The vast majority of psychotherapists were never taught the best marketing and practice building strategies.   This is the main reason why many psychotherapists struggle to build a private practice, especially if they want to run a cash-based practice.

How well you market your psychotherapy practice is the main determinant in your ability to build and maintain a high client volume.  If you take the time to learn how to treat your therapy practice like a real business and commit to your marketing education, you will likely experience a high level of success.  If you don’t, then your practice will always be compromised.

I know that, as a counselor, marketing may not be something that is of innate interest to you.  That was certainly my initial experience when I built my holistic health practice.  What I learned, however, was that the marketing of my practice is inseparable from the clinical aspect.  How you attract clients and how you treat them are part of the same energetic continuum.

What you want is a marketing plan that consistently attracts clients that are the perfect fit for what you have to offer.  As you know, this isn’t just anyone.  One of the best initial marketing steps you can take is to get VERY clear about who your ideal therapy client is.  Make a list of attributes that this person possesses.

Knowing who you are targeting is the foundation to all of your marketing endeavors.  Once you are clear on this, then you can create an action plan.  My recommendation is that you initiate marketing strategies that are low cost or no cost to begin with.

One of the first steps I have each of my coaching clients take is to build a practice website.  You want a psychotherapy website that will serve as the epicenter or hub of all your practice building strategies.  It is likely that there are many potential clients searching on Google and Yahoo right now for your exact services in your local area.  The question is, why shouldn’t you be the one they find?  If you know how to set up your therapy website so that people can easily find you, then you have achieved one of the most effective marketing strategies available to you.

If you don’t have a therapy website yet or you do but it doesn’t seem to be working very welll for your therapy practice, I would recommend the Dream Practice web package at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/webpackage

Honestly, there are a number of effective low cost or no cost marketing strategies for counselors.  You have to choose the ones that are most reflective of your interests and capabilities.  My ebook Build Your Dream Practice has a number of great marketing ideas to quickly build a cash-based therapy practice.  You can learn about this at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/ebook/index.htm

When I do business coaching for psychotherapists, one of the main objectives I try to instill right away is that success is a choice.  Every one of us chooses how successfully we can run a private practice.  Your success isn’t random.  If you make a choice to have a lucrative therapy practice, then what you’re saying is that you’re ready to be 100% responsible for your successes and failures.  You’ll see that your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are as much of a factor in your success as is your marketing campaign.  In order to empower yourself to choose freedom and prosperity in your work, I encourage you to check out my new book The Purpose Principle.  You can learn about this resource at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/purpose

Since it’s likely that you were not trained very deeply in business and marketing skills, it may be the case that one on one business coaching is going to be the most helpful and direct path to the actualization of your practice goals.  You can learn more about what I do for my coaching clients at:  http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/personalcoaching

And my most comprehensive coaching program can be found at http://www.buildyourdreampractice.net/coachingclub.html

Feel free to email me at info@buildyourdreampractice.net if you have any questions or if you’d like to schedule a free 20  minute consult.

all the best,

Kevin Doherty

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 3:19 pm and is filed under psychotherapy marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.