Find Care · Therapists
How to find a therapist (and decode the credentials)
APA's guidance on choosing a therapist, plus what the alphabet soup of LCSW, LMFT, LMHC, PsyD, PhD, and MD actually means.
American Psychological Association8 min read
Most people choose a therapist the way they choose a contractor — whoever returns the call and is in-network. APA's guidance lays out a more deliberate process: identify what you want help with, match it to a modality with evidence for that problem, and shortlist clinicians actually trained in it.
Includes the framing that the first session is a consultation, not a commitment, and that fit predicts outcome at least as much as credentials.
Mental Hum's library is a curated index of authoritative third-party resources. The summary above is our own framing; the full information lives at the source.
A note on this article
Mental Hum publishes general education, not medical advice. If something here reflects your own experience, please consider speaking to a clinician. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.