Is this odd for a psychologist to do?

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I don't know how to assess this, but I do know that psychologists and psychiatrists are some of the most bizarre people I've ever met in private life. I have one friend who is an MD/psychiatrist, and he is most likely also an Aspie, and he is very successful in his practice. With that said, he has lost his social worker and secretary, because he collects antique TV sets, and has filled up every square inch of space in his office suite with old TV sets! (His house is the same way). That's odd, and he's still a very well-respected doctor.

Another MD/psychiatrist; the one I see as mine, is also VERY un-orthodox in her practice. She does not take insurance, and receives check or credit card payments, and sees patients at either of two places she lives in Southern Cal. She has an office in her main house, and also she has a summertime apartment at the beach, where she has a desk and seating in the livingroom for office visits.

She also routinely sees patients into the late evening, and may call as late as 10PM to make appt. changes, etc. But my wife has been seeing her for 11 years, and I have been for 6. So that might make the nighttime calls a little more appropriate based on how well we know her.

My suggestion is to use your best judgement, and if your instinct is that this therapist is doing something weird, don't go. If you get there and have a good meeting, then maybe the weirdness doesn't matter so much, and it could be a good situation too. If you pay cash, get a cash receipt, and if they refuse, that means they're possibly tax-dodging or might not have a valid license to practice, or other reasons why they would want no evidence that they're accepting any professional payments.

Charles

@littlelily613: A little common sense here will go a long way to keep you from getting burned. If your counselor recommended to steer clear of this place, there could be a very good reason for it. I'd do a search on Google or other search engine to see if there are any positive reviews. Even good reviews can be fishy though....but those are fairly easy to catch if there are many of them (sound like they could be written by the same person, too fake, too many excellent reviews, etc). If there are only negative comments or no reviews, I'd start looking elsewhere.


Tomboy