You may visit a therapist and they are all about getting you to talk, when you just want some ideas of how to cope.

Perhaps you want to talk about how hard your childhood was, and they want you to work on where you are now.

Or the opposite, you want to talk about your relationship issues, but they want you to start by describing what your parents were like.

This happens to many of us, and it’s why there are so many types of therapy.

I’m an art therapist and I sometimes have people come in, have a go, and decide it’s not for them.

Fortunately, most of us can give you different options (for example, I offer counselling as well as art therapy), and the general aim is to give the client choice about how their therapy goes.

Sometimes a therapist still isn’t right for you though, even after they have been flexible about how the session goes.

This doesn’t mean you should give up; it may take you two or three goes to find someone that suits you, or that provides the kind of therapy that you’re looking for.

When this happens, you have the power to decide who you see.

It’s helpful if you are able to talk to the therapist and let them know; if it was me, I would give you some suggestions of who else is available that might be a better match.

Just remember, a therapist who isn’t a good fit for you is quite different to when you aren’t ready to deal with the strong feelings that therapy might bring up (this topic was covered in an article a few months ago).