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Therapists everywhere built their practices on Psychology Today — and many are noticing that this source of referrals isn’t as reliable as it once was.
That doesn’t mean you need to completely rethink everything. But it may be a good time to take a closer look at how your practice is being found, who you’re trying to reach, and whether your marketing is actually supporting where you want your business to go.
If I were navigating this environment as a therapist in Toronto, here’s what I’d be thinking about.
Before spending more time or money on marketing, get specific about who you want to work with.
Who are the clients you feel most equipped to help? What are they struggling with? What are they looking for when they start searching for a therapist?
Your marketing becomes much easier to build when you start with the person you want to reach rather than trying to make every possible client a fit.
Growing the size of your practice, transitioning into supervision, developing a course, or becoming known for a particular area of expertise all require different approaches.
For example, if your goal is to attract therapy clients but most of the engagement on your social content is coming from other therapists, that’s useful information. It may mean your content is building professional connections rather than reaching the people you ultimately want to serve.
Neither is necessarily a problem — they’re just different goals, and your marketing should reflect the one you’re actually working toward.
Your website is one of the most important pieces of your marketing ecosystem, particularly if you want to be found through Google or increasingly through AI search.
If you’re a therapist in Toronto, for example, your website should make it easy for someone searching for a therapist in Toronto to understand what you specialize in, who you work with, and whether you might be the right fit for them.
That means thinking beyond a website that simply tells your story. Your copy should connect what someone is searching for with the specific way you can help.
You don’t need to become a data analyst, but it’s helpful to understand the basics.
How many people are visiting your website? Where are they coming from? Which pages are they looking at? And most importantly, are those visits turning into inquiries?
Once you have a strategy in place, the data can help you understand what’s working and where you might need to make adjustments.
You don’t need to become a marketing expert to market your practice well. But having a basic understanding of how marketing works can make it much easier to make good decisions about where to invest.
There are plenty of simple formulas and promises out there about what you need to do to grow your practice. The reality is that there isn’t one strategy that works for every therapist.
Good marketing is a system. It starts with understanding your business, your audience, and your goals, then building a plan around those things and paying attention to what the data is telling you.
The therapists who do well in this next season may not be the ones chasing every new marketing trend. They may simply be the ones who take the time to understand how their own marketing works — and make thoughtful decisions about what deserves their time, attention, and investment.
