How come in the last 8 or so years of my adult life I have been researching and trying to find therapists, that absolutely none of them, those that were even taking patients, wanted to do real one-on-one therapy? I have tried group therapy 4 separate times in my life, twice voluntary as a minor and twice by court order as an adult (once on my own dime), and three of those times I never once saw a real psychologist and did not even have the option to talk to a real psychologist.
One of the counselors in my first go at group therapy even implied he never went to proper school, but i was a teenager at the time so I may have misinterpreted what he said. My parents pulled me out of the group when they realized all they did was play youtube videos for 3 hours. The second try at group therapy there was a real psychologist present, but I was too scared to talk about my own issues, since everyone else had real problems (on the run, ran away from home, etc), and I ended up being the jokester of the group that kept everything light hearted. I left the group not feeling any better, especially since I figured the rest of the group would beat me up if they knew how privileged I was.
The first time I was forced into group therapy as an adult, nobody, not the patients or even the counselors, took what they were doing seriously, and while my insurance paid for most of it, I had to pay around $100 each week. I even asked to see a one-on-one therapist and I was told "We'll have a look at our availabile therapists", and never heard back. My second court order group therapy was nicer, the counselors seemed to care somewhat more, but again me asking for a one-on-one session with a therapist was once again met with smiles but no actual therapist. At least this time I wasn't charged out of my own pocket.
These days I've given up on ever finding a real therapist, especially since my dad's insurance runs out in July and if the state couldn't assign me a real therapist, then I doubt I'll ever be able to find one on medicaid.
So my final question is this: how come real one-on-one therapy is so rare these days? Why is it so hard to find a psychologist who wants to actually treat people these days?
EDIT: correcting information i misremembered.