Making transition to new therapist as painless as possible?

Post date: 2021-03-02 11:55:16

My therapist is retiring, or moving on from being a therapist. I got an email from her about this and my last appointment with her will probably be next week. I am mostly okay with this, though somewhat apprehensive. Mostly I'm trying to think of what I have NOT thought about. If this happened to you, what would you have liked to know going into it? What would have helped?

I've been seeing her for my generalized anxiety for about five years. She's the only therapist I've seen as an adult. I am a woman in my 50s with a decent support network. I liked her a lot, felt she was useful, and would like to stay in therapy.

Things I know I need to think about:
- Getting a new therapist and one on my insurance
- I may have to stay within the same smallish practice because my prescribing psychiatrist is with this group and can only prescribe my meds if I am seeing someone in the practice (I think? It's a community mental health place, I'll make sure I am certain on this. I mostly have as-needed meds for now, am not against getting on more regular medication at some point)
- What my crisis plan is if something happens before I find a new therapist, though I am not generally someone who is in crisis.
- How to evaluate another therapist or how to manage if the first one I try I do not like much. I can be a real "pleaser" type and am concerned I might stick with a therapist I didn't like.

I feel like there is a type of therapist I am looking for--older than me, no cishet men, no "tough love" types--but other than that I am not sure. I'm in a fairly rural area so I don't have a lot of options but would like to make some good choices. I do know how to FIND a therapist, so this question is not about that. I liked my therapist a lot as I said; her approach which was sort of mindfulness mixed with DBT-ish practice worked for me but I could see other approaches working well too.

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