Growing a DC Metro Area Psychotherapy Practice

Introduction

Andrew Darby approached us to help build a website for his growing DC-area therapy practice, Darby Integrative Counseling.

He differentiated his practice by providing a greater quality-of-service to clients than what’s possible under the traditional insurance model of providing mental health services.

On top of that, his business model is not just that of a therapy practice, but also that of a “therapist-client matchmaker,” (but we’ll go more into that at the end of this case study).

Andrew’s long-term goal was to expand his practice to serve clients nationwide, but at the time we began working together, he focused on 3 immediate needs:

• Getting more out-of-network clientele (and therapists to support them)
• Improving brand communications to clients and therapists
• A website that could support both a growing amount of traffic and content, and a growing number of therapists to showcase to clientele seeking therapy

In short, Andrew needed to attract two important populations: therapists and clients.

Darby’s Biggest Challenges

Andrew initially asked if he could have a better-looking website created, but the “look” itself isn’t even the top priority.

Design is about the way something looks and functions in a way that provides real utility to your business.

We refer prospective clients elsewhere if, after consultation, we don’t believe they have clear articulated business challenges that we could help them resolve through the design of a website.

Andrew’s business suffered from four main problems online:

1. Lack of infrastructure to support growth of his website (and by extension, the rest of his online presence)
2. Lack of data to support client (and therapist) acquisition online
3. Lack of a visual brand identity to support recognition and trust among his target market
4. Lack of proper positioning to sufficiently target his ideal clientele and therapists online

But in Andrew’s case, his challenges and goals were a perfect fit for us to work on.

Challenge #1: Lack of Infrastructure → Growth Nightmare

First off, Andrew built his website from scratch using Google Sites’ page builder, a do-it-yourself solution that doesn’t offer much flexibility or infrastructure to build a site on.

That’s fine for a business just getting started for the first time.

But Andrew’s business was already growing, yet his entire site consisted of one page for everything:

• every single therapist’s biography
• every announcement
• every blog post
• and everything else.

Here’s just a peek at what that looked like:

Apart from the fact that this was a poor experience for visitors to the site…

…maintaining it became a nightmare.

As his business grew, Andrew had to manage dozens of therapists, group therapy offerings, job listings, etc…

…and edit every single thing, in several different places, every time anything at all changed in the slightest.

Like we said… nightmare. And we weren’t having any of it.

So we committed to building the infrastructure required to fix it.

Solution: How we solved the infrastructure problem so Andrew could scale comfortably online

First, we scrapped his entire DIY site and rebuilt it professionally from scratch.

Then, we made it a breeze for Andrew to manage the “moving parts” of his website all from one dashboard.

When we say “moving parts,” we’re referring to things like:

• therapist listings
• group offerings
• job openings
• modalities
• areas of specialization
• FAQs
• blog posts
• and more…

…and then we created “relationships” between them so Andrew could link (and unlink) them together without making edits in a thousand different places.

Any change at all, and it shows up across the whole site (with no weird breaks or glitches). No thinking about it: it just works.

And the superpowers he gets from this?

1. the ability to automate and outsource at lesser expense of both time and money.
2. the ability to grow his business and have his website scale with it effortlessly

Then on the public-facing part of the site, we created an interface where users can “shop” for their ideal therapist using filters before even filling out a questionnaire.

👇Yes, just like your favorite shopping site… but with therapists👇

Thousands of hours and dollars saved—and headaches gone—in an instant.

Challenge #2: Lack of Data Insights → Poor Client Acquisition Strategy

Andrew would close clients after they submitted a HIPAA-secured questionnaire.

There were two glaring issues, though…

First, Andrew had no web analytics of any kind.

This meant he had no insight into:

• how much traffic his site was getting…
• or how many visitors were clicking his “Book an Appointment” button.

None.

Second, he also had no form analytics of any kind.

He only knew who finished his questionnaires (because of course those prospects hit the “submit” button).

But he had no way of knowing who started, but never finished.

In other words? His acquisition funnel was leaky, and he didn’t even have any data to tell him where the leaks were.

Solution: Setting Up Analytics and New Lead Forms so Andrew Could Make Data-Driven Decisions

So, we got to work and set up:

• web and server-side Google Tag Manager with Google Analytics 4 to provide on-site analytics
• conversion tags to let Andrew know in real-time how many users were clicking his “Schedule an Appointment” form and how many made it through the form to ultimately land on the “Thank you” page.
• Google Search console to track his positioning and traffic from the Google search engine
• anonymization to respect the privacy of visitors
• new lead generation forms using HIPAA-compliant Jotform for it’s own built-in analytics.

No more marketing with blinders on.

