Help me find a therapist
From everyday questions to more complex problems, we’re asking the experts to lend us a hand. Throughout the series "Professional Help," we’ll hear some direct advice, for us not-so-direct Minnesotans.
MPR News
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Audio transcript
NINA MOINI: All right, it's time for another edition of our series, Professional Help, where we, the experts, ask for advice on problems big and small-- or we ask the experts, rather. The term "professional help" itself can be used as a joke to tell someone they need to go to therapy. So you could say our senior producer, Aleesa Kuznetsov, got some professional help about getting professional help.
[JAZZY MUSIC]
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Asking for help can be hard, and making a commitment to continuously ask for help can be even harder. I'm talking about therapy.
ADAM STEINBACH: I think everybody can benefit from therapy. Everybody needs support. Everybody needs relationships that are helpful to them. And they need people around them to know what they're going through. Therapy is a really great way to get that.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Adam Steinbach is a therapist and the co-founder of As You Are Therapy. He and his business partner, Sarah Lindsey, started an accessible event to help anyone find a therapist called Therapy on Tap.
ADAM STEINBACH: Finding a therapist is so tough for people because it's such an intimate, personal connection, and all you're doing is reading a bio or looking at a picture online or whoever your insurance says you can go see, essentially.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So about once a month, Therapy on Tap sets up at a brewery in the Twin Cities with around 15 therapists.
ADAM STEINBACH: People have their own table set up with things that represent them. They've got business cards, flyers, things like that. We have a QR code. They can just bring up this list of questions and go around and ask these therapists these questions. Some people come in knowing exactly who they want to talk to because we've posted everybody online.
Or some people just come with general curiosity, I guess. Yeah, tell me about yourself. Tell me about how you practice. And you're not having a super in-depth conversation but you're, at least, getting some sort of vibe from them of like, OK, do I feel like you get me? Do I feel like you can hear me? Are you invested?
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: What do you say to people who are hesitant to start? Or what are some of the reasons that people may avoid therapy, and how do you help them get over that hump, just go in? And whether it be going to Therapy on Tap or just doing some research into some therapists around your area, what do you tell people to get them started?
ADAM STEINBACH: It's just like starting any other relationship. You just kind of have to put yourself in it, which is one of the things I didn't really necessarily think about with Therapy on Tap, but this idea of people can come in and dip their toe in it.
I've talked to a number of people at Therapy on Tap who have either had a bad therapy experience or they're just unsure of therapy, in general, kind of skeptical, and they're like, hey, I don't know what I think about this. It does just become a conversation between two people. And I think that's really resonated with some of the folks who have come in with some hesitancy.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And when it comes to finding the right fit, Steinbach says you may not click with someone right away, but that's OK.
ADAM STEINBACH: Just like meeting any random person or trying to make friends, there's just going to be people who you fit with and people who you don't fit with. It's really difficult and something that is part of the reason why we're doing this, to lower that, the amount of time you're having to spend telling your story. It's scary, and it's vulnerable, to tell your story to somebody who you've never met and then go home and be like, I don't really feel like I was heard, or I didn't really feel like that person understood me.
Because you find a therapist, whoever it might be. You get in. You meet with them. I think you need to give it at least two or three sessions to really know for sure if it's a bad fit, just because, in those first couple of sessions, it's a lot of getting to know the person, a lot of background questions, a lot of, maybe, logistical pieces. And so the therapy can shift a little bit, I think, from session 1 to session 4. We're all so different that you can find the right fit, eventually.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And once you do find the right fit, you can work with your therapist to decide a cadence that's right for you.
ADAM STEINBACH: I have somebody right now who we see each other every six months, and we have a great hour conversation and shake hands and say, all right, I'll see you in six months. But it's kind of a physical or like going to the dentist, just that check-in of someone who's going to ask you not hard questions but questions maybe you're not considering every day. And to have that checkup, I think, is really needed and can be really useful.
[JAZZY MUSIC]
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Aleesa Kuznetsov, NPR News.
NINA MOINI: And the next Therapy on Tap is this Sunday at 1:00 PM at Utepils Brewing in Minneapolis.
[JAZZY MUSIC]
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Asking for help can be hard, and making a commitment to continuously ask for help can be even harder. I'm talking about therapy.
ADAM STEINBACH: I think everybody can benefit from therapy. Everybody needs support. Everybody needs relationships that are helpful to them. And they need people around them to know what they're going through. Therapy is a really great way to get that.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Adam Steinbach is a therapist and the co-founder of As You Are Therapy. He and his business partner, Sarah Lindsey, started an accessible event to help anyone find a therapist called Therapy on Tap.
ADAM STEINBACH: Finding a therapist is so tough for people because it's such an intimate, personal connection, and all you're doing is reading a bio or looking at a picture online or whoever your insurance says you can go see, essentially.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: So about once a month, Therapy on Tap sets up at a brewery in the Twin Cities with around 15 therapists.
ADAM STEINBACH: People have their own table set up with things that represent them. They've got business cards, flyers, things like that. We have a QR code. They can just bring up this list of questions and go around and ask these therapists these questions. Some people come in knowing exactly who they want to talk to because we've posted everybody online.
Or some people just come with general curiosity, I guess. Yeah, tell me about yourself. Tell me about how you practice. And you're not having a super in-depth conversation but you're, at least, getting some sort of vibe from them of like, OK, do I feel like you get me? Do I feel like you can hear me? Are you invested?
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: What do you say to people who are hesitant to start? Or what are some of the reasons that people may avoid therapy, and how do you help them get over that hump, just go in? And whether it be going to Therapy on Tap or just doing some research into some therapists around your area, what do you tell people to get them started?
ADAM STEINBACH: It's just like starting any other relationship. You just kind of have to put yourself in it, which is one of the things I didn't really necessarily think about with Therapy on Tap, but this idea of people can come in and dip their toe in it.
I've talked to a number of people at Therapy on Tap who have either had a bad therapy experience or they're just unsure of therapy, in general, kind of skeptical, and they're like, hey, I don't know what I think about this. It does just become a conversation between two people. And I think that's really resonated with some of the folks who have come in with some hesitancy.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And when it comes to finding the right fit, Steinbach says you may not click with someone right away, but that's OK.
ADAM STEINBACH: Just like meeting any random person or trying to make friends, there's just going to be people who you fit with and people who you don't fit with. It's really difficult and something that is part of the reason why we're doing this, to lower that, the amount of time you're having to spend telling your story. It's scary, and it's vulnerable, to tell your story to somebody who you've never met and then go home and be like, I don't really feel like I was heard, or I didn't really feel like that person understood me.
Because you find a therapist, whoever it might be. You get in. You meet with them. I think you need to give it at least two or three sessions to really know for sure if it's a bad fit, just because, in those first couple of sessions, it's a lot of getting to know the person, a lot of background questions, a lot of, maybe, logistical pieces. And so the therapy can shift a little bit, I think, from session 1 to session 4. We're all so different that you can find the right fit, eventually.
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: And once you do find the right fit, you can work with your therapist to decide a cadence that's right for you.
ADAM STEINBACH: I have somebody right now who we see each other every six months, and we have a great hour conversation and shake hands and say, all right, I'll see you in six months. But it's kind of a physical or like going to the dentist, just that check-in of someone who's going to ask you not hard questions but questions maybe you're not considering every day. And to have that checkup, I think, is really needed and can be really useful.
[JAZZY MUSIC]
ALEESA KUZNETSOV: Aleesa Kuznetsov, NPR News.
NINA MOINI: And the next Therapy on Tap is this Sunday at 1:00 PM at Utepils Brewing in Minneapolis.
Download transcript (PDF)
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.