How to Get More Clients as a Therapist

To build a steady client base for your therapy practice, consider identifying who you want to serve, strengthening your online presence, building strong referral relationships, and using online directories.

As a therapist, balancing the business and marketing tasks on top of your clinical responsibilities can be challenging, so it’s important to protect your capacity as you grow. Taking stock of what’s working and what isn’t can help you determine where to focus your marketing efforts and protect against burnout. 

How to get more clients as a therapist 

For many therapists, one of the major reasons for going into this profession is the desire to help people in a real, meaningful way. However, between this desire to help and the work of actually helping is an often-intimidating task that can seem completely outside the realm of what your education and training prepared you for: finding clients.

Developing a solid client base can be a significant challenge for many therapists, especially those who are just starting out. A recent study from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) found that 1 in 3 early-career marriage and family therapists cite growing a client base as their biggest challenge. 

The skills and work involved in growing a client base might seem worlds away from the clinical skills you’ve spent years honing and the work you’re most eager to do, but they may not actually be so far apart: doing the marketing and business tasks well can help you deliver even greater impact on the clinical side, and many of the skills you’re already well-versed in can be helpful when you’re trying to grow your practice. 

By effectively marketing your services and appealing to the clients you’re most equipped to help, you make it easier for clients to find the right therapist for their unique needs, which is crucial to treatment success. 

To do this well, you can draw on some of the skills you’re already an expert in to connect with potential clients before they ever step into a session: skills like meeting people where they are, making them feel seen and understood, and empowering them to take the next step on their healing journey. 

If you’re trying to figure out how to get clients for your therapy practice, detailed below are concrete steps you can take to get ahead of your caseload. It largely comes down to staying focused on who you want to serve and being intentional about how you show up when people are searching for therapy. 

Clarify who you want to serve

When you’re trying to grow your practice, it can be tempting to want to appeal to everybody, for fear that having a narrower focus might “limit” your client pool too much. However, many therapists find that having a more specific niche can actually make it easier to build a successful practice and generate a steady stream of clients.

Identifying an ideal client and specialty can make therapist marketing clearer and more effective, because when you have a specific niche in mind, you can tailor your marketing to speak directly to the clients you want to help. 

Finding your niche will depend on your areas of expertise, but some examples could include:

• Young adults navigating life transitions
• Adults managing ADHD and autism
• Couples coping with infertility
• Older adults living with chronic illness 

As you build your caseload, you might consider taking on both insurance and self-pay clients to give you multiple avenues for growth within your niche. 

Strengthen your online presence

These days, having a strong online presence is often a major component of marketing for therapists. 

If you’re trying to determine how to get more therapy clients online, it can help to start by reviewing and updating your website to ensure you’re making a positive first impression that resonates with your ideal clients and makes it easy for them to take the next step.  

For a strong therapist website, the following elements are often essential: 

• A warm headshot
• A compelling bio that details your training, education, background, and expertise 
• A clear explanation of your specialties
• The modalities you offer (e.g., CBT, EMDR, DBT, etc.)
• The cost of sessions, insurance acceptance, and payment options
• Your office location or telehealth options
• A simple, straightforward next step to book a session or request a consult 

As you’re trying to find more clients, you may find that offering both in-person and online therapy helps you reach more people. For many people interested in therapy, barriers like transportation, busy schedules, and therapy stigma can make in-person appointments difficult. By offering online therapy in addition to in-person care, you may have an easier time building a robust caseload. 

Use directories and local search thoughtfully

Another way to connect with more potential clients online is to use directories and local search options, depending on what aligns with your background, specialties, and goals. There are many different online directories that you can explore getting listed in, with options ranging from large general directories and professional associations to modality-specific directories and more. 

Some options include: 

• Find Your Therapist Directory from the Anxiety & Depression Association of America 
• Therapist Locator from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy 
• Psychologist Locator from the American Psychological Association
• Find-a-Therapist Directory from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies 

If the marketing and business tasks are feeling like too much to handle on your own, you can also explore joining an online therapy platform like BetterHelp. When you join BetterHelp as a therapist, you not only get listed in the online directory, but you can also get matched with clients directly without having to do any of the marketing legwork. Plus, the BetterHelp team will handle administrative tasks like insurance credentialing and billing for you, giving you more time to focus on client care.

Build referral relationships that last

Beyond the online approaches for growing your client base, cultivating strong referral relationships with other professionals and community organizations can also be powerful for your business. 

Potential referral sources might include: 

• Fellow therapists with full caseloads or different specialties 
• Physicians and psychiatrists
• School counselors 
• Aligned local organizations

Referrals can be particularly valuable, as they often turn into clients more readily than other forms of traffic since trust is already partially established.

Make it easier for inquiries to become clients

Finding clients isn’t just about getting eyes on your website and inquiries about your services; it’s about turning those views and inquiries into clients. 

Some ways to make the process smoother for your potential clients include:

• Responding promptly and keeping communications clear, warm, and human
• Offering brief initial consults when appropriate
• Simplifying online scheduling and intake forms 
• Reducing confusion and friction around fees, logistics, and next steps 

Track what works and protect your capacity

As a therapist, you already have so much on your plate, and the risk of burnout is very real. Having to juggle many different marketing channels on top of everything else can easily become overwhelming, so it’s important to take an intentional, methodical approach, making sure to protect your capacity as you grow (and get support for yourself when you need it). 

To do so, it can be helpful to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. For instance, you might keep an eye on: 

• Where your inquiries are coming from 
• How often inquiries turn into clients and what factors impact conversion
• Which months are busier and which are slower 

Based on the patterns you’re seeing, you can double down on the approaches that are working and take a step back from the ones that aren’t.