> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.opentherapy.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Find a therapist

> How the matching questionnaire works, how your shortlist is built, and how to change it later.

Matching asks five questions, then deals you every therapist who fits — ranked, with a reason on each. Nothing is booked and nobody is told you looked.

Start at **Find your match** in the main navigation.

## The questions

Only the first two are required. You can skip the rest and still get a shortlist.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="1. Who is the therapy for?" icon="user" defaultOpen>
    One choice: for yourself, for you and your partner, for your child aged 12 to 17, for your child
    under 12, or for someone you care for.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="2. What brings you here?" icon="list">
    Pick as many as fit. This decides which kind of therapist we look at first. The options run from
    anxiety, low mood and trauma through focus and ADHD, burnout, relationships, grief, life changes,
    parenting, eating and body image, assessment and diagnosis, daily living and NDIS, speech and
    language — and **Not sure yet**, which is a real answer.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="3. Anything running through your story?" icon="heart">
    Eight themes: culture and belonging; family; identity, gender and sexuality; neurodivergence,
    disability and health; faith and community; work, money and study; parenting, fertility and
    caring; loss, harm and survival. Choose **None of these** to skip.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="4. Which of these is the work about?" icon="target">
    Only appears if you named a theme. You'll see the specific experiences inside the themes you chose.
    Not everything that's true of you — the handful a therapist would need to understand. **These are
    weighted hardest.**
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="5. What would make this easier?" icon="sliders-horizontal">
    Three things: what you'd like in a person (has lived some of this too, gets my culture without a
    tutorial, LGBTQIA+ affirming, neurodiversity-affirming, slow and trauma-informed, direct and
    practical, warm and unstructured), their gender, and your preferred language.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="6. The practical bits" icon="map-pin">
    How you'd like to meet (online, in person, home visit), roughly where you are, and how you'll pay
    (Medicare with a GP mental health plan, NDIS, private health extras, or paying yourself). This
    exists so we only show you therapists you can actually see, afford and get to.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## How the shortlist is ranked

Each therapist is scored against your answers. The weights are deliberate:

| Signal                                         | Weight   |
| ---------------------------------------------- | -------- |
| They have **lived** an experience you named    | Highest  |
| They work with that experience clinically      | Moderate |
| Your preferred language                        | Moderate |
| Your concerns match their focus or specialties | Lower    |
| Session mode overlaps                          | Low      |
| Funding overlaps                               | Low      |

If you asked for someone who *has lived some of this too* or *gets my culture without a tutorial*, shared experience is weighted higher still.

<Note>
  A shared lived experience outranks everything else, including how closely their clinical specialties
  match your concerns. That's the core of how Open Therapy differs from a filtered list.
</Note>

Ties break on rating. Anyone who scores nothing is dropped. Everyone else is dealt to you — ranking sets the order, but you decide who's worth keeping.

## Working through your matches

Each card carries a one-line reason, such as *"Sarah has lived what you named, not only trained in it"* or *"This is the work Sarah does most."*

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Cards">
    Swipe or select to keep or pass. **Bring back** undoes the last decision. A counter shows how many
    are left.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="List">
    All your matches at once with the same keep and pass buttons. Switch views at any time — your
    place is kept.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

When the deck is empty you're taken to **Saved**, which is everyone you kept.

## Saved and passed

Your saved list lives at **Saved** and works whether or not you're signed in. Nobody on it has been contacted — saving is just for you.

Passed therapists are tucked into a collapsible section on the same page. Select **Deal these again** to clear those decisions and go back through them.

## Changing your answers

Select **Update what I'm looking for**, or open **Preferences** in your account. Every question is on one page there.

Changing your answers rebuilds your next shortlist without emptying the current one. Therapists you've already decided on stay decided, so you pick up rather than start over.

## If nothing matches

You'll see **Let's widen the search**, with two ways out: browse the full directory with your answers carried across as filters, or go back and loosen your answers.

## What you get by email

Saving your match preferences triggers a **Your matches are ready** email listing three matches with the same one-line reason shown on the card.

## Next

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Read a profile" icon="user" href="/clients/therapist-profiles" horizontal>
    What's on a therapist's page and how to read it.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Browse instead" icon="search" href="/clients/browse-the-directory" horizontal>
    Skip matching and filter the directory yourself.
  </Card>
</Columns>