Many therapists hold back from choosing a niche because of one big worry: “I’m not an expert, so how can I specialise?”

In this episode of Good Enough Counsellors, Josephine challenges the myth that you need years of expertise before you can choose a niche. She shares her own story of how her niche “found her,” explains why expertise grows through focus and experience, and offers gentle encouragement for anyone feeling “too ordinary” to stand out.

You’ll hear:

• Why “I need to be an expert first” is one of the biggest myths about niching
• How your interests, life experience, and placement clients can guide you
• Why clients are drawn to clarity, not to people who try to do everything
• How a niche helps you naturally build expertise over time

Plus: Josephine shares details of her October workshops in Therapy Growth Group, where she’ll be helping therapists explore and refine their niches, and a free handout to test whether your niche idea is viable.

Download the Niche Selection Scoring Sheet HERE

Setting up in private practice? Download my free checklist HERE

Need ideas for how to get clients? Download my free handout 21 Ways for Counsellors to Attract New Clients HERE

You can also find me here:

The Good Enough Counsellors Facebook Group

Josephine Hughes on Facebook

Josephine Hughes on YouTube

My website: josephinehughes.com

Keywords

marketing, therapists, niche, imposter syndrome, expertise, private practice, client attraction, lived experience, personal growth, Therapy Growth Group

The information contained in Good Enough Counsellors is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this podcast.

You might be surprised to hear that I don't have a degree in marketing. So what am I doing running a podcast on marketing for therapists? It's because what I do have these years of lived experience, trial and error, learning and listening to therapists about how they get clients and over time lots of feedback that my help works. It's just the same with finding your niche. You don't wait until you're an expert. You grow into it step by step.

Welcome to Good Enough Counsellors, the podcast for growing a private practice without the pressure to be perfect.

I'm Josephine Hughes, counsellor and creator of Therapy Growth Group, helping you get the clients you want and create the practice of your dreams.

And in today's episode, I'm responding to a post in the Good Enough Counsellors community. Now, a counsellor said something that I think will resonate with a lot of you. They were aware that they needed to do more marketing, but they weren't quite sure on what to specialise in. They were experiencing imposter syndrome because they said, I haven't got the knowledge and the expertise to say that I can specialise in a particular area.

And I think this is probably true of a lot of you, especially if you're just starting out in private practice. You're probably telling yourself, I don't have that expertise. It takes years to build it up. I'm just starting out. So I can't possibly say that I have a particular niche. And I do get that. And that's why I'm doing this particular episode this week to try and help you tackle this idea of "I'm only just starting out. I don't specialise in anything in particular. So how can I say I've got a niche?"

And the reason why I really wanted to talk about this today is that having something that makes you stand out from the crowd is really helpful. But it's a big stumbling block if you think that you've got to wait before you can say you can specialise.

There's thousands and thousands of therapists in private practice and you only need to start searching for a particular issue on one of the directories to discover that it is sometimes like searching for a needle in a haystack. I've had personal experience of this myself recently. It really is difficult when you're looking for someone to help you with a particular thing to find out who can actually help you, because most people will say that they can help you.

But often, what you're looking for is not just someone who's ticked a box, you're actually looking for the proof that they work with that particular issue. And that means that for you as the therapist, you've got to talk about that particular thing that someone is looking for. And of course, if you try to cover everything, you're going to have a profile that is just pages long. So it really does help to focus down so that people can find you more easily.

There's a famous phrase in marketing which is if you try to speak to everyone, you'll speak to no one. And that's often the problem we have. We don't want to narrow down. We're frightened that we haven't got the expertise that we need. And so we try to speak more generally to people. But that means if someone's looking, you're no different to anyone else.

And I just want to share something that my calendar said today because it's rather spooky that on the day I decided to speak about niching, this is what my calendar said. And it said, no one made a difference to the world by being like everyone else. I'll say that again. No one made a difference to the world by being like everyone else.

