What a first appointment is actually like

Nobody makes you say anything in the first meeting, and nobody takes you back through your childhood on day one. Somebody asks what has been happening, for how long, and what it is costing you now. It takes about an hour and most of it is you talking.

Ask your doctor for a referral, or look for someone who names family relationships and adult children of harmful parents in what they do. A good practitioner will tell you if they are not the right person for this.

If your faith matters to how you want it handled, say so in the first meeting. The arrangement that works is a clinician working alongside somebody religiously knowledgeable rather than around them, so that what your religion genuinely asks of you is never mistaken for a symptom, and so that a symptom is never mistaken for a religious failing.