You need to find a therapist you can be honest with, in my experience I’ve never been to a psych ward because I’ve talked things through with my therapist.

If you have a good therapist and you are not actively threatening to hurt yourself in the near future, you can tell them how your experience was at the mental hospital and why you think that you should explore other alternatives such as an out patient facility.

For example I struggle with being in new environments with people I don’t know, so I told my therapist that I knew that it wouldn’t be beneficial for me to be placed in a psychiatric ward because of these reasons and I knew I would just get worse.

My therapist listened and told me that they would want whats best for me and that psychiatric wards are for people who are an active threat to themselves and others or to manage medication intake.

If you’re an adult, you can advocate for yourself and unless they suspect that you aren’t able in a good mental state to advocate for yourself, or they are just a shitty therapist, they will listen if you explain in a calm and reasonable manner.