How to Find the Right Therapist for You (And What to Look for Beyond the Directory Listing)
Fall tends to be one of the busiest times of year for therapy inquiries, and it makes sense! Something about the shift in season, the return to routine after summer, the natural pull toward reflection as we spend more time indoors, it prompts people to take stock of where they are and what kind of life they want. If you've been thinking about starting therapy, or restarting it after a break, this is a good time to get started.
The hard part, for a lot of people, is figuring out where to actually start. Psychology Today and other directories have made it easier to find therapists in a given area, which is useful, but scrolling through headshots, credential lists, and brief bios can start to feel like everyone looks the same. I want to try to make that process a little easier to navigate, partly because I think there are things worth knowing that directories don't really get into, and partly because I've been through the search myself and I know how discouraging it can be when it's not going well.
Start with What You're Actually Coming For
Before you open a directory, it helps to get reasonably clear on what you're hoping to work on, not because you need a neat answer, but because it will help you filter. Therapy is a broad field and different therapists have real, distinct areas of depth. Someone who is excellent at helping people navigate grief may not be the best fit for someone working through a relational pattern you’ve carried since childhood, even if both therapists are warm, competent people who care about their clients.
You don't need to have your goals fully articulated before you reach out. Most therapists, including me, expect that the first few sessions involve some collaborative figuring out of what the work is actually going to be. But having a general sense of the territory, whether it's anxiety, relationship patterns, a specific life transition, a desire for more self-understanding, or something somatic and body-based, gives you something to look for when you're reading profiles.
It also helps to think about whether you have any preferences around the therapeutic approach. If you've been in talk therapy before and found it helpful, you might want more of the same. If you've been in talk therapy before and still feel like something isn't shifting, you might want someone with additional training in somatic work, EMDR, or another modality that works with the body alongside your thoughts and behaviors. If you're looking for couples support, finding someone with actual couples training matters more than you might think, because working with two people in a room is a meaningfully different skill set than individual therapy.
What Credentials Don’t Tell You
Most people starting a therapy search aren't sure what the alphabet soup of credentials means, and that's completely reasonable because it's not intuitive.
In Michigan, the most common credentials you'll see are LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor), LLPC (Limited Licensed Professional Counselor), LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker), and LP (Licensed Psychologist). All of these indicate that someone has completed a graduate degree in a mental health field and met licensure requirements for the state. An LLPC is a newer clinician who is still in the supervised hours phase before full licensure, which doesn't mean less skilled, it means earlier in their career and actively supervised.
What credentials don't tell you is anything about a therapist's specific training, clinical approach, areas of depth, or what it's actually like to sit across from them. Two people with the same LPC credential might practice in completely different ways. One might be primarily cognitive-behavioral in orientation. Another might work from an attachment-based, somatic, or integrative framework. The credential tells you someone is licensed. It doesn't tell you whether they're the right fit for you specifically.
Additional certifications and training are worth paying attention to because they tell you where someone has invested their continuing education. Gottman Level 2 training, for instance, tells you that a therapist has done specific, structured work in evidence-based couples therapy methodology, not just that they're willing to see couples. RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) alongside a therapy credential tells you someone has integrated body-based practice into their clinical work in a meaningful way. These aren't things you'll always find in a basic directory listing, but they're often on a therapist's individual website and worth looking for.
Read the Bio Like You're Getting to Know Someone
The bio section of a therapist's profile is where you can start to get a sense of who someone actually is and how they think about their work - if they've written it well. Some bios are essentially a list of specialties and modalities with a few warm adjectives attached. Others give you a real sense of a person's clinical philosophy, what they believe about how people change, what draws them to this work, what kind of clients they do their best work with.
I'd pay attention to whether a bio is speaking to you as a person or performing competence at you. You want to feel, reading it, like this might be someone you could actually talk to. If a bio feels generic or clinical in a way that doesn't draw you in, that's information. If it makes you want to keep reading, that's information too.
You're also looking for some indication that this person works with what you're bringing. A therapist who specializes in adolescents and family systems might be a lovely person and a good clinician, but if you're a 38-year-old working through an attachment pattern in your romantic relationships, you probably want someone whose depth is more squarely in adult individual or couples work.
Practical Things to Check Before You Reach Out
A few logistics worth sorting out early so you're not doing research on someone you can't actually work with:
Insurance and cost. If you're planning to use insurance, check whether the therapist is paneled with your plan before you get attached to their profile. If you're paying privately, make sure their rate is one you can realistically sustain, not just afford once. Some therapists offer sliding scale fees, and it's always worth asking if cost is a barrier.
Availability. Many therapists have waitlists, especially right now when demand for mental health services in Michigan is particularly high. If you need something in the next week or two, it's worth being upfront about that when you reach out, because some therapists have cancellation openings or can refer you to a colleague who has current availability.
Format. In-person versus virtual is worth thinking about before you start searching rather than after. Some people do their best work in a physical space with another person. Others actually find virtual therapy more accessible and less intimidating, particularly if they're new to it or have a complicated schedule. A lot of therapists offer both, but not all do.
