From Anonymous to Visible: The Shift Therapists Were Never Taught to Make
For decades, Therapists were taught to stay quiet. To remain neutral. To be a blank slate. Marketing, if it was mentioned at all in training, was framed as either irrelevant or inappropriate. “Be Anonynous” !
For many, the idea of being visible online, let alone sharing anything personal, felt like a betrayal of the profession. Even now, I speak to therapists daily who feel conflicted about marketing. They fear it’ll come across as self-promotional, ego-led, or somehow unethical, and they fear being judged by peers in the profession.
Unfortunately, no one told them this in their training:
Being invisible isn’t protecting you. It’s preventing the very people who need your help from ever finding you, or they find a Therapist who IS showing up instead
The Shift in Seeking Help
Why Marketing as a Therapist Isn’t Self-Promotion, It’s Your Duty of Care
You might not feel like a “marketer.” You’re a therapist, after all. But your marketing, your online presence especially, is often the first step in the therapeutic relationship.
It’s where the trust begins. It’s how someone in emotional distress decides:
“I think I could talk to this person.”
And trust doesn’t come from listing modalities or qualifications. It comes from connection. From being seen as a real human who understands what someone is going through.
Marketing your Private Practice in 2025 isn’t about manipulation or hype. It’s about the truth.
Your truth, and your client’s truth.
Start Your marketing journey today
Work with Mel Lay – Ethical Private Practice Marketing Support for Therapists
Beyond Basic Listings
The Way People Seek Help Has Changed…Permanently
Over recent years, we’ve seen a massive shift in how people search for services. Social media used to be seen as “just for influencers”, but now it’s where people go to build trust, make decisions, and seek support.
People aren’t reading 12 websites anymore. They’re scrolling Instagram, watching Reels, asking questions on TikTok, and, more recently, speaking directly to AI tools.
“Find me a therapist who understands high-functioning anxiety.”
“Is there someone who works online and won’t rush me?”
“I need help, but I don’t want to talk about childhood straight away.”
And AI is answering. It’s pulling from website content, blogs, social posts, and online directories. And it’s prioritising clarity, relevance, and emotional connection.
A Website or Directory Listing Alone Is No Longer Enough
Many therapists still believe their Counselling Directory, Psychology Today profile or a basic website is “enough.” But here’s what’s really happening:
And meanwhile, your ideal client is searching for help with real emotional language, and landing on content from therapists who’ve updated their presence.
To show up in today’s world, you need:
Even Instagram now indexes professional posts to Google. That means your Reels, carousels, and captions can literally become search results, but only when they are produced correctly.
Starting Your Journey to Recovery
So Where Do You Begin?
If you’re reading this feeling confused, behind, or frustrated that none of this was covered in your training, you’re not alone. The marketing models you’ve seen might have felt salesy, insincere, or like they asked you to abandon the very values that drew you to this profession in the first place. But that doesn’t mean marketing isn’t for you.
It just means the right kind of marketing hasn’t found you yet.
That’s where I come in. I’m a private practice marketing coach, and I support brilliant, ethical, qualified therapists to do something most courses and business programmes skip entirely:
✦ Understand their ideal client on a deep, human level
Not surface demographics like “women in their 30s with anxiety” but rich psychographics: how they think, what they fear, what they long for, and the silent questions they’re too afraid to say out loud. This is the foundation of connecting content, and of being findable in AI search.
✦ Identify what makes them uniquely them as a therapist
Most therapists underestimate the power of their own story, values, personality, and approach. I help you see why clients choose you and how to show that clearly and confidently in your online presence.
✦ Communicate this online in a way that builds real trust
This isn’t about getting louder or more polished. It’s about using real language that mirrors what your ideal client is going through. It’s about writing content that makes someone pause and say:
“I think this is the person I’ve been looking for.”
✦ Show up consistently without it feeling like a full-time job or a performance
You don’t need to post every day. You don’t need to be everywhere. But you do need a joined-up presence, so when someone stumbles across your Instagram, or finds your website, or asks AI for a therapist who understands what they’re going through… you’re the one who gets recommended.
Because that’s already happening for my clients.
This isn’t about sleazy sales, psychological manipulation, or false promises. This is about truth.
The truth of who you are as a therapist.
The truth of what you see happen in your sessions.
And the truth that someone out there is searching for the exact support you offer, but they can’t find you if you’re not showing up.
Marketing in 2025 is about visibility, clarity, connection and trust. And you’re allowed to take up space there. On your terms. In your voice. And you don’t have to figure it all out alone.
What’s Next in Your Healing Journey
My 1:1 services are currently fully booked, but I’ll be reopening my ever popular Private Practice Marketing Membership very soon.
Inside the membership, therapists are:
- Gaining consistent enquiries
- Growing an aligned presence that feels like them
- Creating content that gets seen, recommended, and trusted
- Even closing their waitlists, all while being pulled through into AI search results
They’re owning their voice, showing up truthfully, and being found by the people who need them most
Stay Connected with Us
Want to Stay Connected?
You can:
You don’t need to shout to be visible; you just need to speak clearly, with intention and truth. That’s what marketing in 2025 is about, and you’re allowed to take up space there.
Mel Lay
Mel Lay is a unique Private Practice Marketing Coach specialising in ethical, emotionally intelligent marketing for counsellors and therapists in private practice. An accountant with a background in Corporate Finance, with over a decade of experience running her own Business Coaching & Wellness business, plus qualifications in counselling, Mel helps therapists build confident, visible practices filled with clients who truly need their expertise.
She teaches a unique, psychographics-led approach to marketing that avoids false promises and gimmicks, focusing instead on connection, clarity, and trust. Mel’s clients are being recommended by AI tools, are fully booked through their websites and socials, and they’re showing up online in a way that finally feels aligned.
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