But we often try and hide by sticking to what feels safe, and that is often being like everyone else. So what we're talking about today is helping you and encouraging you to feel a little bit braver about saying, yes, this is what I like to work with. So in this podcast, I really am going to dig deep into this myth around expertise and also touch a little bit on how you can identify a niche for yourself if you're not relying on already being a specialist.

So let's get started and think about the idea that you have to be an expert before you can specialise. And if you think about it, who actually starts off as an expert? An expert is someone who has worked with lots of people, who has built up that knowledge, who's had exposure to all sorts of different cases so that they can recognise what's unusual, they can see how things fit in and they're able to bring that knowledge and experience to the table. So if you're just starting out you're probably listening to that and thinking well yeah that's exactly what I'm saying, I'm not an expert so how can I say that I can be someone who has a niche.

Well, the fact is, experts have to start somewhere, don't they? I'm just going to give you an example of this from my own practise. So when I started out, I did say as a sort of extra bit in my profile that one of the things that I'd done is I'd worked with some parents when they had sadly experienced the death of their baby. That was something that I hadn't done a lot of it, you know, I'd maybe worked with maybe three or four parents that that had happened with, but I felt that I knew enough to be able to support people with that. And what I found over time is that very gradually I began to attract people who were actually working with the situation of involuntary childlessness, so they hadn't been able to conceive in the first place. And if you'd asked me at the start, is this an area that you think you could specialise in, I would definitely have said no.

It isn't part of my lived experience. It isn't something that I'd particularly worked with, but people were seeking me out because they recognised that I understood something around grief and about loss when you're that sort of age when you're having babies. And so very gradually, I did actually build up that knowledge. I learned more about it. I listened to my clients and I was really able to support and help people who came to me

with that particular area, but it wasn't something that I started out with.

And this brings me on to the next point is that sometimes you don't actually find your niche, but your niche finds you. You don't have to wait until you become an expert. And it's through the work that you do that you actually build up that expertise. And I think we often think about, you know, that old expression, we're putting the cart before the horse, and it just stops us dead. We think, well, I can't work with this because I'm not an expert, but how can we build up the expertise unless we work with it?

So let's have a little think now. It might be just worth asking yourself, what kinds of clients or issues keep showing up for you? Are there themes that you find you're constantly being drawn back?

to, even if you don't feel like an expert yet, that might be your niche actually starting to find you. So be aware of that as you're working with people, as you're listening and as they're telling you why it is that they chose you. And let's have a little think about if you haven't got that expertise or specialism already, how you could actually think about a niche. And I think it's really worth thinking about, you know, what am I interested in?

What do you enjoy talking about? What do you enjoy reading about? What do you get excited about? Ask yourself what life experience you're bringing to the table. What have you already gone through as part of your journey? And remember this bit, because we're going to come back to it in a little while. What personal insights have you got that can connect you to certain clients? And the other thing that might be worth asking yourself is,

What types of clients did I enjoy working with on my placement? Were there any issues that I found particularly energising? The fact is, is you don't need a PhD in a subject to work with it. What you do need is that interest, that curiosity, and a commitment to work with it, to do your CPD, to continue your learning. That's all you can ask of yourself really is, am I open to learning what can I do to follow this up so that I can really be there for my clients?

And then a lovely thing about having a niche is it does help you naturally focus on areas for your CPD. And it might be something that you might seek a specialist supervisor for. For example, say you work with neurodivergent people, you might well find a supervisor who can really help you with understanding neurodivergent people better.

And that gradually means that you become more more skilled. So you're building up that expertise. You're not starting off as an expert, you're building it up. And remember that the earlier you start, the more cumulative your knowledge will actually be. So it's actually quite an advantage to specialise quite early on in your career. And I know people do worry about, well, if I specialise in something, does that mean that later I won't be able to change my mind?

I work with people who work with one particular area and then find that they're getting more interested in another area. And all you need to do is just gradually develop it, gradually reach out to more people in that new area and you will draw people to yourself. So it's never too late to change. Don't worry about making a mistake. A lot of what it's about is about testing it out, seeing what works, what lands with people and does it

excite you, does it bring people to you? Just keep experimenting with it.

