What’s the best way to market your private practice?

You might expect me to have a straightforward answer to that. After all, I’ve been helping counsellors with their marketing for years.

But I don’t.

And actually, I think that matters.

In this episode, I’m looking at why the question we tend to ask about marketing might not be the most useful one — and what to ask instead if you want to spend less time wondering what you ‘should’ be doing.

Find Your Focus

If you’re doing lots of things to market your practice but aren’t sure where your time and energy are most likely to help you get more of the right clients, Find Your Focus is a 90-minute 1:1 session where we’ll work that out together.

Find out more about Find Your Focus

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Not sure what support you need? You can find my free and paid resources here:

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Have you ever had something on your to-do list for so long that it’s somehow become enormous in your head?

I was watching one of my slightly addictive decluttering videos recently when a woman tackled a job she’d been putting off for three years.

It took her 12 minutes.

And watching her made me realise something about the way we approach marketing our private practices.

In this episode, I’m talking about what happens when all those things you could be doing start merging into one enormous job, and the question that can make the whole thing feel very different.

Find Your Focus

If you’re tired of carrying the whole of your private practice around in your head and you’d like some help working out what deserves your attention, Find Your Focus is my new 90-minute one-to-one session.

Find Your Focus

Resources mentioned in this episode

Free FIND Assessment

Write Your Homepage

Are you getting clients from your online directory

Blogging: The Best First Step in Counselling Marketing

Start Here

Explore all the free and paid ways I can help you grow your private practice.

Start Here

Buy Me a Coffee

If this episode inspires you to finally tackle the cupboard, drawer or shelf you’ve been ignoring since 2022, I think I’ve earned a coffee for services to household organisation.

Buy Me a Coffee

You wanted to be a counsellor. You did the training, the placements, the supervision, the nerve-racking first client... and then somehow you ended up worrying about websites, directories, SEO, marketing and whether you're doing enough to get clients.

But what did you actually want all this for?

In this episode, we're looking beyond ‘I need more clients’ and thinking about the working life you were hoping counselling would give you — and whether the things taking up your attention now are actually moving you towards it.

I talk about:

• Why ‘I need more clients’ can become a much bigger problem than you realise
• The question I think is far more useful than ‘What should I be doing?’
• Why those empty spaces in your diary might be stopping you from seeing something important
• What I discovered about work after years of thinking people who loved their jobs were frankly a bit odd
• Why somebody else's idea of a successful private practice could send you in completely the wrong direction
• And the difference between the thing you're trying to fix and the thing you're actually trying to build

If you've been doing lots of things to make your private practice work but still have that nagging feeling that you're not really getting anywhere, this episode might give you a rather different question to ask yourself.

Find Your Focus waiting list

https://www.janetravis.co.uk/find-your-focus/

Episode 209: Marketing Might Not Be Your Favourite Bit — But It Is the Important Bit

https://www.janetravis.co.uk/marketing-for-therapists/

Start Here — all my free and paid resources

https://www.janetravis.co.uk/start-here/

Enjoying the podcast? Buy me a coffee ☕

https://buymeacoffee.com/janetravis

How many times have you decided that THIS is the week you’re finally going to get organised?

Maybe you’ve bought a new notebook, downloaded an app or spent hours setting up a system that is definitely going to make everything easier.

I’ve been doing exactly that while getting ready to launch Find Your Focus. And after several attempts, one impressive system created by a friend and four or five hours trying to make something work, I realised I might have been going about this completely the wrong way.

In this episode, I’m talking about why getting organised can sometimes make running your private practice feel even more complicated, the mistake I made when I tried to organise myself like somebody else, and my new Ordinary Tuesday Test.

If you genuinely want to be more organised but nothing you try ever seems to stick, this one’s for you.

Also mentioned: Find Your Focus

If you’re doing lots of things to grow your private practice but aren’t sure where your time and energy would be best spent, Find Your Focus is my new 90-minute 1:1 session.

Join the Find Your Focus waiting list → HERE

Further resources

Check out the podcast I did with Fifi Using introvert superpowers to attract more clients

Take the FIND assessment, and grab other free resources for counsellors HERE

And find all my free and paid resources HERE

Testimonials are brilliant for marketing. They build trust, offer reassurance and give someone an insight into what it might be like to work with you.

So surely asking a happy client for one is a no-brainer?

Well... when you're a counsellor, it's a little more complicated than that.

I've noticed the question of testimonials and Google reviews coming up again recently, although it's a debate that's been rumbling around in counselling circles for as long as I can remember.

So in this episode, I'm taking a closer look at it.

Should you use testimonials? Is there a difference between someone offering you one and you asking for one? And are there things we already understand perfectly well in the therapy room that can sometimes get forgotten when we put our marketing hats on?

I'm not going to give you a simple yes or no answer (annoying, I know). But I am going to give you some things to think about so you can make a decision that feels right for you, your clients and your private practice.

Have a listen and see where you land.

