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Seven Guidelines for Choosing the Best Therapist to Treat
Agoraphobia
by Stephen Price
If you have agoraphobia and decide to seek professional
help, you won’t want to waste valuable time and money with a
therapist who doesn’t know what he or she is doing or
doesn’t have experience treating it. Below are seven
suggested guidelines to help you choose the best therapist
to help you recover from agoraphobia.
1) Get a recommendation.
If at all possible, get a recommendation from a friend,
family member, or someone you trust. If you know someone who
got help for agoraphobia and recovered, ask who he or she
went to for therapy. If you can’t get a recommendation from
someone you know, you might ask your family physician or
another health professional for a recommendation.
Another good referral source is the website of the Anxiety
Disorders Association of America (ADAA). Just go to
www.adaa.org, click on “treatment,” then click on “find a
therapist.”
Don’t always settle for the first therapist you find. It’s
good to get the names of several therapists and do some
comparing. Call each one and get more information. Start by
asking about the therapist’s credentials.
2) Find out what credentials the therapist has.
Your therapist should have the credentials to qualify as one
of four types of licensed therapists as they are regulated
in the United States.
Psychiatrist: a medical doctor (MD), or physician, with
basic training in medicine and three years of specialized
training in psychiatry. A psychiatrist has the training to
prescribe medication legally and practice some forms of
psychotherapy.
Psychologist: a mental health professional that may have a
master’s degree, PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), or PsyD (Doctor
of Psychology). The master’s degree may require two to three
years of graduate study whereas a doctorate may take five or
six years. Psychologists with PhDs or PsyDs can call
themselves “doctor” but are not trained to prescribe
medicine legally. However, they can work in conjunction with
your family doctor who can prescribe medicine. Depending
upon education level, psychologists may have specialized
training in psychology equivalent to the training a
psychiatrist has in psychiatry. Typically, a therapist with
a background in clinical psychology has more training in
treating agoraphobias and agoraphobia than a marriage and
family counselor or social worker.
Marriage and Family Counselor: A counselor with a master’s
degree (M.A. or M.S.), although some have doctorates (PhDs)
in counseling psychology. A marriage and family counselor
may or may not be trained to work with agoraphobia.
Social Worker: A “clinical social worker” is trained to
provide individual therapy, although as in the case of
marriage and family counselors, the level of training to
work with agoraphobia may vary. A clinical social worker
usually has a master’s degree in social work (MSW) although
some have doctorates in social work (PhD).
Therapists in each of these four categories are licensed to
perform therapy in their state. Since licensing requirements
in each state can vary, you should probably ask your
therapist what the licensing requirements were in your
state. This will give you a good idea what kind of education
and training requirements your therapist has met.
But remember, education and training does not always equal
competence. You’ll want a therapist who has successfully
treated people with agoraphobia.
3) Find out how much experience the therapist has with
agoraphobia.
Find a therapist who has experience in successfully treating
agoraphobia. If your therapist has never treated someone
with agoraphobia before, it would be best to find someone
who has. Don’t compromise on this.
4) Ask about the therapist’s basic approach to treating
agoraphobia.
No single approach to therapy seems to help all people with
agoraphobia, so it is best to find a therapist who is
familiar with multiple forms of treatment. Choose a
therapist who is familiar with both cognitive and behavioral
approaches to treating agoraphobia.
Cognitive therapies all focus on helping you change the way
you think. Behavior therapies include techniques called
flooding and systematic desensitization (which will be
discussed later) and focus on helping you learn the skills
necessary to cope with fearful situations as they occur.
According to current psychological literature, the most
successful form of treatment for agoraphobia is the
combination of cognitive therapy, behavior therapy, and
medication. A therapist who is versatile enough to practice
this combination will be most likely to provide the
combination of techniques best suited for you.
5) Ask how long the therapist’s treatment program for
agoraphobia should last.
Most therapists who treat people with agoraphobia offer a
cognitive-behavioral program for therapy that can be
accomplished within 20 weeks. It’s up to you how much time
and money you want to spend in therapy, but 20 weeks is a
reasonable amount of time for a therapist to give you the
insight and tools necessary for recovery.
Psychodynamic approaches (free associating and unraveling
your past) and other therapies can last longer. However,
current psychological studies have demonstrated
cognitive-behavioral therapy to be the most effective for
agoraphobia.
Warning: Be wary of treatment programs that promise a
miraculous or overnight cure. Most research-proven treatment
programs for agoraphobia take at least eight weeks. There
are lots of people offering “quick fixes” and “miracle
cures” but there is no empirical evidence that a “magic
bullet” for curing agoraphobia has been discovered. When an
overnight cure for agoraphobia is found, you can be sure
that psychiatrists and psychologists everywhere will be
using it.
6) Talk to your therapist about the goals of your therapy.
It is important that you agree with your therapist about the
goals of therapy and what success will look like. The more
you agree on specific goals for therapy within specific time
frames, the more you will know if the therapy is worth your
time and money.
7) Choose a therapist you are comfortable with.
Ultimately, you are the one who can tell if a therapist is
compatible with you – so it’s ok to go ahead and use your
intuition. Choose a therapist to treat agoraphobia that you
feel comfortable talking to. Even if your therapist meets
all the above criteria, if you don’t feel comfortable
talking to your therapist, it will hurt your chance of
successful recovery.
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