I can’t tell you the perfect way to market your private practice.
And given I’ve devoted years to helping counsellors get more clients, that might sound like a strange thing for me to admit. But understanding why I can’t tell you might completely change the way you think about marketing your practice.
Ask me whether you should start a new marketing activity and there’s a very good chance I’ll say, ‘Well, it depends.’
I know. It’s probably one of the most frustrating answers I could give when what you really want me to say is, ‘Yes. Do this. This is the thing that will help you get more clients.’
But two counsellors can ask me exactly the same question, and the right answer for each of them could be completely different.
Because perhaps the more useful question isn’t ‘What should I do?’
It’s ‘What am I actually trying to achieve, and what makes sense for me in the life I have right now?’
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When you need clients, everything can feel urgent
I started my own private practice back in 2006, and I’ve been helping counsellors with their marketing for years. And one thing I’ve seen time and time again is how easy it is to get caught up in looking for 'The Answer.’
It starts with needing clients. And when you need clients, of course it can feel urgent because, for most of us, this isn’t a hobby. We need to earn money. We need our private practices to work.
So you start looking around for 'The Answer'.
You see discussions in Facebook groups, listen to podcasts, talk to other counsellors or perhaps take a course. And there’s certainly no shortage of advice. I’ll tell you blogging is brilliant (because I think it is), but somebody else might tell you YouTube is where it’s at, and someone else will recommend a directory you haven’t tried yet.
Then a new platform comes along and suddenly there’s another thing to add to the list.
I remember when Threads launched in 2023. There had been all sorts of upheaval around Twitter after Elon Musk took it over, and then this new text-based platform from Instagram appeared. Suddenly, I was seeing people in Facebook groups rushing to join.
‘I’ve joined Threads!’
‘I’d better get on Threads!’
Some of them had never really used Twitter in the first place.
It was fascinating to watch because it was shiny object syndrome playing out in real time. There was a new, exciting thing and people didn’t want to miss the boat.
But my reaction was: ‘Why?’
Not because Threads was necessarily a bad idea. It might have been exactly the right place for some people. But what did they want it to do for their practice? Did they actually want to invest their time and energy learning and growing another social media platform? Did it suit them?
Or were they joining because everybody else was?
The problem isn’t Threads. It isn’t blogging, YouTube or directories either. It’s starting with ‘Should I be doing that?’ instead of ‘What am I actually trying to achieve?’
What does ‘a full practice’ actually mean to you?
We talk a lot about wanting a full private practice, but even that means different things to different people.
Five clients alongside another job might be absolutely perfect for one person. Somebody else might want twelve. Another counsellor might rely entirely on their private practice for their income and want twenty or twenty-five clients.
None of them is doing private practice better than the others. They’re just building different practices because they want different things from them.
So if you ask me, ‘How do I get a full private practice?’, I need to know what ‘full’ means to you. I also want to know what you actually want your practice to give you.
Maybe you want more income or more freedom. Perhaps you want to do more of the work you enjoy, or work with a particular type of client. You might want a small practice that fits nicely alongside another job, or you might be hoping to grow it until it replaces that job completely.
Those are very different goals, so why would they have exactly the same route to getting there?
You can’t really decide what deserves your time and energy until you know what you’re trying to build. And, importantly, your answer doesn’t need to look like anybody else’s.
Your private practice marketing has to fit your actual life
Even if two counsellors want exactly the same thing, they aren’t necessarily starting from the same place.
For example, you might have school-age children and school runs to think about, elderly parents or other caring responsibilities. You might have another job, health problems or very little spare time. Money might be tight, or perhaps you simply don’t have much emotional energy available at the moment.
Because we don’t get to put the rest of our lives on hold while we grow a private practice.
Take networking. An early-morning networking group might be a fantastic way for one counsellor to make connections locally. But tell someone who has to get their children to school that they ‘should’ be at a networking meeting at 7.30am' and it’s a completely useless recommendation.
