Marketing is rarely the love story of a therapist’s business. For many clinicians, it feels awkward at best—and misaligned, salesy, or draining at worst.

In this Valentine’s week episode, I’m not trying to convince you to love marketing. Instead, I’m inviting you to rethink your relationship with it. Because the truth is: marketing isn’t going anywhere. And how you relate to it directly impacts how sustainable your practice feels over time.

We talk about why traditional marketing advice often clashes with therapist values, how that “ick” factor gets created, and what shifts when marketing is reframed as connection, clarity, and invitation rather than persuasion or self-promotion. This episode is about finding a steadier, more grounded way to engage with marketing—one that supports the life and practice you’re building instead of competing with it.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

1️⃣ Why marketing feels misaligned for so many therapists—and why that reaction actually makes sense

2️⃣ How reframing marketing as connection (not selling) changes both your experience and your results

3️⃣ Why your clinical skills already translate to strong marketing—and how to apply them earlier in the client journey

4️⃣ How clear marketing supports full-fee work, quicker decisions, and better-fit clients

Resources & Links Mentioned:

1. Learn more about Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/confident-copy
2. The Walker Strategy Co website: https://walkerstrategyco.com

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Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe so you never miss an episode—and feel free to share it with a fellow therapist who’s building their private practice.

Explore more marketing support for therapists: The Walker Strategy Co website: walkerstrategyco.com

About Marketing Therapy

Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker—marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.

Hey hey, , welcome back to this episode of Marketing Therapy.

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If you didn't know Valentine's Day is this

week, you might have strong feelings about

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Valentine's Day, positive or negative.

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I personally just love the

opportunity to wear pink.

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It's my favorite color and

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my husband always has to travel the

week of Valentine's Day for a big

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trade show, so there's never any big

celebration, although we do often,

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you know, make a little steak dinner

after the kids go to bed when he

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gets home or something like that.

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But it's not a huge

production around here.

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I do love Valentine's and I do love

the candy that goes on sale after,

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so that's kind of where I fall

on the Valentine's Day spectrum.

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But I think there's a

lot of cultural pressure.

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To love what you do, to love

your work, to love your business,

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and that's a good thing.

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I personally love the work that I do.

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Signing on every day is

actually legitimately a joy.

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Hopefully you feel that about the

work that you do for many therapists.

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However, marketing is very much not

the love story in your business, right?

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Most therapists would rather do literally.

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Anything.

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Then fall in love with marketing.

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Am I right?

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Is that you?

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And it sounds funny, but it's true.

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There are things in my business that I

would rather clean my baseboards than do.

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Okay.

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So if marketing feels that way for you,

I want you to know you're not alone.

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It makes a lot of sense and

we'll talk about that here today.

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But I also wanna offer some reframes where

maybe you're never gonna fall all the

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way in love with marketing as a practice

owner, but maybe we can shift the way

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you relate to it and create something

that actually feels more natural.

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More of an extension of this business

that you're building that is hopefully,

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ultimately serving your life and your

family and your goals outside of work.

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Maybe.

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Maybe we can make some of

those shifts here today.

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Now, I know that you didn't get

into this field to market yourself.

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You got in it to be with people

to do the deep work, to create

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meaningful change with the people

that you are best equipped to serve.

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So let me be clear that

this episode is not going to

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convince you to enjoy marketing.

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It's not all sunshine and

rainbows, but I wanna change what

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marketing represents to you, okay?

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Because how you relate to

marketing ultimately determines

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how sustainable your practice is.

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'cause marketing is not going away.

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Marketing is the ongoing relationship

and rhythm that you must engage

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in for the life of your business.

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So how can we change how

you relate to it today?

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Now, lots of clinicians still feel like,

I still hear this on a regular basis,

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marketing feels slimy or salesy or gross.

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I feel like I'm selling myself.

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Ugh.

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That sentiment is so common.

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And you know what?

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Of course, marketing feels

slimy when it's framed as.

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Convincing or chasing or selling yourself,

I think a lot of our exposure to marketing

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includes things like the hustle culture,

being told to show up everywhere.

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Tactics out there that feel

completely misaligned with not

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just your values, but ethics.

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I tell the story often of how I got

into supporting clinicians with their

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marketing, and I took over six months

just to learn before I actually offered

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anything because it was so clear to me

that marketing for therapists is different

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than marketing, literally anything else.

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There is so much nuance to this, and yet

as a business owner, you are exposed to

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lots of messages about marketing that end

up feeling incredibly incongruent with how

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you actually practice, how you actually

want to be growing your business, and how

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you should be putting yourself out there.

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Okay?

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So of course it feels slimy when

it's framed that way because you as a

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clinician are trained to what center

your clients de-emphasize yourself.

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To avoid persuasion or influence,

and then all of a sudden you're

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supposed to turn around and do all of

those things to grow your practice.

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Like of course that

feels out of alignment.

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That training to de-emphasize

yourself and ascent to your client

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is your strength in the therapy room.

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But when it collides with

traditional marketing advice,

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that's where we create that tension

and we create that ick factor.

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So I want to, I encourage you to think

outside of the binary of either being

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a good therapist or being good at

marketing, what if you can be both?

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Because I think that belief sets

clinicians up to feel conflicted.

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No matter what you do, so if you're

marketing, you're inauthentic, but if you

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don't market well, then you're stressed.

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What if it didn't have to be that way?

