Andy Johns: recommendation

Transcript context

…Any advice on how to figure out who the right therapist or wrong therapist is for you? I know you've actually shared somewhere on LinkedIn once that there's also a lot of disagreement within the mental health community of what is the right approach and what's the right solution. It's like speed dating at first because I would argue that the most important factor is that you feel safe. Animals can teach us so much about what it means to heal ourselves. Imagine going to the pound and you go in there and there's a bunch of dogs that have been picked up off the street or that have been abandoned, and the vast majority of them, they're a nervous wreck, right? Their tail is down in between their legs. They're hunched over and they might be shaking. Their nervous system is completely overwhelmed. That is not the time to teach a dog tricks. When the dog still can't come out the corner of the kennel is not the time to teach it how to sit. Once that dog can make it into the arms of an owner that it feels safe with and loved by, that's when you see the dog transform and change, and that's when you can teach it a lot because it's open and receptive to it. So that's number one in my advice is speed date if you've got the opportunity to and try out a few therapists and just go based on intuition, what just feels right to you, and you're going to want to fall into that feeling of comfort. Now, a quick asterisk on that. Of course if you're in real distress, if you're in a bad place, just see whatever professional you can as soon as possible. That's what I did. I was fortunate to where the first one that I saw was also fantastic. I ended up seeing many other specialists over the years, but that first one, she was wonderful. So it's essential that you feel comfortable with them. I would also say, this one's a little controversial, but you're going to want a therapist that is at least as intelligent, if not more intelligent than you because I think part of that openness to learning from them and to feeling somewhat comfortable but also feeling inspired and looking forward to it as if sometimes they say things that make you say, "Oh, shit. Wow. Wow, I never thought of that. That was smart," or, "That was a wonderful insight." I don't think if you respect their intellectual abilities, then it's going to be difficult for them to help you. They may not be able to communicate on the same wavelength. So you really want to look for that intuitive feeling of something that is safe and comfortable. Ideally, if you can find somebody with some intellectual horsepower that matches your own, honestly, I think the rest after that is just implementation details. If someone maybe isn't ready for a therapist and that's something about that just holds them back, is there another route that you would recommend people take or is it just go straight to a therapist?…

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