My insurance only pays for four counselors who are women. They are all in the same building, so I just said, "Give me whoever is available." If she doesn't work out then I will just ask them to switch me to someone more understanding of my needs.

Being a counselor myself, I can tell you that most of my peers have never read nor heard of "Stepmonster". The only reason I have is because I've had so many stepmom issues myself and because I come here!

I have never been "interviewed" by a prospective client. Frankly, and I dont mean this to sound bad, but I dont have the time to be interviewed by prospective cts because I am busy seeing my actual clients. Of course, I work for local community health. We have maybe 2 other independent counselors in the two counties I serve. So we dont have alot of competition!! When you schedule an appt here-you get whoever is doing intakes that day. Today is my day and I am between cts. We do make an effort to match needs after initial intake. For example my speciality is substance abuse and trauma, almost all adults at this point. We've got several people that want to only see kids. So we try to match those needs up. Perhaps in a larger city things are different-but here, in a rural area, there's not much therapist shopping going on.

Very honestly, I was kind disappointed in "Stepmonster". Not saying it's a bad book. I was just really excited about reading it after hearing all of the praise here, & when I read it myself it just didn't strike me as being anything spectacular. It didn't make me feel more justified in what I feel. I didn't find anything in it that really resonated more than what I've heard or read anywhere else.

It certainly wouldn't carry weight for me in trying to find a suitable or qualified counselor. What literature someone has read doesn't hold a candle next to experience & success.

IMO, finding a counselor is like finding a dentist. Try someone who comes recommended. If you don't feel comfortable with them, try someone else.

I wish my DH had the luxury of interview therapists. I keep seeing this topic in books about parental alienation and how to find a good therapist/counselor, but BM moved the kids (without permission) to a small town in the middle of nowhere and we’re stuck with the morons in her area.

The therapist the kids are seeing now has made the alienation far worse. She (and the kids’ GAL) do not believe in parental alienation and have told the judge that it’s perfectly acceptable for the kids to to reject their dad and refuse to speak to him.

So a therapist or counselor can do more harm than good some times. I recommend choosing wisely, but if you’re in a small town, you’re stuck.

Rather than just asking if the councelor has read Stepmonster, I would want to know about their frame of mind about certain topic. In my case, I'd want to ask if the therapist believes that it's absolutely essential for kids to have their biological father in their life.