How to Get Clients in Private Practice – The Faster Way to Fill Your Diary
Written by Dr. Brooklyn Storme, Business Mentor
Dr. Brooklyn Storme is a business advisor and private mentor with a PhD in Psychology and more than 30 years of experience in psychology and human behavior. A former psychologist, she works at the intersection of business, psychology, and manifestation, helping women create meaningful results in business.
Building a successful private practice takes more than opening your doors and waiting for clients to find you. From defining your niche and optimising your website to building visibility and trust, these four steps can help therapists attract the right clients and create a practice positioned for long-term growth.
You’ve heard the horror stories of therapists who rent consulting rooms only to realise on opening day that they don’t have clients booked. Luckily, there is a way to set your practice up for success.
Step 1: Become the go-to practice.
First, your practice should ideally be known for something. This is referred to as positioning. Recognition makes it easier for people to refer to you because they know what you do and who you work with. Second, it builds the authority artificial intelligence (AI) search engines use to recommend businesses. Third, it becomes the foundation for your marketing.
You could:
Focus on a particular client demographic, i.e., busy working single mums with ADHD.
Focus on a favourite modality, i.e., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Focus on a presentation you enjoy working with, i.e., school refusal.
Focus on a philosophy you have, i.e., a belief that all people have potential.
Focus on a strong point of view, i.e., talk therapies should be the first line of intervention.
Combining some of these helps to clarify further who you are to a referrer. For example:
ACT for Busy Working Single Mums with ADHD
Talk Therapies Like ACT Should Be the First Line of Treatment for Busy Working Single Mums with ADHD
When a doctor, colleague, or third party needs to refer a client, your practice should come to mind immediately.
Step 2: Optimise the website
One main job of the website is to guide people from visiting to taking action, like booking an inquiry call. This is called conversion, and on average, 1 to 2 visitors out of every 100 will convert. Practices with higher conversions:
Offer a simple way to book a session instead of relying on email or forms.
Include clear next steps so that people know what to do next or what happens after booking.
Reply quickly to contacts from visitors or use automated replies.
Demonstrate the therapists’ wisdom, practice insights, stories, and experience in a way that’s relevant to the challenges their ideal client may be experiencing.
Include fee information in a dedicated tab for transparency.
People should know they are in the right place the moment they land on your website, so place your positioning at the top of the homepage.
Step 3: Create a LinkedIn™ profile
Traffic to websites from search engines like Google™ has been decreasing since the introduction of the AI Summary. Because the summary synthesises relevant information for the user, the need to scroll down and click on the blue website links has reduced. The summary includes citations of key sources, and ideally, yours should be one of them. This is because the data shows that visitors to your website that come from an AI recommendation convert at 12 to 16% compared to 1 to 2% from a search engine.
LinkedIn™ is the number one source for AI search engines for professional inquiries. Consider adding your positioning as a headline with two or three proof points, complete your profile fully to increase the potential for it to surface in searches, and post regularly, especially if you need clients to fill your diary. LinkedIn™ favours thoughtful content that demonstrates experience, insights, and/or data.
You could write a post about a challenge your clients often face, what the typical guidance is, and your take on it. Give your audience insight into how you think, your point of view, and your values to build trust and rapport.
Step 4: Get visible
With these foundations in place, the next step is to get the business in front of your ideal clients. Use a combination of short-form content, content that can be consumed in 2 to 3 minutes, and long-form content.
Short-form content examples: social media post, Instagram™ reel, blog post, Google Business™ post, LinkedIn™ article, directory listing, like Psychology Today™, and an email.
Long-form content examples: podcast episode (audio), podcast episode (video), YouTube™ video, mini course, presentation or workshop.
It’s been suggested that people new to your world need to hear from you about 50 times before they’ll take action. Sharing content often can help a potential client move through those touchpoints more quickly and, hopefully, take action with your practice.
Paid versus organic visibility
The fastest way to get more people to your website is with paid ads. Organic traffic takes longer but can bring higher-quality inquiries because it's earned through trust and relevance. If it’s in your budget, a helpful strategy for getting clients quickly is to use a hybrid approach.
Your private practice marketing checklist
Be known for something.
Create your marketing plan and strategy.
Market the practice frequently to the same people, where they spend most of their time.
Track your numbers and refine the strategy.
Start marketing 90 days before you open and set yourself up to work with paying clients from day one.
Need a client attraction strategy for your private practice from a mentor with 30+ years of industry experience? Book a consultation here.
Read more from Dr. Brooklyn Storme
Dr. Brooklyn Storme, Business Mentor
Dr. Brooklyn Storme is a business advisor and private mentor for women who want to develop their manifestation skills and apply them in business. With a PhD in Psychology and more than 30 years’ experience working with the mind and human behaviour, she brings a distinctive, evidence-informed perspective to manifestation in business. A former psychologist, Brooklyn helps women who are already familiar with manifestation deepen their knowledge and build the skills to support their business goals, ambitions, and growth. She also hosts the MENTORED podcast.
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