Guides

Which profession, what to ask, and what the first appointment is actually like.

• Mental health

  CBT, DBT, EMDR and the rest: what the approach names mean

  A plain description of the therapy approaches you will see advertised, what each was developed for, and how much the label should weigh in your decision.

• Mental health

  Couples and family therapy: what is different about it

  A marriage and family therapist is trained to treat the relationship rather than the individual. That changes who is in the room, what the goal is, and who the client is.

• Physical & OT

  Occupational therapy for adults and for children

  The same profession does very different work depending on who it is with. What OT looks like after a stroke, and what it looks like for a six-year-old who cannot hold a pencil.

• Physical & OT

  Physical therapy or occupational therapy: which one do you need?

  The clearest way to tell them apart: a physical therapist targets the movement, an occupational therapist targets the task. Here is what that means in practice.

• Mental health

  What a psychological evaluation actually involves

  Formal testing is a distinct service from therapy, usually done by a psychologist, and it is what produces documentation for a school, employer or court.

• Physical & OT

  What happens at a first physical therapy appointment

  An evaluation, not a treatment session. What they will do, what to bring, what to wear, and the questions that make the rest of the course go better.

• Mental health

  What happens in a first therapy session

  Mostly intake: history, paperwork and what you want to change. It usually does not feel like therapy, and that is not a warning sign.

• Mental health

  What to ask on a first call with a therapist

  Most first contacts are a ten-minute phone or email exchange. Here are the questions that actually change the outcome, and the order to ask them in.

• Mental health

  Where to start when you do not know what kind of help you need

  Therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or something else entirely. A decision guide for the point before you know what you are searching for.

What the letters mean, who can prescribe, and how to check a licence is real.

• Physical & OT

  DPT, PT, OCS, CHT: reading a physical therapist's credentials

  Which letters are the licence, which are a doctorate, which are board certification, and which are a weekend course.

• Both

  How to check that a therapist's licence is real and current

  Every state publishes a free licence lookup. It takes about two minutes and it is the one check no directory — including this one — can do for you.

• Mental health

  LCSW, LPC, LMFT, PsyD: what the licence letters actually mean

  The alphabet after a therapist's name tells you what training they had and, in one case, whether they can prescribe. Here is what each set of letters means and where the differences are real.

• Physical & OT

  Physical therapy specialties, explained

  Orthopaedic, neurologic, sports, geriatric, pelvic health and more. What each specialty covers and when the distinction is worth chasing.

• Mental health

  What a Board Certified Behavior Analyst does

  BCBAs design and supervise applied behaviour analysis programmes, most often for autistic children. It is a different service from talk therapy and it is worth knowing how the model works before you commit.

• Mental health

  Who can prescribe psychiatric medication?

  Therapists generally cannot. Psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners can, your primary care doctor usually can, and in a handful of states psychologists can too.

Cost, insurance, telehealth across state lines, and areas with very few providers.

• Physical & OT

  Do you need a referral for physical therapy?

  Every US state allows some form of direct access to a physical therapist. Whether your insurance will pay without a referral is a separate question, and it is the one that catches people out.

• Both

  Insurance, networks and why the list your insurer gave you does not work

  Parity law says mental health should be covered like any other care. Network directories are a known weak point. Here is how to work with both.

• Mental health

  Lower-cost routes to therapy: sliding scale, community clinics and training clinics

  Full private-practice rates are the most visible price, not the only one. Five routes that cost less, and how to find each.

• Both

  Telehealth therapy and state lines: the rule that catches people out

  Your therapist generally needs a licence in the state where you are sitting during the session — not where they are. That has consequences when you move, travel, or study out of state.

• Mental health

  What to do when your area has very few therapists

  Roughly a third of Americans live in a designated mental health professional shortage area. If the density figure for your town is low, here is what changes about how you search.

How the federal registry works, what it does not contain, and how we count.

• Both

  How to read an NPI record

  Every provider page here is built from one federal record. Here is what each field means, what it is good for, and the three fields people consistently misread.

• Both

  How we count providers, and what the density figure means

  Every place page leads with providers per 10,000 residents. Here is exactly how that number is built, and the four things that can make it misleading.

• Both

  Why no directory can tell you who is accepting clients

  Availability, fees and insurance networks are not in any public dataset — not ours and not anyone else's. Understanding why saves you a lot of wasted searching.