Specialty fit. If you're looking for a specific modality, like somatic therapy, relational therapy, or Gottman Method couples work, it's worth making sure the therapist actually has training in it rather than just listing it as an area they're "familiar with." Those are meaningfully different things.
The Consultation Is There for a Reason: Use It
Most therapists offer a free 15 to 20 minute consultation before you commit to a first session, and I'd strongly encourage using it rather than skipping straight to booking based on a bio alone.
A consultation is a chance to get a real-time sense of whether you feel comfortable with someone. You can ask about their approach, how they typically work, what a first session looks like, and anything else you're curious or uncertain about. You can also just notice, in that conversation, whether you feel at ease or like you're performing, whether the therapist seems curious about you or is running through a script, and whether you could imagine being honest with this person about the things that are actually hard.
Some questions worth asking in a consultation, if you're not sure what to say:
How do you typically approach the first few sessions with a new client? What does your therapeutic style look like? Do you lean more toward structured work or a more open, exploratory process? How do you think about the role of the body in therapy? And if you have a specific thing you're coming for: have you worked with this before, and what does that work typically look like?
You don't need to leave a consultation with certainty. You might need to talk to two or three people before one feels clearly right, and that's normal. What you're listening for is some combination of competence and ease: do you trust that this person knows what they're doing, and do you feel like you could actually let them in?
What It Means to Be a Good Fit
“Fit” is hard to define, which is part of why the search feels so uncertain. But the research on therapy outcomes is pretty consistent that the therapeutic relationship- the quality of the connection between client and therapist- is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy is helpful. Technique and modality matter, but they matter less than most people think. Who you're in the room with matters more.
A good fit doesn't mean you feel immediately comfortable, because some people feel less comfortable in new relationships by nature, and that doesn't mean they've found the wrong therapist. It means something more like: this person seems to understand what I'm saying, they're curious about me in a way that doesn't feel clinical or detached, I think I could say something I've never said out loud and they would handle it with care.
If you've started working with someone and something feels consistently off, it's okay to say so. A good therapist will want to hear that and work with it. If it still isn't working after that conversation, it's okay to try someone else. Finding the right fit is part of the process, not a sign that you're doing something wrong.
What We Offer at Middle Way Wellness
At Middle Way Wellness, we work with adults, teens, and couples from an integrative, whole-person orientation. Our clinicians bring different areas of depth, and I want to be honest about that rather than presenting us as interchangeable.
I'm Caitie Fey, LPC, RYT, and my work draws from Gottman Method couples therapy, attachment theory, somatic and yoga-informed practice, and a Buddhist-influenced understanding of how people change. I'm currently waitlisted for new individual therapy clients, though I have availability for couples work and our couples communication workshop.
Courtney Sommers, LLPC brings a warm (yet direct), relational, attachment-informed approach to individual therapy and is currently accepting new clients. She does particularly thoughtful work with people navigating relationship patterns, self-compassion, and the ways our early histories show up in our adult lives. She also is accepting new couples and folks who want to do a communication workshop to stengthen their relationship.
Caitlin Estep, LLPC, RYT brings a somatic and yoga-informed orientation to individual therapy for adults and teens and has afternoon and evening availability. She's a good fit for people who are interested in working with the body alongside more traditional talk-based approaches. Caitlin’s style is soft and understanding, while still holding space for the hard stuff.
All three of us offer a free 15-minute consultation, and we're happy to help you figure out who within the practice might be the best match for what you're looking for.
Book a free 15-minute consultation
Middle Way Wellness | 359 Livernois #202, Ferndale, MI | In-person and virtual throughout Michigan | 248-266-0503
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find a therapist in Michigan? Psychology Today, Therapy Den, and Open Path Collective are useful directories for finding licensed therapists in Michigan. Searching by specialty, location, and insurance is a good starting point. Most therapists also have their own websites with more detail about their approach than directories typically show.
What should I look for when choosing a therapist? Beyond credentials and insurance, look for someone whose stated specialty and clinical approach match what you're coming for, whose bio gives you a real sense of who they are, and with whom you feel some degree of ease in a consultation call. The therapeutic relationship is one of the strongest predictors of whether therapy is helpful, so fit matters as much as credentials.
What is a therapy consultation and what should I ask? A consultation is typically a free 15 to 20 minute call where you can ask a therapist about their approach, how they typically work, and whether they have experience with what you're bringing. You can also use it to notice whether you feel comfortable with the person. Good questions include: how do you approach the first few sessions, what does your therapeutic style look like, and have you worked with this kind of concern before?
What's the difference between an LPC and an LLPC in Michigan? An LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) has completed full licensure requirements including supervised post-graduate hours. An LLPC (Limited Licensed Professional Counselor) has completed their graduate degree and is in the supervised hours phase before full licensure. Both are trained clinicians; the LLPC designation indicates earlier-career status with active supervision.
Where can I find an integrative or somatic therapist in Ferndale, MI? Middle Way Wellness in Ferndale, Michigan offers integrative individual therapy, somatic and yoga-informed therapy, and Gottman Method couples work. We serve clients in-person and virtually throughout Michigan, with consultations available to help you figure out which clinician is the right fit.
