How to D.I.Y. Your Therapy Website: A Brief Guide to Copywriting for Therapists

By Tracy Hart

Most therapy websites look and sound the same. They don't convey the unique therapeutic presence of the person behind the private practice—the human being who is able to help clients who are in pain. Your private practice website should radiate your authentic therapeutic self like a beacon, so that your ideal clients will find and recognize you.

 

Think of how you talk about your work to other therapists. The language you use is probably warm, passionate, inspired, excited phrasing that's unique to your personality and counseling style. Is this the same language that appears on your website right now?

 

If there's a disconnect between your genuine therapist self and the voice of your website, prospective clients will click away. But when your website accurately conveys who you are and what you do, clients will feel as if you've already started building rapport, before they even call you.

 

A great therapist website lets your ideal clients know how it feels to be with you so that they will reach out to begin that relationship.

 

You already know how to build rapport in session, and you can easily learn how to do it on your website.

I wrote this guide for therapists who want to do their own website copywriting but are not sure how to convey the essence of their therapeutic approaching, training, and therapeutic presence.

 

I'm a therapist in active practice myself, and I've compiled this information based on my experience in writing website copy for other therapists. Because of my counseling background, I understand that a therapy private practice has different marketing needs from any other type of service business.

 

You won't find any language in this guide about "activating pain points" or "sales funnels." There's no filler, no marketing lingo, and no learning curve — just step-by-step actionable tips to get you started writing the text for your website that will attract the kinds of clients you want.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracy Hart
• Release date: Feb 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224289264

Book preview

About the Author

Hi, I’m Tracy.

By day, I’m a licensed mental health counselor with a full-time caseload. I have more than a decade of clinical counseling experience.

I’m also a freelance writer, and my undergraduate degree was in writing. Since 2009 I’ve been helping therapists (and a few other small biz owners) craft the text for their websites, blog posts, newsletters, and promotional materials.

My perspective on copywriting has been shaped by the mindfulness framework of my graduate program at Naropa University, as well as my own professional experience in the psychology field. My approach to copywriting is also deeply influenced by my own personal experience over the years — I can empathize with prospective therapy clients because I know what it’s like to shop around for a new therapist.

Aside from I should look for a therapist being an emotionally daunting prospect for many people, it’s also true that finding a good therapist is logistically much more difficult than it should be.

My mission is to help lower one of the barriers to good care by making therapy websites feel welcoming, easy to understand, and empowering rather than pushy.

I believe that everything worth doing happens in relationship. If there’s such a thing as a client-centered freelance writer, that’s me. I highlight the strengths and insight of the therapists who hire me to write their content, and I am honored to indirectly serve their clients by facilitating a connection through effective copywriting.

I believe in being relational, not transactional, and that’s the framework of my approach to writing therapist websites. The most effective private practice website focuses on the client, not the therapist.

I wrote this guide for therapists who want to write their own web copy but are not sure what to say about themselves or how to distill the essence of their life work into a few pages on the internet. I hope these tips are helpful in providing a path to completing the text of your new therapy website, or rewriting your current site to be targeted to the clients you want.

7 Essential Copywriting Tips for Your D.I.Y. Private Practice Website

Does your website let you shine through?

For many therapists, that’s not the case.

The majority of therapist websites out there look and sound exactly the same, using a cookie-cutter template that’s filled with similar information about credentials, common issues, what to expect from therapy...

What’s missing is the therapist’s unique presence: the human person who