My "ideal client" is one who perceives me as his/her ideal therapist. If I am best fit for this client, then I am most useful to this client, and I serve my purpose and this is my ideal client. Together he or she and I would find solutions to the problems. Mental health is not an exact science. Psychotherapy or counseling is an art and science. I believe an effective clinician uses experiential and experimental data. The symptoms, or issues, build up diagnoses whereby we generate treatment options. A clinician tries whatever treatment options within ethical bounds to reach the client/s wellness goals.
I believe my multiple specialties speak to my professionalism which places me in an optimal helping position: approved supervisor of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; served on the credentialing board of Nebraska Mental Health Practice Board; trained mediator; legislative chair of Nebraska AMFT, and thrice elected as president.
At the intake I will tell my clients my advantage over you is not the diplomas on my wall but that I have listened to so many stories, I can share with you what works and what does not work. I engage so that they will come back.