First of, therapy is not a rip off. Scientific studies have shown positive effects for certain kinds of therapy and there is evidence that suggests such positive effects for some more. That's not to say that there aren't problems, but therapy can help many people.
I can't really tell you how to find a therapist, as i don't know how the health care system in the US works. As the poster above said, speak to your gp, who should either be able to help you with the technicalities or recommend you someone who can. Instead i can give you some general tips for choosing a therapist:
1. Most therapists specialize in certain kinds of treatments based on certain theories. The most common ones are
- Cognitive Behaviorial Therapy
- Family-focused Therapy
- Interpersonal Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
I would recommend choosing a specialist from one of this fields, as the smaller/newer schools often lack proof of positive effects. Which specific field to choose depends on what kind of therapists are available, what kind of mental illness you have (certain therapies work better for certain illnesses) and your personal preferences (to find out what could work for you look at sites like http://psychcentral.com/psychotherapy/ or http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/psychotherapies/index.shtml ). Another factor is the average length of treatment: while CBT often only takes 10-15 meetings, as it often concentrates on solving a specific problem, psychodynamic therapy concentrates on the underlying causes of problems and can take years. Often the therapist also specializes in the treatment of certain mental health problems, so if you already know what kind of problem you have you can try to find a specialist for it (the american psychological association has a finder for therapists where you can filter by area of expertise http://locator.apa.org/ ).
2. Once you have found a potential therapist, if in any way possible arrange a test session or two before you decide whether to work with the therapist or not. Studies have shown that a good relationship between patient and therapist is extremely important for the success of a therapy.
3. When you have chosen a therapist make sure to to come to an agreement in the beginning about what you want to achieve by doing therapy and evaluate this goals regularly with the therapist. If the type of therapy allows it (CBT more so, psychodynamic therapy less so), make a therapy plan that is evaluated in regularly intervals.
4. Inform yourself. You can find a many useful informations about therapy, how to choose a therapist and related topics online. Good places to start would be for example http://psychcentral.com/psychotherapy/ or http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/psychotherapy
Hope that helps you. If you got anymore questions just ask.
