Forrest Gump was right, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” Sometimes the randomly chosen is cool—chocolate caramel!—and you get something better than you imagined. But, if you have ever bitten into a chocolate piece and found some strange fruit flavored goo, you know the feeling of being disappointed or left wondering what else is out there…. The box of chocolates approach is fine for a lot of things, but not for finding a therapist. The investment into therapy is big (time + money) and you want to choose someone and feel like you nailed it. Recommendations from friends, family, doctors will all be different. Online directories of therapists go on for pages and pages, even with filters, and each therapist will seem perfect with their beautiful headshot, thoughtful biography, and impressive list of skills. And no doubt—all of these therapists are great. Great for YOU is the issue. Therein lies the problem—and the solution. The problem is that you need to get a “vibe” on a person—tone of voice, conversational style, likability, hints of personality—all of that non-resume, very particular “stuff” that differentiates one person from another and helps us gel with someone.
All of us humans have a “vibe layer,” possibly wired to our hearts, and, despite how smart and analytical we imagine ourselves to be, this is how we connect and choose things anyways—from our gut, our intuition, our vibe. If you don’t believe me, watch a few episodes of HGTV’s House Hunters. “Forget what we said about wanting four bedrooms and an eat-in kitchen, we will take this one instead—it only has 3 bedrooms and a tiny kitchen but we feel at home here.” You can’t argue with the heart. So, that’s what we are hoping to unearth for you in our interviews. We are hoping our interviews will open up the therapists so your heart can consider your choices. Leave the box of chocolates for chocolates—its more fun that way.