Andrew now knew in real-time:

• how many users were on his site
• what they clicked on and how far they scrolled on any given page
• where they came from
• how they left

…all without identifying the users themselves (out of respect for HIPAA).

Challenge #3: Lack of Visual Branding → Poor Recognition and Trust

Darby’s self-built site was visually chaotic and had no clear or consistent branding.

His social media content, Google Business Profile, physical marketing materials, and website all had inconsistent logos, layouts, fonts, and brand voice…

…and we can’t fault him for any of this: he was doing it all himself as a therapist, not a designer.

For one, here’s the logo he was using:

Not bad for a guy doing it all himself with zero prior experience, but it didn’t “stick to the brain.”

It was too “anatomical” and “detailed” like something out of an anatomy book or medical journal.

But he wasn’t publishing an anatomy book or medical journal.

He was running a therapy practice…

…which requires emphasis on empathy, understanding, and healing. The imagery should communicate that.

We committed to recreating his brand’s visual identity to solve this.

Solution: We built brand assets to inspire recognition and trust among Darby’s target markets

Recall that Andrew’s initial brand assets didn’t “stick to the brain.”

The Logo

When deciding on a new logo as part of a larger visual identity, Darby wanted his brand to continue to embody his ethos:

Therapy should be holistic, healing both the heart and mind, and bringing them in alignment with each other.

Andrew Darby, Executive Director of Darby Integrative Counseling

So we changed his logo from this…

…to this…

Much better:

• No super-detailed anatomical lines or gradients.
• No layering different graphics on top of each other.
• Nice, simple, and “sticks to the brain.”

Additionally, keeping it simple means future brand assets like icons, subsidiary logos, and other graphical elements will be simple, too.

The Color Palette

For the color palette, we wanted something that communicated trust, understanding, professionality, and competence above all else.

We settled on a somewhat “muted” navy blues and warm colors to complement them.

Why these colors?

• Dark navy blues tend to embody professionality, trustworthiness, and competence.
• Lighter shades of muted navy blues embody understanding, soothing, and calm.
• A warm and muted “golden hour” color embodies warmth, hope, and empathy.

We demonstrate their use below:

You might see empathetic and hope-filled photographic elements like this:

…or maybe more clinical photos where professionality is the top emphasis:

Challenge #4: Poor Positioning → Poor Targeting

Andrew was being “commoditized”—viewed as roughly the same as his most basic competitors—because he didn’t differentiate himself. He simply stated:

• “who his practice is”
• “what his practice does”
• “who his practice serves”

…but left it at that. This likely contributed to him getting leads for therapists and clients who were:

• unqualified
• uncommitted
• otherwise not a great fit

…and that’s because “leaving it at that” positioned his practice as just another “choice among many.”

Solution: We Tailored Andrew’s Communication to Engage the Right People

Andrew didn’t want his practice to be a “choice among many…”

…so his practice needed to become a “choice among few.”

In other words, Andrew needed to “reposition” himself in the eyes of competitors, prospective clients, and prospective therapists.

That meant he would need to differentiate his practice from his commoditized competitors entirely.

Instead of the mosaic of faces above, his new circle of competitors might look about this size:

Still competitive, but way less overwhelming. And the prospect pool is smaller, too.

Sounds like a bad thing? It isn’t—disqualifying poor prospects is the only way to reveal the ones who are truly serious.

And the most serious prospects don’t just care about what they’re buying…

…they care about who they’re buying it from—and they won’t take anyone at their word alone (nor should they).

And that’s why we needed to make their perception of Andrew “line up” with what Andrew’s actually building.

Targeting by population

We used targeted sales copy and imagery that speaks directly to each target population in a way that they’re most likely to be receptive.

We’ll re-state the demographic targets below:

• self-paying “out-of-network” clients
  • especially those identifying as members of marginalized populations
  • especially those addressing trauma and addictions
• and therapists who wish to serve them.

We touch on each of them below.

Note: While the following generalizations are useful for guiding communication, none of them are exclusive to any one of these groups. Most people tend to have a lot of crossover among their “top of mind” priorities.

Self-Pay “Out-of-Network” Clientele

Self-pay “out-of-network” clientele are understandably particular about what services they spend their hard-earned money on—especially since reimbursement from an insurance company is hit-or-miss when it comes to out-of-network providers.

They therefore tend to be more methodical about the way they look for service providers of any kind.

Above all else, this demographic seeks out signs of competency and trust, prioritizing the quality of services offered and the qualifications of who performs them.

