Interview Your Counselor & Therapist: Questions to Ask

Choose the right therapist by asking your provider the right questions — Here few tips to interview your counselor before jumping into therapist.

You, as the customer, should be well informed before making any purchase of a good or service. When choosing the right counselor or therapist to work with on some of your most sensitive issues, it’s essential to understand if the provider has experience in helping people work through issues similar to the ones that you are experiencing. Your selection and research process for finding the therapist (or a few therapists) that you are interested in working with should not just end at the provider's online profile.

While providers should expand on their professional and educational history, qualifications, and specialties in their profile, this may not be sufficient enough information for you to make the final decision on who you should work with.

You should always feel empowered to interview your therapist and/or counselor before launching into a course of therapy.

Questions to ask your therapist

1. What can you expect in a course of therapy? While a provider will not be able to predict the exact length of your course of therapy, this is a great open-ended conversation starter where the provider can elaborate on their style of therapy, cadence of sessions and more.
2. What is their specialty?
3. Have they worked with people to help them work through similar issues?
4. What is this person’s educational history? In both the medical and non-medical health space, provider’s complete training that extends beyond their University degree, including professional certifications, workshops, residencies and workshops. Each provider lists their education on their online profile, but there may be more to them than meets the eye.

Always send a message to or call your provider before scheduling a session

Even if you have purchased a single or multiple-session package with a provider, you should send the therapist a direct message through the RingMD app before your session. This is the space for you to ask follow-on questions that can help you decide on whether you want to work with the health professional for online therapy or in-person sessions.

Most therapists offer free and obligation-free sessions. Take advantage of this time to interview your therapist.

Whether the provider will offer their time to you for free for you to gather more information over the phone or not, there are some key questions that you should understand before you start online therapy or in-person sessions. If the therapist does no offer free introductory sessions, feel free to send these types of questions to your provider over messenger, email or through a paid introductory session.

Once you have chosen your therapist, make the most of your first session and send the provider essential information about your situation prior to the session.

As Dr. Christopher D. Phillips outlined in his article about how to maximize your first online experience with a physician or wellness professional, make sure to prepare a brief personal and medical history to share during (or before) your first session. Relevant information can include the onset, duration, location and nature of your issue, and any treatments that you have tried so far, and if the treatments were successful.

You may also read all of the tips in this article and additional ideas on how to make make the most of your therapy session in this article.

If you feel ready to take the next step in your wellness journey and speak to a health expert or medical doctor, you can browse RingMD’s directory of health professionals (click the button below).