What You Learned In Grad School is Ruining Your Website (and 10 ways to fix it)

Boundaries. I LOVE boundaries. If you’ve read anything I’ve ever written about practice-building, you’ll see that I find ways to infuse the importance of healthy, unapologetic boundaries. It’s the cornerstone of what makes a practice flourish. If you don’t have healthy boundaries, your business and your clients are going to stay stuck. What I am about to say may sound contrary to this, but there's a huge distinction between healthy boundaries and rigid boundaries.

Here are the erroneous messages we internalize from grad school that screw up our websites: 1. Have rigid boundaries. Grad schools tend to proselytize rigid boundaries and can be pretty anti-self-disclosure. I get it. Their programs are usually full of students with limited clinical and life experience, many of whom are in these programs to try to figure themselves out. Let’s not endorse a session full of chit-chat about the therapist’s problems. I understand the utility in being overly cautious, especially with new folks who may not be able to determine when self-disclosure isn’t appropriate.

2. Be a "professional". We’re also taught to be super-professional. Younger therapists are often the most over-dressed in any agency. We try to use $5 words and our CV’s are brimming with formality.

We take those values to our first jobs and maybe the 10 foot barrier between our humanity and our clients’ chips away slightly. Maybe we realize it’s not the end of the world if we tear up when our client’s vulnerability and pain takes our breath away. Maybe we give up needing to impress our clients and our colleagues with our psychobabble and imperviousness.

3. Sound smart. Often when we venture out into private practice, we keep that damned overly professional hat on. Our websites are a smattering of theoretical orientation blah blah blah and haughty language about our accomplishments and then nothing compelling about why potential clients should get in touch with you. If you took out the picture, you probably couldn’t tell the difference from one clinician’s website to another’s.

4. Don't be a salesperson. Then there’s the fact that some websites were built without any regard for a little thing called visual appeal. Listen up: people decide whether or not to explore your site in three seconds. If it looks like it was built in 1998, they're going to hit the back button. We weren’t taught how to market in grad school and there may have been some anti-marketing sentiment. You can’t afford to buy into that anymore. The clients that would really benefit from your unique approach won’t give you a chance if your website is unappealing.

Now I know some of you are going to say that your referrals aren’t coming from people randomly searching and I totally agree. But your potential clients were probably given three names and if your client doesn’t connect to your website copy (what you’ve written), or they don't even read it, they are going to call the competition.

All is not lost!

Here’s how to make things right: 4. Please write in the first person. Everyone knows you are writing your own “About Me.” It sounds pretentious to write in the third person. Allison Puryear is an LCSW with a nearly diagnosable obsession with business development. She has started practices in three different states and wants you to know that building a private practice is shockingly doable when you have a plan and support. After retiring her individual consultation services, she opened the Abundance Party, where you can get practice-building help for the cost of a copay. You can download a free private practice checklist to make sure you have your ducks in a row, get weekly private practice tips, listen to the podcast, hop into the free Facebook Group. Allison is all about helping you gain the confidence and tools you need to succeed.