It doesn’t matter how brilliantly something works for somebody else if it doesn’t fit you and the life you have right now.
And the ‘right now’ bit is important because your own circumstances change too. There have been periods in my life when I’ve had more capacity to give to my business, and other times when things outside work have needed much more of me.
That means something that was absolutely right for you three years ago might not be right for you today. It doesn’t mean it stopped working. It might simply mean that your life changed.
Your marketing needs to fit you, too
Even if two people wanted exactly the same thing and had exactly the same amount of time available, they’re still two completely different people.
I’ve been working with a client recently who loves getting out and about in her local area. She’s been collaborating with somebody and running workshops, and when she talks about it, it's clear how much she enjoys it. She loves meeting people, making connections and doing things face to face.
Social media, on the other hand, leaves her cold.
Now compare that with me. I’m a massive introvert. I have done networking and I still do occasionally, but it’s not my natural happy place.
Give me a café, a laptop and something interesting to write about — preferably somewhere dog-friendly so Kimmy can come too — and I’m a very happy bunny. I love writing, I’ve been doing it for years and it’s something I can keep doing. I enjoy the creativity.
So why on earth would that client and I have the same marketing plan?
It doesn’t make sense.
That’s why I’m far less interested in what everybody else is doing than I am in finding out about you. What do you enjoy? What do you hate? What are your strengths? Who do you want to work with? What sort of practice are you trying to create?
Because there’s not much point in me recommending something that looks fantastic on paper if you’re going to hate every minute of doing it.
And that brings me neatly to why I’ve created Find Your Focus.
Find Your Focus
Actually, ‘created’ isn’t quite the right word, because I’ve been banging on about this stuff for years.
What I’ve created is a way for us to sit down together and apply it specifically to you.
Find Your Focus is a 90-minute 1:1 session with me. I’m not going to turn up with a generic list of things I think every counsellor should be doing, because the whole point is that we start with you.
We’ll look at where you are now and where you actually want to get to. We’ll talk about who you want to work with, what you’ve already tried, what’s working, what isn’t, what you enjoy and what makes your toes curl.
We’ll also look at what you realistically have available in terms of time and energy, and what your practice needs to fit around in the rest of your life.
Because I can’t tell you the perfect way to market your private practice.
It doesn’t exist.
But sit down with me for 90 minutes and tell me about you, your practice, the clients you love working with and the life your practice needs to fit into, and together we can work out what makes sense for you now.
And that word matters.
We’re not creating a marketing plan that you’re going to sign in blood and promise to follow for the next ten years. We’re deciding what deserves your attention at this point in your practice — and what doesn’t.
Because sometimes knowing what you can stop worrying about is every bit as valuable as knowing what to do next.
After our session, you’ll get the recording, a summary and your own personalised focus document with the priorities and next steps we’ve agreed. So you won’t leave thinking, ‘That was great… now what was I supposed to do again?’
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT FIND YOUR FOCUS
Before you add one more marketing job to your list…
Whether you decide to book Find Your Focus or not, there’s one thing I’d really like you to take away from this.
The next time you see somebody talking about something that’s working brilliantly for them and immediately think, ‘Should I be doing that?’, don’t automatically add it to your list.
Instead, ask yourself two questions:
‘What am I actually trying to achieve?’
‘Does this make sense for me, in the life I have right now?’
The answer might be yes. It might be no. Or it might be, ‘Actually, maybe not now.’
All three are perfectly useful answers.
Because your job isn’t to become brilliant at every possible way of marketing your private practice. It’s to make it easier for the right people to find you, understand how you can help them and decide that you’re the person they’d like to get in touch with.
And you get to decide what that looks like for you.
Want some help deciding what to focus on?
If you’ve got lots of things you could be doing but you’re struggling to decide where your time and energy are most likely to help you get more of the right clients, that’s exactly what we can work out together in Find Your Focus.
It’s a 90-minute 1:1 session, followed by a recording, summary and your own personalised focus document so you know what you’re focusing on next — and, just as importantly, what you’re not.
