Damon G. LaBarbera, PhD

Specializing

Nov 30, 2023
Mental health practitioners sometimes specialize. They wil declare they are experts on autism, or eating disorders, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. I don't really think that is a great idea, though.

For my own medical care, I'd rather see a generalist rather than a specialist unless I really a specific procedure. I don't want to go to someone overly specialized since they are more likely to diagnose you with what they particularly happen to know about. The saying, "If all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail," applies. Similarly, if a client feels anxious and goes to someone who specializes, so their ad says, in anxiety, they will have their beliefs confirmed. Who knows what a more holistically oriented practitioner would find--anxiety, after all, is often secondary to other disorders, sometimes tertiarily. Really, you want to find someone who is able to absorb a broader array of symptoms to make a diagnosis, and oftentimes that will be a generalist.