Shameless Self-Promotion: Marketing Matters In Therapy

Recently, I have been thinking about the importance of putting good stuff out there–boldly and well-presented. A huge part of my mission as a NYC therapist is to market myself the best I possibly can.

Marketing is so often conceived as a dirty word. The reality, though, is that when you’re searching for a therapist, unless you’ve got a great referral, the material you’re combing through is marketing–whether we like to think of it that way or not. I’m a big believer in choice–the more information you have, the more likely you are to find your way to something that’s right for you.

Transparency In Therapy

Therapy has traditionally constructed a secretive aura. Therapists cast themselves as blank slates who would never share even the slightest personal detail (and for some extremists, the slightest smile). Further, the process itself is shrouded in mystery. It’s hard for most therapy-seekers to make sense of the idea of just how this therapy thing is supposed to help and I suspect that’s how many therapists prefer it. It invokes a status and presumes a highly specialized skill. It protects the therapist from criticism because a lay person isn’t expected to understand what it is they would or wouldn’t criticize to begin with.

This not only leaves therapy-seekers fumbling around in the dark, it’s a setup for abuse–be it sexual abuse, coercion or simply bad therapy. Why? People often seek therapy at moments when they are most vulnerable. Even under the best of circumstances, sorting out what kind of therapy one needs and how to assess what’s good or not good can be a challenge. Transparency is the antidote to this for two reasons: First, of course,  it gives a therapy-seeker more to go on. Secondly, a therapist who puts himself or herself out there in the world and who is upfront about what he or she thinks about issues that matter related to emotionality is making a statement about therapy itself. They are essentially saying therapy need not be a mysterious activity, in which the therapist keeps certain parts of the magic, as it were, hidden behind a curtain. It establishes, before the therapy even begins, that the therapist values openness.

Shameless Self-Promotion Can Help You Choose The Right Therapist

That icky word–marketing–is one of the ways that we can turn the lights on. It gives therapy-seekers an opportunity to examine how a therapist presents him or herself–their politics, their style and what seems important to them. It’s not a substitute for sitting in their office, but it can help a therapy-seeker decide whose office to start with.

I find marketing valuable as well in helping people determine who they don’t want to work with. If the nature of how a therapist expresses him or herself is off-putting (or the fact that he or she is expressing him or herself at all!) then patients have the information they need to decide to move on.

Marketing In Our NYC Therapy Practice

We do, of course, a good deal of marketing in our NYC therapy practice (writing this post being an example of one of the ways that looks). It’s easy to see how that influences the work we do in our practice. People seeking help come to us with some sense of who we are and it’s easy to get the sense that they made an informed choice about reaching out. Is there still much to learn? Of course. But we’ve established a certain measure of openness and mutuality right from the start.