Well I haven't been to too many but I know the marriage counselor we tried three or four years ago was terrible and I could tell right away but stuck with her anyway, because it's such a pain to change with insurance. Obviously it didn't work out so well. The therapist I have now is great I called my insurance got a list of therapist in my area, I would then pick one close research them make sure there were not any complaints about them then try to make an appointment. If they were not available I went on to the next closest and repeat the process. I think the ones that don't take insurance just have enough clientele paying cash and don't like dealing with insurance Hope that helps some Good luck therapy has helped me tremendously...

I didn't want religion as a basis for my counseling so I never looked for religious based counseling. I wanted a person who was involved in the area of counseling that I needed. If there was a local support group, sometimes you can get referrals there. Sometimes your primary care/general doctor can even give you recommendations on a good counselor.

Years back when I needed help from trauma, and I had PTSD and was stuttering so bad. I went to a therapist and on the first session he was so mean and was an ass, and that was it and I searched for another one and found a good one. I was inspired to work hard to get out of the stuttering and help myself as much as possible with the PTSD (although PTSD is never cured).

Because you see a counselor does not mean you have to stay with that counselor. The therapist I found would talk to me about the brain, explain to me how it functions and really explain to me how things work in the brain. He wanted me to get a workbook and read chapters of that between our sessions and I did. He became an important resource and information source for me as well as someone that I trusted to discuss so much.

Some do not want to file all the paperwork that insurance requires and go through the yearly "negotiations" with the insurance carriers when the carriers try to cut the reimbursement to the doctors. So some cut out some insurance carriers, while others cut out insurance all together.