From the author: As the famous American psychologist Carl Rogers wrote, a good psychologist cannot be trained, he must be found. And you should not spare time and effort on this search... First of all, when choosing a psychologist, I would be guided by the internal feeling of “mine or not.” After all, the essence of working with a psychologist presupposes sufficient trust, otherwise how can you open up to a person for whom you do not feel sympathy? To do this, it is not enough to read what he writes on the Internet. Do you need at least one consultation to understand whether you are ready to work with him, will he help you clarify your request? And at this meeting you can form your impression of the psychologist, paying attention to the following aspects: Life experience - manifests itself in as a psychologist is able to notice, reflect and show you hidden connections between events, significant people and phenomena in your life. Your criterion - it becomes clear to you what you did not understand before, without his help. Emotional response - the psychologist’s ability to empathize with you, to be emotionally involved. This is also the ability to provide support, to “be there” when you share difficult experiences. This is also the ability to “be present”, to be “here-and-now” - with body and thoughts. Your criterion is that you feel that the psychologist is nearby and sincerely extends a helping hand to you. General erudition is a large store of knowledge, not only from the field of practical psychology, but also in many other areas of life. Such a specialist can not only apply narrowly focused methods of his approach, but will also help you navigate many issues, including redirecting you to another specialist if he considers himself not competent enough in your case. Your criterion - you receive answers to most questions, you clearly see the prospects for further work with him. Of course, there are objective criteria that are also worth looking at when choosing a psychologist: this is education and additional education; the approach in which he works; whether he has personal therapy (psychologists don’t always write about this) and supervision, etc..