need tips on finding a good child psychologist

[mamabohl]

I need to get my 8 year old son evaluated and feel completely lost just finding a child psychologist. To be honest i don't even know if that's the kind of health care provider I should be looking for. How do you go about searching for a good, gentle-discipline-friendly mental health professional for your child? I've tried asking around and googling...but there are so few reviews online, and the two parents who have recommended anyone are both very authoritarian parents.....help!

[christinelin]

First of all, what do you think he has going on? What is the purpose of the evaluation?

We found the psychologist who evaluated our son for Asperger's Syndrome (which he does have) by signing up for a local yahoo group for parents with special needs kids and posting there. The same names were mentioned over and over again and I spoke with a couple on the phone and picked one who sounded like a good fit.

Our psychologist was/is not particularly natural parenting friendly (definitely does not support long-term nursing), but she is expert at diagnosing autism spectrum disorders, which is what I wanted her to do. If your concerns are more likely to enter the realm of parenting style, it may be more important to find someone who is gentle discipline friendly, but in my experience that wasn't a factor in our evaluation process.

[joyluc]

I asked the head of the local School of Psychology who I know through work, the first place he sent us to was not very good but then he recommended DS's current therapist and he is really good. I would also ask the guidance counselor at DS's school if we needed to find someone again, she has seen a lot with the kids in his school and has good insight into the various therapists and docs.

Good luck it is hard to find someone you like. We have fired two sets of docs/therapists now.

[DaughterOfKali]

It depends on what you are having the child evaluated for. If it's just for mental health, then you can go with a psychologist.

If it's to see if your child is on the autism spectrum, adhd, anxiety, SPD, then I would go with a NeuroPsych.

I would see if your town has a Parent's Advisory Council (do a google search.) Or see if there's a local branch of the Autism Alliance or the ASA. You can contact them for advice.

[SoCaliMommy]

What about getting a referal from your child's pediatrician?

Avoid one that wants to wait to find out if what the school is doing it helping.
They will just be a waste of your time and $ . With our old insurance my drs daughter referred us to a guy like that and sadly he was praised as being really good.
We just changed insurance to Kaiser and her dr there made the referral right then and gave me the paperwork to fill out and mail back and will get a call for a appointment to the big hospital close to us since they have a specific program that does all the evaluations and he was shocked the physiologist just kept wanting to wait on the school.

[mamabohl]

thank you all so much! A lot of stuff i had no idea to even think about, lol.

SoCaliMommy - I asked the ped about refering but we're military and aparently they don't do referals, I just have to find a psychologist (or whatever) that accepts TRICARE and the first 8 apointments are covered, then if we need more we have to get a referal.

DaughterOfKali-I hadn't even heard of a NeuroPsych but that does sound like what I'm looking for then. I will also look for a Parents Advisory Council, etc. thank you for the suggestions.

Joyluc - thanks, I will see about asking the guidance counselor at the school ds will be starting at this fall (he's been home schooled up to this point).

christinelin - we have a lot going on, emotional immaturity, an unhealthy amount of anger and unhappiness, sleep problems, aggression, verbal stims/ticks, poor fine motor skills, etc. etc. We might be looking at some sort of autism spectrum or adhd dignosis or maybe just help, I don't know. From what I've read i don't really think anything on the autism spectrum "fits" but we definitely have gotten to the point where i can't just write things off as him being young and energetic anymore and we need help. Signing up for a yahoo group for parents of special needs kids is a great idea, thank you! I don't care if they support long term nursing or things like that, because at 8 he's beyond a lot of "AP" stuff, but I don't want someone who will tell us to just keep putting him back in his bed, for instance, when he can't fall asleep without me in the room.

thanks again everyone, I feel like i at least have some options now!

[girlzmommy00]

We recently had to do this. My youngest dd has ptsd following an accident. I called our ins, gave them a run down of what I'm ISO treatment wise and got a list of names who participate & see children of that age. I made some calls & talked with them about what they do, what they specialize in, etc.

I also just went with my gut. One dr just seemed really negative & weird. After a couple calls, I found someone who is a perfect fit.

I also did Google searches of the names that the ins gave. It was helpful since some did have websites or I was able to find them on other sites with more information. Just gave me a better idea of what they specialize in or treat mostly. For example, my DD is 7 & one of the drs had a website all about how her practice is for helping teens going off to college with issues along those lines. I passed on her since while I don't doubt that she's good at what she does, my DD is dealing with really different issues & much younger. But I found another who went on about her sand play therapy set up and other techniques she uses for younger children dealing with trama. I called her & she's who we're seeing now.

My closest friend in the area is a therapist. I've known her for 20 years but she's new to the area with her practice (so she wasn't quite sure who to suggest for us) but did recommend the Psychology Today website reviews.