We at Loyal Blue are dedicated to the practice of good therapy. We believe it is our duty as trained behavioral health experts to use evidence-based approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy to help depression, anxiety, insomnia and OCD Spectrum disorders (obsessive compulsive tendencies).
Our practice coordinator matches new clients with a therapist who will be a good personality fit and have expertise to help each new student or adult seeking counseling. We love to help people experience effective therapy and our coordinator helps everyone who reaches out to us, including making referrals outside of Loyal Blue.
What to look for in a therapist?
Finding a therapist can be hard. There are popular databases on PsychologyToday.com and GoodTherapy.org. Both of these websites allow you to search by a number of filters including location, speciality, and insurance coverage.
Reading a therapist profile should feel like it speaks to you. We like therapists who use regular words and avoid psychology mumbo jumbo. They might want to offer you a “safe space” or a chance to “discover your life’s purpose” but how do they do that exactly? It is okay to ask a potential therapist questions about how therapy works.
Look for a therapist who can clearly articulate what it would be like to work with them. Notice photos, language, and expertise that make you feel like they may “get” you. For teens and young children, the personality fit is extremely important. All potential clients can give it up to 3 sessions for a younger person to feel comfortable, but therapy shouldn’t feel like a struggle. A “click” happens more quickly with some clients than others.
Good therapy should include:
- Signing a consent for treatment and reviewing emergency protocols, along with and maintaining confidentiality.
- Sessions that start and end on time, rare cancelations or rescheduling, and a therapist prepared to sit down with you.
- Providing other sources or materials to check out that may be helpful or interesting to you (therapists can’t know everything and good therapy means getting clients to the best sources of information that complement sessions).
- Answering questions directly instead trying to analyze your questions (this is Lindsey’s pet peeve 🤯). Your therapist can present some options to your questions based on what they know about you and what matters to you.
- Feeling accepted in session no matter what you disclose. If you feel judgement and it’s early with a therapist you otherwise like, bring this up — it could be a misunderstanding.
How we hire and train our new therapists
Loyal Blue started a training program for master’s level interns in 2020. Our hiring process includes a video screen, general interview and clinical interview.
Therapists receive weekly supervision and unlimited feedback on anything related to the practice of therapy. Therapists at Loyal Blue must learn expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy to work with depression, insomnia, anxiety, and OCD-spectrum disorders (perfectionism, etc).
Loyal Blue believes we can train therapists to have good clinical skills, but we can’t turn anyone into a person that people want to talk to. This is why personality fit in our practice is so important! When we gathered for our summer party this month, our staff had a lot of laughs and easy conversation. The therapists talked Harry Potter with kids, parenting and TV with our marketing guy, and swapped camping and college stories with each other.
Loyal Blue’s mission statement includes providing research-based, loyal treatment to our clients. We want clients to experience genuine caring and connection as long as they need it, including chapters and check ins down the road.
- Therapists are trained to put client needs ahead of everything else, including our personal therapeutic orientation and goals.
- Therapists provide a tailored treatment plan to each client, using our strength-based approach and complementary homework, reading, podcasts, and other resources.
- Therapists are required to be up-to-date on the best practices for our most frequent topics.
We give back to the community by offering:
- Free drop in counseling to college students.
- “Lunch and Learns” on mental health topics for physicians.
- Tips on Instagram and Facebook, and regular blog posts.
We educate based on best practices and share our knowledge as freely as possible in and out of session.
