Skip to main content
Repeat local

How therapists and counsellors get clients: a 90-day plan

How your buyer buys: Modest price, bought again and again. Retention is the whole economics.

Someone looking for a therapist has usually been thinking about it for weeks. When they finally search, they want a face, a specialism, a town and a fee, all on one screen. Counselling Directory and Psychology Today give them that, which is why those two profiles outrank any website you could build. The profile is step one; a site comes later.

The second route is a referral. GP practices, EAP providers, schools and full colleagues all pass names on when a specialism fits. They refer to people they know, so those relationships build slowly and hold for years. A clear written note of what you work with, and what you do not, makes you easy to refer.

The order follows from that. Make the profiles current and the first contact easy, because a hesitant enquirer gives you one chance. Then set out credentials, fees and terms, so nothing surprises them at the first session. Then build the referral network and the specialism pages that fill the diary month after month.

Step zero

The free checklist, before the plan.

The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.

The Therapist's DIY Growth Checklist

The free checklist for therapists and counsellors: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.

Useful content only, unsubscribe any time. See the privacy policy.

Where they look

Where your customers actually look.

Your year

When the phone rings, and when to start.

Enquiries rise after Christmas and again in September; August and December are quiet.

  1. Jan: peak
  2. Feb: peak
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun, start the visibility work
  7. Jul
  8. Aug: quiet
  9. Sep: peak
  10. Oct, start the visibility work
  11. Nov
  12. Dec: quiet

Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.

  • January to February peak: start by October, because local search takes about three months to move.
  • September peak: start by June, because local search takes about three months to move.

Enquiries rise after Christmas and again in September. Both follow a quiet month: December, when people wait, and August, when people are away. Directory profiles and specialism pages take a few months to move, so the work for the January wave starts in October, and the work for September starts in June. Use December and August for the slow jobs: the written agreement, the overflow arrangements, and the article you have been meaning to write.

The 90-day plan

Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.

Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.

Week 0

  1. Trade and sector directories

    Keep your Psychology Today and Counselling Directory profiles current: one lead specialism, your town, your fee and a recent photo

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 6 weeks
    In the kit

  2. Online booking

    Offer a 15-minute introductory call clients book themselves, plus a short written form for anyone who cannot face a call

    • Cost: ££
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks
    In the bundle

  3. Reply inside five minutes

    Reply to every first contact the same day with a warm, plain message and a next step

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result within a week
    In the kit and the bundle

Month 1

  1. Credentials a buyer can check

    List your qualifications, professional body and membership number, years in practice and how you work

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

  2. Published prices or bands

    State the fee in full, any concession rate, and whether the introductory call is free

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

  3. Reminders, deposits, cancellation policy

    Send a day-before reminder, and set out notice and payment terms once in the written agreement

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks

Months 2 to 3

  1. A page per service and per town

    A page for each specialism you want more of, with your town in the title

    • Cost: ££
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Google Business Profile, complete

    Claim your profile with your town and specialism, and hide the address if you work from home

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks
    In the bundle

  3. Rebook before they leave

    Hold the same day and time each week, and confirm the next session before the hour ends

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result within a week

Month 3 onward

  1. Gatekeeper partnerships

    Ask overflow colleagues, your supervision group and local GP practices to give your name when your specialism fits

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks

  2. Overflow and subcontract work

    Agree with two or three full practices nearby to pass on clients when either of you is full

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks

  3. Answer buying questions in writing

    Answer what people ask before booking, such as what a first session involves, one short article a month

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • About 1 hour a week
    • First result in 12 to 26 weeks
The cost of waiting

What doing nothing costs therapists and counsellors.

The leaks below are the ones the therapists and counsellors page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.

Industry estimates, not client results

Industry-typical ranges for a private practice counsellor: a session priced in the tens of pounds, about half of enquiries becoming a client after the first call, and a course of roughly a dozen further sessions.

Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.

Your numbers

Further purchases per won customer in a year

Baseline revenue on these figures: £4,900 a month, counting this month's new customers and a twelfth of their repeat business, plus a month of spend from the regulars below.

Your regular clients

Around twenty weekly clients in an established private practice, a few stopping early in a typical month. None of this plan's fixes is aimed at keeping clients in therapy, so they count towards revenue but not towards the gain.

Leaking now
£200 a month

Nothing in this plan is aimed at keeping regulars, so they count towards revenue here but not towards the gain.

Where it leaks

  • Drains enquiries

    Nobody finds you for 'counsellor in <your town>' searches

    Leaking now
    £386 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £154 a month
    The fix
    Local SEO (about £750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    21.1 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Enquiries arrive by phone at times you are in session

    Leaking now
    £225 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £135 a month
    The fix
    Discreet enquiry and booking (about £450 one-off)
    Pays back in
    14.4 weeks

  • Drains close rate

    Your profile is one of forty and differs only by photo

    Leaking now
    £225 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £90 a month
    The fix
    A practice website with a clear specialism (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    84.3 weeks

  • Drains close rate

    Your fees are hidden, so mismatched enquiries waste everyone's time

    Leaking now
    £100 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £50 a month
    The fix
    A practice website with a clear specialism (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    151.7 weeks

On these figures

£936 a month leaking

Fixing every leak above gets back about £429 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline.

The Full-Practice System (£1,895)
Pays back in 19.1 weeks
The Therapist Growth Kit (£49)
Pays back in under a week

On these figures the bundle takes longer than 13 weeks (90 days) to pay back for therapists and counsellors. The fields above are there to check that against your own numbers, which are the ones that count.

What matters most

The levers that carry the most weight here.

Three steps carry most of the weight. Directories, because a current Counselling Directory and Psychology Today profile is where almost every private client starts. Credentials and published fees, because the professional body, the membership number and the fee in full are what a nervous enquirer checks before they write. And gatekeeper partnerships, because GP practices, EAP providers, supervision groups and full colleagues send a steady flow once they know your specialism. There is no review step: soliciting client testimonials conflicts with the BACP and UKCP ethical frameworks.

See every lever for therapists and counsellors in the register

Reading for therapists and counsellors

All insights

If you would rather we did this for you

The same plan, built and run for therapists and counsellors: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.

See what we build for therapists and counsellors

Not sure which step comes first for your business?

The free audit asks about your trade, your numbers and your season, then ranks the fixes for you.

Get the free auditBack to the guide