Mentioned in this episode:

BACP Therapy Today – ‘Can we ask clients for testimonials?’

And if you enjoy the podcast, please follow The Grow Your Private Practice Show wherever you listen. It takes seconds, costs precisely nothing, and really does help more counsellors discover the show.

If all this talk about building trust has got you wondering how well your own marketing is doing its job, come and have a rummage around The Vault.

It's packed with free resources I've created specifically for counsellors and psychotherapists who want to get found by more of the right clients – without feeling as though marketing has become another full-time job.

And you'll also find the FIND Assessment in there. It will help you take a proper look at your marketing, see what's already working and spot where it might be worth focusing your attention next.

Get free access to The Vault → The Vault

You’d think that after creating hundreds of blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos between us, my friend and counsellor Sarah Dosanjh and I would have this content creation thing pretty much sorted by now.

You’d be wrong.

Recently, we’ve both missed some of our usual publishing dates, which got us talking about consistency, what keeps us creating after all these years and, more importantly, why we’re still doing it.

Because yes, creating useful content can help people find you and ultimately bring you clients. We are running businesses, after all.

But what if that isn’t actually the best reason to keep doing it?

In this episode, Sarah and I chat about what we’ve both learned after years of creating content, why finding something you actually enjoy matters, and the surprising things you can get back from the content you put out into the world.

We also get into what happens when you miss a week (apparently my brain goes to ‘IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE END?’ while Sarah worries about being punished by the YouTube algorithm), why Thursday mornings are officially a ‘no Jane’ zone and the important role £1.49 unlimited Wetherspoons coffee can play in getting things done.

It’s basically two friends who’ve been doing this for years comparing notes on what actually keeps us coming back.

And I think you might look at creating content a little differently after listening.

A huge thank you to Sarah for coming on and having this conversation with me. I always love talking to her, and I think there’s something reassuring about admitting that even after years of creating content, neither of us has got it all perfectly sorted. And actually, I’m not sure that’s even the aim.

And, seeing as Buy Me a Coffee actually came up in our conversation, it would be slightly ridiculous of me not to mention it now, wouldn’t it?

So yes, if you enjoy the podcast and you fancy buying me a coffee as a little thank you, you absolutely can right HERE.

And I promise to spend it responsibly.

By which I obviously mean on coffee.

Sarah Dosanjh is a psychotherapist and author of the bestselling book I Can’t Stop Eating, which is now also available on Audible.

After her own recovery from binge eating disorder she has gone on to specialise in helping others do the same.

And she's a busy women! She has recently trained to be an ADHD coach, and will receive her accreditation soon. She's appeared on various media outlets such as BBC Breakfast, Sky’s Roundtable and BBC Radio One, and has amassed over 3 million views on YouTube.

AND she has an online course starting soon:

Sarah has a new six-week live online course starting on 9th September called Wired to Binge?, which explores the connection between ADHD and binge eating or feeling out of control around food. So if that sounds relevant to you, or perhaps to someone you know, you can find out more on Sarah’s website, thebingeeatingtherapist.co.uk.

Connect with Sarah:

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook

Life After Diets Podcast

Why People Stop Going to Counselling – And Never Come Back

Have you ever found yourself wondering why a client came to one or two sessions… and then never booked again?

It's one of the hardest parts of being a counsellor. Your mind starts trying to fill in the blanks. You replay conversations, question yourself and wonder whether there was something you missed.

But what if you've been asking the wrong question?

In this episode, we're looking at a different way of thinking about clients who don't continue with counselling. One that could change how you view those experiences, reduce some of the self-doubt that so many counsellors carry, and even influence the way you talk about yourself on your website.

If you've ever questioned yourself after a client didn't return, I think this episode might give you a fresh perspective.

🌱 Write Your Homepage

If you'd like a homepage that helps the right people recognise they've found someone they can imagine talking to, you can find out more here:

https://www.janetravis.co.uk/write-your-homepage/

☕ Buy Me a Coffee

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support it, you can buy me a coffee here.

➡️ Buy Me a Coffee

And check out all my free and paid resources HERE

Have you ever found yourself thinking, 'I just can't be bothered anymore'?

Perhaps you're putting things off, struggling to get motivated or wondering whether you've simply fallen out of love with private practice. Maybe you've even caught yourself thinking, 'Shall I just pack it all in and go and get a 'proper' job?'

If so, you're definitely not the only one.

In this episode, I'm talking about those times when your motivation seems to disappear and everything suddenly feels like hard work. More importantly, I'm sharing the one question that's helped me look at those moments in a completely different way.

It might just change the way you think about your own 'lost mojo' too.

🌱 The Complete Support Package

Three months of personalised support to help you build strong foundations, get found by more of the right clients, and grow your private practice with confidence.

➡️ Find out more: The Complete Support Package

☕ Buy Me a Coffee

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support it, you can buy me a coffee here.

➡️ Buy Me a Coffee

And check out all my free and paid resources HERE