how to find a good therapist

For myself, one of the most important qualities in a therapist (besides compassion etc) is an ability to set structure and not just let every session be “brimstead whines for an hour”... I need goals

The way I found my current (amazing) therapist is I went to friends-who-themselves-work-as-therapists and asked them who was the best therapist they would recommend.

Thanks all for the suggestions; they are helpful.

This resonates with me:

For myself, one of the most important qualities in a therapist (besides compassion etc) is an ability to set structure and not just let every session be “brimstead whines for an hour”... I need goals

Especially since most of my issues are self-inflicted.

I tend to favor psychologists over social workers as therapists, but of course there are awesome social worker therapists and shitty psychologist therapists. But I think training in a good psychology program is better suited to individual psychotherapy practice than social work training.

You can also use Psychology Today to double check any in-network lists; some may have cringe-worthy profiles that will help you weed out the obvious NO NO NO folks.