Most therapy practices grow on directories and word of mouth until both plateau. What follows is what actually brings enquiries after that, what the ethics codes stop you doing, and how to tell which of the two your practice is up against.
Psychology Today, Counselling Directory and their equivalents work. They are often the first thing that ever brought a practice a client, and for one clinician they can be enough on their own.
The trouble starts at the point you add a second and third clinician. A directory listing sends enquiries to a person, not a practice, and it sends them at whatever rate the directory decides. You cannot increase it, you cannot aim it at the presentations you are best at, and every competitor on the page is one click away with the same badge and a similar photograph.
A practice with capacity to fill needs demand it controls. That is the whole job, and it is a different job from the one the directory was doing.
This is the part that catches generalist agencies out, and it is the reason a lot of therapy practices have had a bad experience with one.
Professional bodies on both sides of the Atlantic restrict soliciting testimonials from current clients, and some restrict former clients too. The APA ethics code and BACP guidance both address it, and individual state boards and registers add their own conditions. An agency that opens by asking you to gather Google reviews from people you are actively treating is telling you it has not worked in this field.
Social proof still exists for therapy practices. It looks like clinician credentials, supervision and training, professional referral relationships, and being visibly present where the profession talks to itself. It rarely looks like a five-star review carousel.
Meta and Google both restrict how you may target and phrase advertising that touches mental health. You cannot build audiences that imply a person has a condition, and copy that names the reader's diagnosis back to them tends to get an ad account restricted rather than a warning. The workable version advertises the practice and the outcome, not the presumed problem.
The case study format that works in most industries is unavailable here. Nothing about an identifiable client can be published, and composite or anonymised examples still need care. It means the content that earns trust has to do it through expertise rather than through results, which is slower and more durable.
Not a channel list. An order, because doing these out of sequence wastes money.
Almost nobody searches for a modality by name. They search for the problem, the place and sometimes the format: therapy for anxiety with a town attached, or therapy online. A practice needs a page for each presentation it genuinely treats, written by someone who treats it, not one services page listing twenty things.
Therapy enquiries are harder to make than most. Someone has to admit something to a stranger. A contact form that asks eight questions loses people who were already close to leaving. So does an unanswered enquiry: this is a field where a reply the next day is often a reply too late.
Paid search puts you in front of people already looking, which suits therapy better than interruption advertising does. It is also the fastest way to spend money badly if the pages and the follow-up are not ready. That is why it is third and not first.
A growing share of people ask an assistant for a recommendation before they ever open a search engine. Those answers are assembled from your site, your listings and the directories that already carry you. We describe this work honestly, as a methodology we apply rather than citations anyone can promise.
Run the free check to see whether an assistant names your practice today. No email needed for the grade.
We would rather say this here than on a call you spent time booking.
A solo therapist starting out does not need a marketing retainer, and we would be taking your money if we sold you one. What you need first is a site that explains who you help and lets them book. That is a one-off job and we price it plainly at practice websites, from £149.
If you are earlier still and working out registration, insurance and how any of this fits together, start with the guide to going private in therapy and psychology. It is free and there is nothing gated in it.
On a marketing retainer, our fee has to earn itself back. If it does not, you stop paying it until it does. There is a straightforward way we measure that, agreed with you before you sign anything, and it is the first thing we will walk you through on a call.
Yes, within limits. Both platforms treat mental health as a sensitive category, which restricts how you target and how you phrase things. You cannot build audiences that imply someone has a condition, and copy that names a diagnosis back at the reader risks the account rather than the ad. Advertising the practice and the outcome works and stays inside the rules.
Carefully, and often not from clients. Professional bodies restrict soliciting testimonials from people you are currently treating, and some extend that to former clients. Any agency that opens with a review-gathering campaign has not worked with therapy practices. Credentials, supervision, professional referrals and visible expertise do the same job without the ethical problem.
Paid search can produce enquiries in the first month because it reaches people already looking. Search and AI visibility work takes longer, usually a few months before it is carrying meaningful weight. We would rather tell you that now than describe everything as fast.
Not with a retainer, and we will say so on the call. A solo therapist is better served by a website that explains who you help and lets people book, which we price separately from £149 as a one-off. Retainers are for practices with a team and capacity to fill.
We work with clinics in the UK and the US. US practices raise their own questions about tracking and platform rules around health data, and we would rather work those through with you at the start than assume the UK answer applies.
Thirty minutes, no pitch. We work out where your enquiries come from now, where the gaps are, and whether we are the right people for it. Sometimes the answer is no and we say so.
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