Once the basis for his depression was made clear, it was possible to begin to treat Frank's problem. His wife was very willing to encourage him to plan for a change of jobs, even though this would mean a temporary reduction in his income. Frank saw a vocational therapist and received guidance that led him to take some evening classes and then to become a computer programmer for a rapidly growing local company. His {3} depression faded away, and he now seems genuinely to be content. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM THIS BOOK I knew Frank personally, as his therapist in a group. (His name, like all others in this book, has been changed, along with certain details about his situation.) With professional help, Frank was able to improve his life--his sense of self-esteem, his marriage, and his family life. It was a long and painful process, as much self-change can be. But perhaps Frank's experience might have been _less_ painful, perhaps Frank might have felt less devastating isolation, and perhaps his path to a resolution of his difficulties could have been shortened if a practical guide to counseling and therapy had been available to him when he first decided to find help. MAKING INTELLIGENT CHOICES This book is about how you can get the most appropriate kind of help for your problems, goals, and personality. Specifically, _When You Don't Know Where to Turn_ sets out to help you become adequately informed about the range of therapists and therapies--_as these relate to your own assessment of your goals and interests_--so that you will be able to make intelligent decisions about these issues: * the _kind of professional_ to seek out * the _type of therapy_ most likely to help you with a certain complaint or set of interests and values * how to locate the form of therapy that seems most promising to you at _a price you can afford_ and with _an expected duration_ you can live with * what _setting_ to look for in which the help you would like is offered This book uses two approaches, both presented here for the first time and both based on common sense and intelligent advance planning. {4} First, you will be able, through a series of carefully organized questions and easily followed instructions in Part I, to pinpoint one or more approaches to therapy that may be most promising given your initial objectives, problems, or interests. For the first time, a _self-diagnosing map_ to the major approaches to therapy is made available. Second, you will have the opportunity to glimpse what typically happens during the sessions of counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists as they treat clients or patients using the different main approaches to therapy. You will come to see what the _experience_ of therapy is like in these different approaches.