Welcome to the Santa Cruz County Therapist Google Group/List-serve. Please keep the following information in mind when posting to find referrals:

Writing a Good Referral Request

In our referral requests, we want to preserve the confidentiality of clients. So for referrals, always describe the qualities of the *therapist*, not the client, couple or poly, or family. Similarly, if you're seeking a group or a class, describe the qualities of the group or class, not the client who's looking for one. And so on.

Turn It Around

To do this, think about what you know about the client (or relationship unit), and then turn it around. Ask yourself: What kind of therapist will be a great fit for this person? Maybe they need a therapist with a particular skill set, such as experience with DBT. Perhaps they need (or want) a particular modality such as play therapy or art therapy. Then, consider how to describe this therapist.

Omit Unneeded Info

You can omit details that aren't relevant. For example, you can request a therapist who accepts a certain type of insurance; however, there’s no need to say which family member carries insurance coverage. When you give a location, specify the general location of the therapist, instead of saying where the client lives or works. You can request experience in a specific area, such as couples work, trauma, or mood disorders, but do not disclose client diagnoses. Similarly, instead of disclosing specific minority status or ages of clients, ask for a therapist who has experience with a population or age range.

Keep Your Own Client Relationships Confidential

You don't need to say that you already work with a family member or with the couple. In fact, as the APA Division 42 Guidelines note, "When seeking a referral for someone related to your client it is unnecessary and irrelevant to identify that you are seeking a referral for the daughter, son, parent, partner, etc. of your patient. By doing this, you are identifying your confidential relationship to the clinician who eventually meets with the related family member. You can easily find a good referral for this individual without any need to tell anyone that their mother/father, family member, or spouse is in treatment with you. Be mindful of what you reveal when you seek a referral."

Be Parsimonious with Details

The more specific you are, even when describing the therapist, the easier it is to infer details about the client. So if the client has a lot of unique identifying factors, you may need to choose the most important ones to turn into specific therapist characteristics, and then be more general about others.

Examples

Here’s a hypothetical client:

35 yo lesbian woman, married, whom I’m seeing in couples’ therapy with her spouse
Alcoholic, multiple failed attempts at abstinence
Prefers a female therapist
Lives in Los Gatos and wants a therapist near home
Has Aetna and needs to use her insurance

So when I think about characteristics, I know the therapist needs to be female, able to work with a lesbian client, and able to work from a harm reduction model (since abstinence hasn’t worked for this client). I can also specify the area and insurance. Pretty much any therapist who would accept an adult client is going to be fine with a 35-yo woman, so I’m going to omit gender and age to make the client less identifiable. I’m also not going to say how I met this person or that they’ve been my client. Those details can remain confidential, especially when they don’t make any difference to the referral.

So this is probably what I’d write:

Seeking a referral as follows:

female therapist
in or near Los Gatos
experienced in substance abuse and harm reduction
experienced with LGBTQ+ clients
Aetna insurance in-network only.

Here are some other examples of excellent requests (real examples from this list and others!):

Subject: ISO Child Therapist
Looking for a child therapist who is able to handle divorce conflict and understands blended family stages and systems. Private pay.

Subject: ISO family therapist for aftermath of parental abandonment

I am seeking a family therapist to help in the aftermath of parental abandonment. Are you a therapist who works with families with older teens/young adults, who can work with a family after one of the parents has left all of them? Are you OK with having only one parent consent to care for minor child(ren)? Sliding scale would be a huge help!

I would really appreciate your full practice information so I can easily forward it to the family in urgent need for care.

Subject: ISO Intuitive Eating specialist
Looking for an eating disorder specialist: intuitive eating provider or dietician who understands trauma, food, and eating disorders. Superbill OK.

Subject: ISO Therapist in person Palo Alto, Mt View

Looking for trauma informed therapist/EMDR/Somatic etc. who can see a client in person. Needs to have an accessible office space (no stairs, or an elevator). Client cannot be seen by telehealth. Private pay OK.

Do a Little Research, or a Little Networking

You don't have to forward every referral you receive. You have the option to go through them and research the people to see if you feel they are a good fit, before forwarding them.

In addition, if you do need to discuss more specific details to ensure a good referral, provide the basic information and ask prospective therapists to contact you off-list to discuss the details in a one-on-one, confidential forum (such as a phone call). Although this will take more of your time, it not only ensures confidentiality on our very large list but also allows you to develop relationships within our group. These can help with future referrals and consultation.

Santa Cruz County Therapists

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