And what I'd love just to let you know at this point is that in Therapy Growth Group in October, we're spending the month on profile writing. And as part of that, I'm going to be doing a couple of workshops all around niching, where I'll be talking with people about their niche, so you can come along to those coaching sessions.

You can listen in to the conversations, but also you can also ask questions about your own niche. And it's a way of actually working with me. So that's coming up in Therapy Growth Group in October. Be really brilliant if you join Therapy Growth Group when you hear this podcast, because then you'll be able to attend those coaching sessions. And also I will pop into the show notes, my niche selection scoring sheet, which is

quite a mouthful to say, but basically what it's all about is you can think about having a niche, but it's worth just thinking, is this going to work? Are there, for example, enough people with this particular problem that I'll be able to get enough clients? And it just helps you to think your niche through. And I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

One of the things that really helped me early on when I was moving more into this field of helping therapists with their marketing. I'm sure from what I've said, if you know me at all, that I tend to compare and despair. And I would look at people around me. And I can imagine that you could be doing this too. If you're just starting out or you're choosing a niche, you could easily go online and start finding people who seem to know so much more about the subject. And that's true of me in talking about marketing.

There are people with marketing degrees, there are therapists with marketing degrees. And so I look it into that compare and despair. But one of the things that really helped me was acknowledging that I don't have to be the best. And there's obviously various messages that I've received in the past that in order to succeed, I've got to be top of the class. For example, I've got to be the one who's the best at doing something.

And that's a complete fallacy. It isn't true at all. You don't have to be the best to be successful. And what tends to happen is that however bright and shiny other people are, there's people who you will attract because you're you. And if you take away the idea that you have to be the best, that you have to be the expert, it really is something that frees you up

just to be yourself. And it also means that, you know, you can take the pressure off yourself to say, I've got to know it all. You don't have to know it all.

And let's remember that often with clients, what they really need you to do is to be able to listen to them and help them discover the answer for themselves. And I think sometimes when we get tied up in this idea of we have to be the expert, it's because we're getting caught up in you're having to solve problems for people. And counselling isn't really about that, is it? It's about facilitating people to find the answers for themselves. So that's another sort of nail in the coffin of I have to be an expert to have a niche.

And I talked about your lived experience and said I would be coming back to that. I think often we think to ourselves that we aren't good enough because we're not the best, because we haven't got a master's degree in whatever it is that we're offering people and there's this constant thought that we've got to be better than we are. But the fact is that if you've already got lived experience or even you've been through your counselling degree you are already several steps ahead of anybody who comes to you for help. We so constantly think that we've got to be better than we are.

But for some people, who we are is already enough. It's more than enough. We know so much more than we give ourselves credit for and we forget that there's people who are just starting out who don't know things like how to be reflective, how to recognise what their feelings are. And that's something that you've learned about, that you've practised, that you've journaled on, that you've really worked on over the past years

during your training and subsequent career.

So don't tell yourself that you're not good enough. Tell yourself that you are enough for the people who come to you. So in thinking about your niche, let's reflect on what areas feel interesting or energising or meaningful to you. Remember that it's very normal to feel that you're just an ordinary person without any expertise, but how can you build expertise up unless you start? And remember that you already are more than enough for very many of the clients who will be seeking you out. It's much more important to get started than it is to wait until you're perfect. You don't need to be an expert to have a niche. You grow into it by choosing it.

And remember, if you're feeling stuck with your niche, I've got resources to help you inside Therapy Growth Group. I've got those Niche & Coaching calls coming up in October and you'd be very welcome to join me and take part in the Make Your Profile Work Week, which is coming up in early November. And do take a look at the show notes to download the Niche Selection Tool, because that might well reassure you that you're on the right path.

Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to speaking again next week. Thanks for listening. Do come and join my Facebook community, Good Enough Counsellors, and for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please visit my website, josephinehughes.com. If you found this episode helpful, I'd love it.

if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app. And in closing, I'd love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream. I really believe you can do it.