Nowadays, it feels like every ad directed at therapists starts something like this, “how I turned my practice into a 6 figure income” or “how to generate leads while you’re sleeping”. For the most part it feels like the influencer-marketing that has become prevalent in every other industry has also seeped into the therapist space. What’s worse is numerous therapists are now trying to make a living not from clients–with the market increasingly cannibalized by giants like BetterHelp– but from other therapists who are desperate for income.
Before becoming a therapist I was a marketer and web designer for a decade. I left that business because the marketing world is unfulfilling, frustrating, and a never-ending cycle of trying to one-up my own ads to generate more leads… and yet, I am seeing the same trends popping up in the therapist space. While I do offer packages for therapists for websites and marketing, I have never once promised results from SEO, websites, or any form of marketing. In-fact, I wouldn’t promise this in any industry because that’s impossible, and frankly, not how marketing works. I want to propose something to you…
The ‘successful therapists’ who are making ‘six figure incomes’ (if that’s even true), are not making this income by growing their digital practice, they are doing so through the insidious means of preying on therapists desperate for clients. Like the financial guru who teachers you ‘how to get rich in 10 weeks’, they are making their income off selling the advice, not the actual advice.
While I am sure there are plenty of digital marketing therapists who offer excellent advice and are worth their consultation value, I worry that much of what it takes to build a practice (perseverance, time, word of mouth), is being lost in the weeds of the ever-growing algorithm of courses on how to do things “the right way”.
My simple advice for therapists who are looking for resources and answers to grow their struggling practice? Keep doing what you’re doing, consistently. Keep learning, keep trying, and keep at it. The digital landscape is a lot like the endless prairies, it can take a lot of time to be noticed- but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. For therapists turned “business coaches” the sad reality is that often-times the client is no longer the therapy client, but the therapists desperate to practice.
