tagged With: ANTHONY QUINTILIANI, MINDFUL HAPPINESS, THERAPIST

Twitter

Mindful Happiness -Currently in Production

Mindful Happiness Posts

The Failed “War on Drugs” – Let’s Try Treatment On Demand and Fund It The New York based Drug Policy Alliance (drugpolicy.org) and other sources have provided some important information about our failed drug and alcohol policies. Here are a few astounding facts.  The United Stares has about 5% of the world’s population, but it […]

Participate in Groups for Meditation, Problem-Solving, and Task Completion Meditation With The Sangha Among regularly practicing meditators and various meditation traditions, the sangha is the social, emotional and spiritual collective that continues to support ongoing serious practice and progress along the Path.  Given that so much has been written about the many benefits of practicing […]

Zen Buddhist Emptiness and Christian Centering Prayer Recently Ken McLeod presented “Freedom of Choice” as a way to differentiate forms of spiritual materialism and emotional escapism from serious Buddhist practice.  He noted The Heart Sutra negations. There is no attainment for bodhisattvas as they pursue the perfection of wisdom. Ultimately, everything is empty. He refers […]

Behaviors People Display When in Groups After more than 35 years of facilitating hundreds of classes, workshops, family therapy sessions, group therapy sessions, and work project groups it has become clear that we do some strange things when we participate in groups. It appears to me that many of these in-group functions serve both ego […]

Review:  Deepak Chopra’s Idea’s on ” The Future of God” Part 2 of 3 In part 2 of this 3-part series, I will discuss the role played by consciousness in various levels of spirituality.  In the beginning, there was the word.  The word is sometimes associated with pure consciousness, since without consciousness there cannot be […]

Vipassana for Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, and Addictions The integration of Vipassana meditation with various forms of therapy has for many years been a standard of treatment worldwide and in Vermont, especially when impulse control and emotion regulations issues are included.  Buddhist Psychology offers clear explanations why this intervention may be helpful for so many suffering […]

Liberate Yourself with Spiritual Energy Cultivating authentic inner and outer peace is the only way to a happy and good future. Learn to use your spiritual higher self to let go of self-centerednesss, greed, and entitlement. Work to free yourself from the endless grasping for material “things.”  Does it really matter what kind of car […]

Our Brains React to Worry According to research by The American Psychological Association in 2015, some of the core sources of severe stress reaction for Americans are: financial problems, job-related problems, family problems, and health problems.  Our lives are complete only with joy/happiness, suffering and boredom – sometimes referred to as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral […]

The Journey of Human Compassion Practices Where are YOU on the journey of human compassion practices?  I modified interpretations of compassion to present a more formal depiction of compassionate practices and skills.  Go ahead; take the compassion quiz. Your Goal: To Reduce Human Suffering Human Warmth   Unconditional Positive Regard   Human Caring     Compassionate Actions […]

How We Make Habits – An Understanding Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha reportedly taught how humans make habits.  The insights of this earliest Buddhist Psychology sheds shame on the West, with its almost-the-same version of this view in the 20th century. One must wonder if B. F. Skinner or N. Chomsky knew about Buddhist […]

Helper Burnout in Today’s Healthcare System Helper burnout is a very common problem in all healthcare services and at all levels of professional training and experience. Helpers from recovery-oriented peer counselors, state employed case managers, and licensed counselors/therapists all the way to physicians are reporting record high levels of reactive stress and compassion fatigue. Psychiatrists are […]

Stress In America – How to Deal with it Effectively The American Psychological Association just released the results of its annual stress survey for 2014.  This comprehensive study of stress in America has some serious implications for our health and happiness.  Although self-reported stress levels in many categories are lower than in 2013, the overall […]

More RESPECT Needed for People Being Served Recently, I read a post by William White, the well-known Recovery advocate.  The post dealt with the troublesome area of language used to describe, refer to people suffering from various conditions – addictions being only one.  While some may respond to his post by thinking it is simply […]

Self-Care as Ritual Self-care for Americans is often considered a luxury.  Due to our technological demands and addictions (Demons as they are), and the slow slipping of our economic structures, we are often at the mercy of the bottom line at work. Over-paid CEOs and CFOs and their many assistants eat up so, so much […]

America’s Opioid Problem-2020; A Brief Update Unfortunately, Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is alive and well in 2020. Today approximately 150 People are dying each day due to opioid overdose. The CDC noted that from 1999 to 2017 approximately 399,000 people died in the United States from Opioid overdose. Related to chronic pain, this is one […]

Practice Approaches to for Mindful and  Enhanced Emotion Regulation Brought to us by way of  The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Mindful Approaches for Enhanced Emotion Regulation; here are some approaches to practice. 1)In some ways you could understand the progression from auto-pilot mind to greater stability and equanimity of […]

 Poem on Nature    – Haiku-Like As I sat peacefully by the westward window of my sunroom at my retreat center, I noticed!  I noticed the restless, natural movement of a tormented sky trying to calm itself.   Here is my poem. “The Sky, the Lake and the Mountains” Sitting at our home, alone – […]

Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Trauma In line with the thousands of studies now available supporting the use of mindfulness-based interventions in depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addictions (via emotion regulation and interoception), this post will review recommended mindfulness interventions for trauma and PTSD. The post will note information from two recent books on this topic. Also recognize […]

Mindfulness Defined… There are many definitions of mindfulness.  Here I have combined several popular views into one.  This definition and process may be helpful to readers who cannot quite grasp what it is, what it feels like, and what steps can make it happen.   Good luck in your regular practices!   Mindfulness is: Paying […]

Making Boundless Space for Your Emotional Dragons In the past I have offered posts about radical acceptance and ways of dealing with your personal dragons or demons.  Here I will offer a more advanced perspective on how directly engaging your emotional dragons is a very important part of your spiritual path – your spiritual journey […]

Mindful Happiness Tags

WISE MIND MINDFUL TRAUMA ACTIVITIES SELF MEDICATION PSYCHOTHERAPY VERMONT THICH NHAT HANH MBSR BREATHING ANTHONY QUINTILIANI WALKING MEDITATION SELF COMPASSION COVID-19 SUFFERING DR ANTHONY QUINTILIANI ADDICTION THERAPY. MEDITATION MINDFUL MEDITATION SELF ELEANOR R LIEBMAN CENTER EMPTINESS PRACTICES SELF ESTEEM ENLIGHTENMENT MINDFUL HAPPINESS HAPPINESS EXERCISES MEDITATION PRACTICE JOURNALING TRAINING PRACTICE BRAIN BUDDHISM COMPASSION CONSCIOUSNESS SELF CARE CLINICAL SUPERVISION MINDFUL TRAINING MINDFULNESS ACTIVITY MINDFULNESS TRAINING VIPASSANA MEDITATION VIPASSANA

Mindful Categories

Mindful Happiness Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Dr. Anthony Quintiliani
  • Mindful Expressions Meditation CD
  • Mindful Happiness
  • Site Map

Copyright © 2022 · Mindful Happiness