Need consistent and regular therapy but #challenges

July 31, 2017 8:44 AM

How do I get help?

I've been seeing a therapist (diagnosed with depression, anxiety, "a little bit of ptsd") on and off and I've come to realize I really need consistent and regular therapy (like once a week and maybe even twice a week for the next 2 months), especially as I'm going through some extremely stress life events and I'm not coping well. My coping mechanism are not exactly healthy. How do I get help if my therapist is always swamped and I can't seem to book appointments? I get therapy through my insurance and it's an HMO. Am I just doomed? I've already sent an email to the therapist but want to get some immediately advice/feedback because I'm spiraling out of control.

posted by driedmango to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

Definitely ask your therapist if you can get a referral or up your appointments. I'd call the office and ask for a call back, rather than email, since most of the medical professionals I've known don't get to their email until the work day is over, but check phone messages often.
posted by xingcat at 8:53 AM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

A regular outpatient therapist should be seeing you at least once a week - that's a pretty normal thing to ask for from them. You're not doomed, but if your therapist is too swamped to book a consistent and regular amount of appointments with you, and isn't good at communication, it might be time to shop around for someone else covered by your insurance who can make a solid commitment to see you once a week minimum, every week.
posted by colorblock sock at 11:01 AM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: At our local HMO the usual treatment plan is monthly meetings with a therapist. (I know - that's not really therapy...) but they do have the option of referring some patients to outside therapists who can see people weekly. So, I suggest that you talk to your therapist, explain your needs and ask how you can get better help from the system. Be sure to be very clear about your level of distress and your symptoms. Don't exaggerate but don't minimize since distress and symptoms are what they use to evaluate your needs.

If you can't talk to your therapist outside of an appointment and it takes weeks to get an appointment then ask if there is someone who can help you. (At our local HMO, I think they have specific staff assigned to triage cases and act as the gatekeeper for outside referral, it is not the individual therapists.)

And agree, use the phone not email if email isn't working. At least for the initial calls be super friendly and appreciative to whoever answers the call (act as if they are doing their very best for you, even if they aren't) and try to get their sympathy so they are a little more motivated to help. Receptionists get yelled at a lot, especially at HMOs where patients tend to get very frustrated by the system.
posted by metahawk at 1:08 PM on July 31, 2017

Also, I'm not sure if you're doing this but if you can just book the whole 2-month schedule at once, that will help as well. My therapist only sees patients 2 days a week and if I waited until the end of one appt to book the next one, it was usually a month or more before I could get back to see her. It got a lot easier once I booked 3 appts at once and then just kept adding on to the end of those.
posted by dawkins_7 at 7:23 AM on August 1, 2017