Marketing a therapy private practice or group practice in the US

How people find and choose a therapist

Short answer: most therapy clients refer themselves. They search on their phone, often late in the evening, and compare clinicians on fit, specialty, insurance and availability. Referrals from physicians matter, but even a referred client usually looks you up before calling.

That makes therapy different from most medical specialties. A cardiology patient follows the referral. A therapy client is choosing a person they will talk to every week, so they read bios, look at photos and try to judge whether this clinician will understand them. Practices that publish a clear, warm page for each clinician win more first contacts than practices with a single "Our team" grid.

• Insurance versus self-pay: many solo clinicians are out of network, while group practices often take several commercial plans and, increasingly, Medicare. Since January 1, 2024, licensed marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors can bill Medicare directly, which opens a new referral stream for practices that enroll.
• Fit signals: specialties, client ages, modalities (CBT, EMDR, DBT skills, couples methods), languages, identity-affirming care and whether sessions are in person, online or both.
• Speed: people often contact several practices at once. The one that answers or replies first usually books the intake.
• Privacy: clients want to share as little as possible before the first conversation. Short forms convert better than long questionnaires.

Google Business Profile and the review problem

Short answer: make the profile complete and accurate, and treat reviews differently from other specialties, because your ethics codes restrict asking for them.

• Categories: choose the closest primary category (for example psychotherapist, counselor, family counselor or mental health service) and add secondary categories only where they are true.
• Address: list a real office where clients are seen. Telehealth-only practices should not invent a storefront; Google may suspend profiles that misrepresent location.
• Services and description: name your specialties, client ages, languages, accepted insurance and whether you offer evening or weekend sessions.
• Photos: the waiting room, therapy rooms and the entrance. People want to know what walking in will feel like.

Reviews: what the ethics codes say

APA Standard 5.05 says psychologists do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients or others vulnerable to undue influence. The ACA Code (C.3.b) and the NASW Code (4.07) contain similar language for counselors and social workers. Many state licensing boards fold these codes into their rules. In practice, most therapy practices do not run review-request campaigns with clients. Some invite feedback from referral partners or colleagues on platforms where that is allowed, and many simply let reviews arrive on their own.

Replies need equal care. Never confirm that a reviewer is or was a client, even if they posted under their own name. A short, general reply works: "Thank you for taking the time to share this. We can't discuss anyone's care here, but we welcome a call to our office." The FTC's rule on consumer reviews (effective October 21, 2024) also bans fake reviews, buying reviews and suppressing negative ones.

Google Ads and Meta: what you can and can't do

• Google: health is a sensitive interest category, so advertisers cannot use customer match, their own data segments or lookalike audiences. Search campaigns on specialty and location keywords still work well. Write ads around the service ("Couples counseling in Plano, evening sessions") and send each one to the matching page.
• Prescribing: if your group includes psychiatric prescribers, Google requires certification to keyword-target prescription drug terms, and telehealth prescribing has its own certification. Pure talk-therapy practices are not affected.
• Meta: ads cannot assert or imply a personal attribute, including mental health. Meta's own examples allow "Depression counseling" and reject "Depression getting you down? Get help now." Avoid "you" plus a condition.
• Meta data limits: Meta classifies many healthcare advertisers' data sources and can block standard events such as leads. Do not try to work around this by renaming events that carry health details.
• Budget focus: put most paid spend behind clinicians with open caseload, and pause ads for full clinicians. Nothing wastes money faster than booking intakes you can't seat.

Compliance specific to therapy marketing

• HIPAA marketing rule: using client information for marketing generally requires written authorization (45 CFR 164.508(a)(3)). That covers testimonials, case stories and even "thank you" posts that identify a client.
• Tracking technology: HHS guidance warns that pixels on scheduling and portal pages can disclose protected health information. A federal court vacated one part of that guidance in June 2024, but the rest stands, and the FTC has acted against an online counseling company for sharing client data with ad platforms. See our HIPAA-safe tracking guide.
• Licensure and telehealth: advertise telehealth only in states where each clinician is licensed or holds a PSYPACT or Counseling Compact privilege.
• Claims: the FTC requires competent and reliable scientific evidence for health claims. Describe approaches honestly; avoid "cure", guaranteed timelines and outcome percentages you can't document.
• State boards: psychology, counseling, social work and marriage and family therapy boards each have advertising rules, often on titles and credentials. Start with our state board hub and check your own board.
• Texts and calls: appointment reminders and reactivation texts need the right consent under the TCPA (TCPA guide).

A 30/60/90-day plan for a therapy practice

Related pages from the US team