Hello!
I am beginning to research therapists in the areas I'll end up interviewing for a job. Something that is important to me is that the therapist is queer affirming. I'd like to be able to talk about some of my experiences as a queer person even if it isn't the focus of my sessions as well as explore what relationships mean to me given my asexuality and potential aromanticism.
I'm excited to start what will hopefully be a (long over due) healing experience. However, I've had some poor interactions with mental health care professionals in the past. Most recently was a person who said that they were LGBT friendly but only had "male" and "female" options on the intake form and didn't ask about pronouns. The only sort of affirming thing she did was tell me that "If I ever have a boyfriend or girlfriend, they would want you to be more in touch with your feelings."
Does anyone know of any "green" or "red" flags that might signal whether or not someone is truly accepting? I wish I could say that I'd be able to move on and try again right after a not affirming experience, but I really have very low trust in the mental health care field. I worry that a few more negative experiences might make me not want to try at all and prolong my mental health struggles.
As a side question, is Thriveworks legit? I've been researching affordable options for me, and their pricing seems too good to be true. Sorry, y'all, I'm super new at this.