What to Look for When Hiring a Psychologist or Mental Health Professional

Life’s rarely without its challenges, and it’s crucial to know how to deal with them to ensure you maintain your peace of mind and preserve your mental health. However, there are some challenges that neither allows you stay peaceful nor enable you to move on. Whether it’s the demise of your loved one or it’s a divorce with your partner, you sometimes find that you are helpless in positively addressing a situation.

Although every problem is unique, there’s always help available for any curveball life throws at you. When you struggle with a devastating life event, depression, anxiety, or difficulty managing daily life, one of the things you can do is speak with a psychologist who will listen compassionately and help you learn coping strategies.

Psychologists study the human mind, and their research helps us understand behavior, memory and mental health disorders. Through counseling, they work to promote good mental health.

If you’re considering working with a psychologist, here is a list of the top five things to consider when hiring the right professional for you.

Personalized service. Hire a psychologist who provides personalized service where he is the one meeting with the families, making plans collaboratively, and interpreting the findings for the treatment plan. After all, every client’s problem is unique and demands the personal attention of a mental health professional.

Passion and experience. A psychologist should be passionate about his work and should have an extensive experience in the type of service you are looking for, whether it’s psychological testing, counseling for teens, help with autism spectrum disorder, or help with navigating school-based services. Unlike an inexperienced psychologist, an experienced psychologist will be in better position to find a solution to your problem.

Result driven approach. Hire a psychologist, to whom you will be able to express your goal and what you want to get out of the process rather than "getting what everybody gets." You potential psychologist should understand your purpose to provide solution-focused services with a result-driven approach.

Approachable. A psychologist should be someone who can communicate the findings face-to-face, in understandable language, highlighting the most important points and setting top priorities for intervention.

Understandable reports. A good psychologist will provide you with a high quality, organized, and readable document that you can then share with others like schools, physicians, and/or therapists.

If you’re looking for a psychologist in Austin, Round Rock, Temple, Killeen, Belton, Horseshoe Bay, Leander, Cedar Park, Eanes, Pflugerville, Hutto, Georgetown, Lake Travis, Westlake and surrounding areas, contact Sound Mind Psychology. Dr. Amy G. Brown at Sound Mind Psychology steps into her client’s shoes and helps them to cope with their problems. She personally answers any questions that her clients have and if needed, a free fifteen-minute phone consultation is provided to determine whether Sound Mind Psychology's services fit with client’s current needs. To learn more about how she can help you, contact her by clicking here.