Clients from marginalized populations

Clients from marginalized populations—e.g. BIPOC, LGTBQ+, etc.—like any other group, tend to seek out signs that their therapist is experienced and empathetic to struggles that are unique to them. This may include:

• “external” challenges such as racially- or gender-motivated discriminations and aggressions
• “internal” challenges such as those with self-identification

Clients facing trauma and addiction

For those facing traumas and addictions, language needed to:

• be empathetic (as any therapist must be)
• heavily emphasize hope for recovery
• acknowledge their distress (without overwhelming these clients with further reminders of it)
• demonstrate a deep understanding of the emotions, fears, doubts, triggers, and other obstacles that this demographic faces in building a foundation for recovery.

Out-of-Network Therapists who wish to serve this clientele

Just as important as attracting clients is having skilled therapists who are competently prepared and motivated to serve them.

• make their own hours
• choose their own clients
• charge their own fees
• have administrative tasks handled for them
• focus on trauma/addiction/marginalized communities

So, clearly we need to tailor copy and UX for these targets, but we also needed to account for decision-making behavior.

Targeting by decision-making behavior

OLD NOTES

• improvement of branding leads to:
  • better communication to their clientele in need
  • better ability to scale and automate
• improvement of marketing/client engagement leading to more time to focus on clients and other business needs
• talk more about clients in need, not insurance
• how you helped them scale
• improved communications
• improved branding
• improved automation
• liked focus on client-centered care and good fit
• increased out-of-network clients because of a website that supported growth of the practice and a better brand communication

What made us really want to work with Andrew?

His vision.

Andrew wanted to provide a quality-of-service to clients much greater than what is possible when insurance companies are involved.

Darby Integrative Counseling isn’t your “typical” therapy practice.

What does this mean? Let’s start by summarizing the typical client’s therapy practice experience.

Pretend for a moment that you’re seeking therapy to help work through trauma.

The average practice will employ a wide variety of therapists. You’ll walk in, give them your insurance card, and if you’re covered, you get up to an hour of their time that day for them to listen and provide feedback. Then you’ll leave, your insurance will be billed, you’ll pay your co-pay, and life will go on until your next appointment.

After your first session, you might feel a little better—and that’s good because just taking the step of getting help can cultivate hope.

But naturally, you might feel that it’s still too early to be 100% sure about this therapist yet. And you won’t truly know until the two of you really get into the “deep stuff” over time.

That’s perfectly normal, but the problem shows up just a few sessions in—or if you’ve gone looking for a new therapist before, maybe even immediately: insurance.

Why insurance makes it nearly impossible to find one’s “true match” therapist

Most clients rely on insurance to pay for their therapy. A significant number of these clients feel that they would benefit from more appointments, for more than one hour, on a more frequent basis.

But most insurance plans limit the amount of time and number of sessions they’re willing to cover for a client over the course of a year. More importantly, these insurance companies also limit the cost they are willing to cover per session.

Therapy practices who rely on insurance can’t do anything about this without hurting their client’s ability to pay (or their ability to keep their practice running).

The only thing they can do? Get more clients (and more therapists to see them).

And there’s plenty of therapists to go around.

In fact, there’s so many to go around that clients find it overwhelming to find a therapist that fits their needs and personality.

This leaves a lot of clients with “cold” options to choose from. We say “cold” because many clients prefer to approach a therapist who was recommended to them by someone they trust, and the alternative would be to seek out testimonials, which for privacy reasons, many don’t exist.

In other words, the client experience of finding a therapist is similar to dating in 2024: there’s plenty of suitors, but they often find themselves in the same lackluster relationship with a different face. Something critical is missing.

How Darby Integrative Counseling aims to solve this “matching problem”

All therapists who work with Darby are 1099 contractors who:

• don’t accept insurance (except some BCBS)
• make their own fees (including sliding scale)
• decide their own schedule
• decide their session lengths for their clients
• choose and attract their own clients

“That’s great, but how does that help me as someone looking for a therapist?”

It means if you, for example, need:

• 90-minute EMDR therapy sessions…
• with a therapist who is LGBT- and trauma-informed…
• who can see you in-person on weekends and late evenings…

…you can have it.

Or as another example, if you’re a 35-year-old executive who needs:

• 75-minute CBT sessions virtually…
• with a therapist who is experienced serving clients who…
  • live high-profile lifestyles…
  • with limited time resources…

…you can be matched with exactly that therapist.

And? Since this therapist chooses their own fees, hours, and clients, you’re significantly more likely to find that they’re a made-in-heaven match because they chose you, too.

Knowing this makes the experience better because it feels more like the trust is already “built-in,” and that energy tends to remain consistent throughout the therapist-client relationship.

No more lackluster experiences trying to find a therapist who is right for you in a sea of Better Help profile pictures.