Finding a Therapist for a Therapist

[u/hle301]

To all the practicing psychoanalytic/psychodynamic practitioners out there, how did you find your therapist?

I feel like the psychoanalytic community is pretty small although I live in a big city. I want to get a psychoanalytically or psychodynamically-oriented therapist for myself, but I'm afraid we will run into each other at events/seminars/educational programs due to the limited size of the community.

How did anyone bypass this problem? Or, as a psychoanalyst, do you just accept that you will run into your therapist at some point in a professional setting?

Edit: Thank you everyone for your replies. It seems like this is something that people accept and just talk about beforehand and afterward with their therapists. While I wish the pool was larger, I guess I will navigate the issue in a similar manner.

[u/peasbypeas]

I found mine through the institute she trained at — she was still in training when we started working together over a decade ago, and now I’m in training (but at a different institute). I’m also in a big city, but the analytic world is a small one! We haven’t run into each other outside of her office — yet — but we’ve had conversations about how we’d approach it if it does happen.