I have previously written about how the journey to create a practice can be a part of our journey towards personal integration. In my previous articles, I wrote about the first two pillars of a therapy practice in this context. You can find these articles here (The Business of Therapy: A Journey Towards Integration?) and here (Integrating Therapy and Business: Making Our Practice Our Own).

The third pillar of a successful therapy practice is about bringing in clients. Essentially, without clients there is no practice. There is no one to practice our skills with. So, for the self-employed therapist, this pillar cannot be skipped. We have to take some action to attract clients.

Marketing can be a challenge. Most therapists are kind, generous, giving souls. So much so, that they often find it difficult to receive. Or to ask for something for themselves. Or to praise themselves. And while the giving side of their personalities is obviously an asset in the work, it can be a disadvantage when it comes to marketing.

A key part of marketing is making the business visible to potential clients. Many of us have learned at an early age that being visible may not be desirable, and that some parts of ourselves are better kept hidden. Hiding parts of ourselves takes energy and creates a fuzzy picture in the minds of others. Being visible means being willing to be seen, not just in those parts of ourselves that are acceptable, the kind, warm, helpful sides, but also the grumpy, awkward, messy sides too. Won’t that turn clients away? Haven’t we been told from an early age that “No one likes…” Perhaps, but ironically, people tend to be drawn more to those who are authentically and openly themselves. The journey to congruence is one that supports us, not just in the therapy room, or in our personal journeys, but also in bringing clients into the room.

Marketeers are the spell casters of our world, spinning the illusion or the fantasy of what their product might bring to a potential buyer. Few of us want to be associated with manipulating or coercing people into buying something they don’t want or need. However, in an effort to not coerce or manipulate, we can err on the side of caution, and position ourselves by reference to what we don’t want to be, only at the other end of the scale, invisible. It’s safe, but it’s not going to make you easy for a client to find.

It can be hard to ask for work, or for anything. It raises the spectre of disappointment. Past rejection or refusal of support can be made into a self-fulfilling prophecy. When something is a well-established pattern, it becomes invisible to us, taking instead a right of place. It becomes “just the way it is,” or in other words, our truth. But it does not have to be true for us that marketing ourselves will make bad things happen. It does not have to be true that in making ourselves more visible to potential clients that we become pushy and aggressive.

Marketing can bring us face to face with our beliefs and prejudices about businesses and entrepreneurs. Perhaps we like to think of ourselves as a little bit above the grubbiness of doing something for money? And perhaps we do ourselves no favours, or our clients for that matter!

Learning to market our practices can be a valid part of our journey towards being more authentically ourselves. If we allow it.

How might you be contributing to your invisibility? Where might you pull back when faced with promoting your practice? Might you be able to stretch yourself just a little more?

If I can help you with any aspect of attracting the clients you’d like, please contact me. I offer a free 20 minute consultation. Contact me here.