Marketing for Therapists: What It Really Takes to Get Clients | Jenny Arroyo

Marketing for Therapists: What It Really Takes to Get Clients | Jenny Arroyo

Lisa Marie Bobby, PhD, LMFT, BCC

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby is a licensed psychologist, licensed marriage and family therapist, board-certified coach, AAMFT clinical supervisor, host of the Love, Happiness, and Success Podcast and founder of Growing Self.

Private practice marketing is one of those topics that can make even very competent, very thoughtful therapists want to hide under a blanket. Not because they are incapable. Not because they are doing something wrong. But because this part of the work asks for a completely different set of skills than the ones most of us were trained to develop.

You can be a wonderful therapist. You can be deeply attuned, highly ethical, and genuinely effective with clients. And still, when it comes to getting those clients in the first place, you feel lost.

That is exactly why I wanted to have this conversation with Jenny Arroyo.

In this episode of Love, Happiness and Success for Therapists, I sat down with Jenny to talk about what private practice marketing actually requires, why so many therapists struggle to gain traction, and how to think about growth in a way that feels grounded, clear, and aligned with your values. Jenny Arroyo is the founder and owner of Strategy Solutions. Her journey into the world of business growth is fueled by a genuine passion for helping others succeed. What I appreciated right away is that she understands therapists. She is not handing out generic advice that could apply to any industry. She understands that for clinicians, marketing can stir up discomfort, confusion, and even self-doubt.

That gap is real. Most therapists learn how to listen, conceptualize, and support change. Very few learn how to write clear website copy, talk about their niche, explain their value, or create a client journey that makes sense to people who are just beginning to look for help. That is one reason The Marketing Secrets Every Therapist Needs to Know (But Was Never Taught) resonates with so many clinicians. It speaks to a truth that often goes unnamed. Many therapists are trying to grow a practice while also teaching themselves an entirely different professional language.

Why Private Practice Marketing Feels So Hard

One reason private practice marketing feels so heavy is that it rarely shows up by itself. It usually lands on top of an already full workload. Therapists are not only seeing clients. They are also handling documentation, scheduling, finances, consultations, and the emotional labor that comes with being present for people day after day. So when marketing enters the picture, it can feel like one more thing demanding energy that is already in short supply.

That context matters. The 2024 Practitioner Pulse Survey suggests that burnout remains a significant issue for psychologists, and APA’s article on when psychologists are most at risk of burnout highlights the particular strain many early-career clinicians carry (American Psychological Association, 2024a, 2024b). In other words, therapists are not imagining this. For a lot of people, private practice already asks a lot before marketing even enters the conversation.

That is why I think it helps to step back and ask thoughtful questions before assuming you simply need to push harder. If you are still deciding what kind of business you want to build, Should You Start a Private Practice as a Therapist? can help you think through the bigger picture. And if you are already in motion but trying to create something sustainable, How To Start a Private Therapy Practice (Without Burning Out or Going Broke) offers a more grounded way to approach the process. Because although private practice marketing matters, it works best when it supports a business model that actually fits your life.

What Private Practice Marketing Actually Requires

One of the most useful things Jenny said in this conversation is that private practice marketing is not really about doing everything. It is about getting the essentials right.

A lot of therapists begin with questions like, “Do I need social media?” “Should I start blogging?” “Do I need SEO?” Those are not bad questions. However, they are not the first questions. Before any strategy can really help, a more basic issue needs attention. If someone finds you, do they understand what they are seeing?

Do they know who you help? Do they understand what kind of work you do? Can they tell why you are credible? And just as importantly, do they know what to do next?

That may sound simple, but it is where many therapists get stuck. They know their own work so well that they accidentally speak from the inside out instead of from the outside in. As a result, a prospective client lands on the site, reads a few paragraphs, and still cannot quite tell whether this therapist is for them. That is not a clinical problem. It is a private practice marketing problem. And fortunately, it is a solvable one.

This is also why conversations like How to Get More Therapy Clients can be so useful. The answer is rarely some flashy trick. More often, it comes down to reducing friction. When the right person finds your work, your message needs to help them feel oriented, reassured, and clear about the next step.

Why Online Search Shapes Private Practice Marketing

At this point, most people look online before they reach out for support. That is not just a hunch. National data from the National Center for Health Statistics found that 58.5% of adults in the United States used the internet to look for health or medical information in the second half of 2022 (Wang & Cohen, 2023). More recent research on online health information seeking and preventative health actions suggests that this behavior continues across generations and connects with real-world health choices (Sinha & Serin, 2024).

That matters for private practice marketing because people are not only searching for information. They are also using digital signals to decide who feels trustworthy. A systematic review of what patients say about doctors online suggests that online patient reviews play an increasingly important role in provider choice (Hong et al., 2019). Likewise, a systematic review on different factors in web-based patients’ decision-making process found that profiles, ratings, and other online cues influence healthcare decisions (Shah et al., 2021). Additional reviews on the influence of online health information on health decisions and the effect of online health information seeking on physician-patient relationships reinforce the same broader point: what people find online shapes how they think, choose, and reach out for care (Thapa et al., 2021; Luo et al., 2022).

So when we talk about private practice marketing, we are really talking about visibility and clarity in the places where people are already looking. In many cases, your website or online presence becomes the first impression before any consultation ever happens.

How Private Practice Marketing Builds Trust Before the First Session

Therapy is different from most services because the relationship matters so much. Clients are not only choosing a set of credentials. They are choosing a person. They are asking themselves whether they feel understood, whether they can imagine opening up, and whether this therapist seems like someone they could trust.

That is one reason the research on the alliance feels so relevant here. A major meta-analysis on the alliance in adult psychotherapy found a consistent association between alliance and outcome (Flückiger et al., 2018). An updated systematic review on therapeutic alliance in individual adult psychotherapy reinforces that the alliance remains a robust predictor across adult psychotherapy, including online treatment (Flückiger et al., 2024).

Of course, the alliance itself develops in the therapy room. Still, private practice marketing often shapes the moment before that. It helps someone decide whether to click, whether to inquire, and whether to take the emotional risk of reaching out. If your message feels vague, generic, or hard to follow, people may leave before they ever give themselves the chance to discover that you are exactly who they needed.

That is also why Finding Your Niche as a Therapist matters so much. Your niche is not just a branding exercise. Instead, it is one of the clearest ways to help the right people recognize themselves in your work. The clearer your focus, the easier it becomes for the right clients to feel that spark of recognition.