Finding a Good Marriage Counselor

[Captain_America]

Do you have any suggestions for finding a good marriage counselor?

A family member has tried the local diocese; it recommended a psychologist who was pretty dodgy on the faith. I wonder if the diocese ever vetted this person.

Any tips welcome. It would be great to find an EFFECTIVE counselor who understood the Catholic view of marriage.

How does one go about finding a counselor?

 

[pianistclare]

You’d be better off calling a Parish or Cathedral near the city center…or a major hospital, They would know of someone in the parish that is good. Most of our referrals go to parishioners we know to be orthodox.
Even your pwn parish office may have some leads. Plus, pastors tend to have these sorts of people in their rolodex or contacts list.

 

[oldgraymare2]

They/you can try your local Catholic Charities office through your Archdiocese, if that hasn’t been tried yet.

 

[UpUpAndAway]

We found ours through an experienced permanent deacon who is himself married. It was most certainly not the first time a couple had come to him for this sort of help.

 

[Norseman82]

First of all, since you are concerned about the Church bureaucracy’s ability to vet, you need to start your own vetting process of who you can trust in the Church. If you know a good traditional Mass priest in communion with Rome, or an Opus Dei priest, or a priest from Poland (as I live in Chicago, these would be my three top local choices that I would trust for orthodoxy; your locality may be different), they may be able to recommend choices and/or help vet.

You may also want to have the person seeking counseling to go to a few different counselors (as they can afford). It can serve as a “second opinion”. besides, I have a personal opinion that if one seeks advice from a variety of sources and there are “common threads” to the advice, then there probably is something to that “common thread” to look into.