3 Ways Investing In a Good Therapy Website Can Increase Your Income and Prevent Burnout
Guest post by Monica Kovach at Hold Space Creative
Let me paint a picture for you. A therapist, let’s call her Mara, has been steadily growing her private practice over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic brought her caseload numbers to the highest they’ve ever been, and she’s almost full, but somewhere deep inside, she feels like something is missing.
Mara has been working toward a goal of a full caseload for long, and now that she’s arrived, she’s wondering why she feels so depleted.
Money is tight. She has regular clients, but she needs every one of them to show up each week to feel comfortable paying her bills. If anyone cancels, she has to scramble to make ends meet.
Of these regular clients, there are only a few she consistently enjoys working with. While she doesn’t like to admit it, the rest of her clients bring up varying levels of inadequacy and imposter syndrome in her, and she wonders if they’d be better served with another therapist. But referring them out is the last thing she wants to do! She needs the money, and she can convince herself that the work isn’t so bad, so she keeps seeing her misaligned clients.
Mara is headed for burnout, and she doesn’t know how to fix it.
Unfortunately, this situation isn’t unique. Therapists have been on the front lines of the pandemic for over a year, which has added a thick layer of stress to an already taxing job. Many therapists are just trying to make it through, taking on any client that needs help, and consequently… burning out.
At Hold Space Creative, I design websites for private practice therapists that decrease burnout by working hard on your behalf. In this post, I’m going to share three ways investing in a good website can help you increase your income and prevent burnout as you grow your private practice.
First things first: What’s a “good” therapy website?
When it comes to your private practice website, there are many options out there. From standard Squarespace or WordPress templates to pre-designed websites to fully custom design, there’s no shortage of options for designing a website these days.
However, since psychotherapy is such a nuanced process, therapy websites need to be approached with the same level of intention and care. To assess whether your website might need an upgrade, ask yourself the following questions:
Do my website colors match my personality and the energy/style my dream clients are seeking?
Were my fonts chosen intentionally to communicate my therapeutic style?
Does my website feature professional pictures of me?
Is my design unique enough to stand out from the crowd?
If you’re unsure how to answer any of these questions, take my free therapist personality quiz here to discover how to incorporate your personality into your website design.
A good therapy website will clearly describe the services that you offer, who you are, and (most importantly) it’ll give website visitors a preview of what your style of holding space feels like.
It takes some intentional work to elevate a website to this level, but once it’s there, it’ll help you increase your income and prevent burnout in these three ways:
1. Good websites will call in dream clients on your behalf
It’s one thing to have a full caseload, it’s another to have a full caseload of clients who are perfectly aligned with your area(s) of expertise. While your helper heart may want to help anyone who needs it, recognizing that you can’t be everything to everyone will free you up to do more of the work that energizes you and less of the work that drains you.
Once you’re aware of the types of clients you’re perfectly suited to support, your website can help you call those clients in.
By investing in a website that accurately describes your personality, your website visitors will feel your therapeutic style before they read a single word. When your design elements communicate with your dream clients on an emotional level, they’ll be the visitors to reach out and book a session.
2. A good website can be your personal assistant
As your dream clients scroll through your website, they’ll read your website copy that was written with care, especially for them. They’ll get a sense of how you can help them change their lives, and they’ll book their first session - all without talking to you directly.
While they may not book an initial session on their first visit, having the option for website visitors to book an appointment directly from your website is one of the best ways to save yourself time and increase your income.
If one new client books an appointment through your website rather than calling to set up an initial session, that’s at least an hour of your time that you’ve saved by avoiding manually scheduling
If one new client books an appointment through your website rather than calling to set up an initial session, that’s at least an hour of your time that you’ve saved by avoiding manually scheduling. That’s an hour that you could spend taking care of yourself or an hour that you could open up for a paid session.
Other ways your website can act as your personal assistant are:
Adding people to your email list automatically
Providing psychoeducation and resources via your blog
Introducing you via a welcome video
Your website is a powerful tool; use it to connect with potential clients on your behalf and grow your practice on autopilot.
3. A good website can help you increase your fee
As with any investment in your business, it’s all about the return. When you invest in a website that captures your personality, conveys the unique way you hold space, and connects with your dream clients on your behalf, your practice will inevitably start to shift.
An amazing thing happens when we experience alignment, as I’m sure you’ve seen in your therapeutic work. When our outer world matches our inner world, confidence grows. When your website accurately reflects the way you hold space, your fears or hesitations about raising your fee might start to fade away.
Of course, a website upgrade isn’t required before raising your fee! But I’ve seen it time and time again through my work as a web designer for therapists; after a website upgrade, my clients routinely feel more confident in raising their session fee.
Your website is a tool; use it.
Let’s imagine Mara invested in a website that accurately portrays her personality and way of holding space. Now, she’s able to confidently raise her fee and refer out misaligned clients because she’s getting new client bookings from highly aligned clients every week.
She actually decreased her caseload and now her “full” is less than her previous client load, allowing her more time to spend with her family, go on walks with her dog, and pick up her old hobbies again.
She’s not worried about bills anymore and her website is bringing in more and more organic traffic every month, so she’s considering expanding her expertise into online courses and physical products.
This is the shift that happens when therapists realize that their website is more than a glorified resumé or business card. A good therapy website will work hard for you, around the clock, so you can spend your time filling your cup.
Get One of Monica’s Websites
Lindsay here: I cannot recommend Monica’s websites enough. I use and love her Andrea template, and my colleagues and peers have used her beautiful and hardworking websites for their group therapy practices, art therapy specailties, and coaching offers. They are endlessly easy, customizable, and her support team can’t be beat. Check out her websites, copy templates, logo suites, and more here:
About Monica
Monica is a former art therapist and counselor turned web designer for therapists. She's passionate about making therapy more accessible by helping therapists present themselves in a more accessible way. She lives in Michigan with her two kitties, Bubbles and Pearl, and when she's not designing websites, she can usually be found somewhere in nature. Learn more about Monica and her work at her website holdspacecreative.com, follow along with her on Instagram @holdspacecreative, or follow her on Pinterest and Facebook.
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