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A therapist who agrees with everything you say may be validating you without helping you grow.

Good therapy goes beyond venting, offering insight into your patterns, relationships, and behaviors.

The right therapist welcomes feedback, respects boundaries, and helps you find your own answers.

Finding the right therapist can feel a lot like dating. You browse through profiles, ask around, and then schedule an initial meeting, hoping there’s chemistry. Sometimes you click immediately, but other times, you have to wait for your therapist to grow on you.

Just like any other relationship, the therapeutic relationship is about finding the right match. Not every therapist is going to be a good fit for you. Just because someone has a degree, a cute office, and a comfy couch doesn’t necessarily mean they have the capacity to support your needs.

Therapy is an investment of your time, money, and emotional energy. You deserve to feel that the person sitting across from you is genuinely invested in understanding you and helping you grow.

Of course, good therapy isn’t always comfortable. In fact, the most meaningful sessions are often the ones that leave you a little confused and a little raw. Questioning your assumptions, confronting your beliefs, and recognizing patterns are non-negotiable aspects of successful therapy.

But there’s a difference between being challenged in therapy and feeling that your therapist isn’t meeting your needs.

Here are seven signs your therapist might not be the right fit.

1. They agree with everything you say.

If your therapist thinks you’re always right, all your exes are narcissists, and everyone in your family is toxic, you may have hired a very expensive cheerleader.

A good therapist will validate your feelings, but they’ll also, in the nicest possible way, confront you and challenge your assumptions.

Ask yourself if your therapist invites you to consider another perspective and helps you confront how your own fears, expectations, and behaviors contribute to your experiences rather than just validating you.

2. They keep missing the plot.

You’ve spent three sessions talking about how your sister........

© Psychology Today