How to Choose a Therapist?

It’s one of the most common questions we receive — and one of the most difficult to answer. How do you choose the “right” therapist?

In a world full of comparison sites, star ratings, and top 10 lists, it can be tempting to approach therapy the same way you might approach buying a product. But therapy isn’t a product. It’s a relationship — and one whose affect can’t be predicted in advance.

There’s No Specialisation in the Human Psyche

Unlike many medical fields, psychotherapy doesn’t work through specialisation in symptoms. While someone might be diagnosed with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, or trauma, these categories don’t tell us much about you — the individual who experiences them.

Symptoms are not uniform. They carry a personal history, a structure, a logic of their own — often unconscious. This is why psychoanalytic therapists are trained not to specialise in categories, but in unique people.

Can You Match Me?

In recent years, many therapy platforms have emerged offering to “match” users with the perfect therapist, often based on short questionnaires or symptom checklists. While this might sound efficient, we believe it reflects a corporate approach — one that often turns a deeply personal process into a sales funnel.

We work differently. We don’t promise perfect matches or symptom-based pairings. We begin from the idea that therapy is a unique encounter, and that what’s most transformative in treatment can’t be predicted or packaged in advance.

The Therapist You Work With Matters — But Not in the Way You Might Think

Every therapist brings their own background, style, and presence into the work. But even the most experienced therapist cannot guarantee the “right fit” in advance. That’s because the therapeutic relationship doesn’t exist until it begins.

Since every person is completely unique, it’s not something you can simulate or pre-test. You may feel understood by one therapist, and not another. Or, just as often, you may find that the therapist who unsettles you early on is the one who helps you most in the long term.

This is not random. It’s the nature of transference — the way past relationships and internal conflicts show up in the therapeutic space. That can’t be selected for. It must be discovered.

What You Can Trust

All of the individual therapists at the Other clinic are trained to at least Master’s level in psychoanalysis. Each has at least five years clinical experience, and each works within a framework that values ethics, reflection, and singularity.

What this means is that whoever you begin work with, they will be equipped to listen carefully — not just to what’s said, but to what’s unsaid. And from there, the work begins.

Taking the First Step

Choosing a therapist isn’t about knowing everything in advance. It’s about taking a chance — often guided by an instinct we don’t yet fully understand. A sense, a pull, a feeling. Something draws us to a particular person, and we follow it.

If you’re unsure, we recommend starting a first session and seeing what takes shape. After all, the only way to know if therapy will be useful… is to begin.

Our Psychotherapists

Recommended Reading:

Freud, S. (1912). The Dynamics of Transference.
Lacan, J. (1966). The Direction of the Treatment and the Principles of its Power.
Fink, B. (1997). A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis.

Uncategorized

How to Choose a Therapist