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What if you could operate differently

and view this relationship

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with marketing differently?

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To a lot of you, and I know this because

I hear this from you, marketing is

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experienced as this sort of necessary

evil, something I have to do, Ugh, right?

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It's something that you

endure and it feels completely

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separate from the real work.

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If I had a dime for every time a

therapist told me, Anna, I just want

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to do therapy and not think about

this part, I would be on an island

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in, the Caribbean or something.

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But what if marketing isn't

something you had to do?

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But something that served a

clear and meaningful purpose.

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Something that was even an extension

of the work that you love to do.

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When your marketing feels pointless

or disconnected, or like drudgery,

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that it's gonna be easy to avoid.

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And when you avoid it, your

results are gonna show that.

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If I could boil down what I have seen be

true, especially in the last 24 months

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or so in the private practice industry,

it is that in order to be successful,

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clinicians have to be more engaged

in their marketing than they used to.

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The pandemic and the immediately

post pandemic times lulled a lot of

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therapists into a sense of complacency.

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It was quote unquote,

easy to get clients then.

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The clients right now are still out there,

but the way that you get them is different

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and it requires you to be engaged in

ways you maybe didn't have to before.

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So if your marketing is feeling

pointless or disconnected, or

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like a total pain in your, you

know what, you're gonna avoid it.

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But if we can tie it instead to something

that you care about, it's going to

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become easier to engage with, and that

is going to increase the sustainability

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of the business that you're creating.

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What if instead of

self-promotion, it was connection?

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What if instead of persuasion?

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It was invitation.

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That's the power of reframing

the way you look at marketing.

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One of my favorite confident copy

testimonials I ever got from someone

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was not about SEO or getting clients,

although she does have a full

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caseload now, but it was about how.

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Confident copy supported a reframe for her

from selling herself to connecting with

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people, and how once she started viewing

it as connection, everything got easier,

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both in how she reached clients and also

how she connected to networking contacts.

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She didn't suddenly love marketing.

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It wasn't like, oh wow, this is

the best thing I've ever done.

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It's all I wanna do.

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She didn't become more extroverted.

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She's actually a pretty

introverted person.

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She didn't compromise

her ethics or her values.

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But all of a sudden she understood

her role and marketing's role in

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creating the practice she wanted.

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You as a therapist are a

professional connector.

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It is why you do incredible

work in the room.

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You're already good at connection.

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So what if marketing was not learning

a foreign skill, but instead reapplying

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that existing skill of connection that

you have spent years honing and just

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applying it in a different context.

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When marketing becomes

connection, and that's what this

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testimonial always reminds me

of, then it becomes less forced.

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It becomes more natural.

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It stops competing with your values

or your sense of authenticity,

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and it leads to better results.

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Now, like we talked about, you were

trained as a clinician to center your

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client and to de-emphasize yourself,

but you were also taught to listen

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for what's underneath the words.

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Isn't that one of the

things you're best at?

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Your client is telling you one thing,

and yet you're hearing the story

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underneath it, the belief, the pattern

that maybe they haven't noticed yet.

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It's one of the best parts of therapy.

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You are very good at helping your

clients feel seen and understood.

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You probably have heard that you

have helped put words to things

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that have felt so confusing or

overwhelming to your clients for years.

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What if marketing is that too?

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What if marketing is listening for

what's underneath the words for helping

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clients feel seen and understood for

putting language to experiences that

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have felt confusing or overwhelming?

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Marketing is simply creating those

experiences earlier than the therapy room.

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It's often the first place that someone

can feel like, oh, this person gets it.

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Oh, there might actually

be someone who understands.

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Of course, marketing isn't therapy,

but it is the doorway into therapy.

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So what if you were applying

those skills of listening deeply

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and reflecting back earlier?

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And it's one of the reasons that so

many of our confident copy students

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get feedback on consultation calls and

things like that, where I read your

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website and I felt like you knew me

or it was really clear to me that you

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understood what I was going through.

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Isn't that awesome that it didn't

even have to wait until the

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therapeutic relationship started

to start creating that experience.

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It's what makes you so compelling.

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So it's simply about introducing

that experience earlier.

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Than sitting down in session

with someone now in this market.

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It is critical that you are

able to communicate your value

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and to increase your perceived

value in the eyes of your client.

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Many of the clinicians that we are working

with are currently full fee or seeking

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to depa and are therefore realizing that

they need to be establishing themselves

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as the go-to expert in their niche

and to command higher premium fees.

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The reason people pay higher

premium fees for therapy or for

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anything is because they value it.

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And so one of the things about your

marketing is having to display that value.

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For many clinicians, they get that

confused with selling themself.

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Those feel in conflict again.

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So it gets tangled up, right?

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It gets tangled up in fears of bragging

that you're actually really good at

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what you do, or over promising that

they're gonna get results that you

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can't guarantee, or that whole salesy

thing being a used car salesman.

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What if displaying your value

actually meant being really

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clear about who you help?

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So people know if you're the

right fit or if they're not.

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Both attracting and

blessing and releasing.

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What if displaying your value is naming

exactly what you are good at so that

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people immediately know if you are

someone who can help solve the problems

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that they're bringing to therapy.

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What if displaying value actually

meant letting people understand

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how you think and how you work?

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Here's the thing, your RightFit

clients, they're already out

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there looking for therapy.

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Your marketing is not about

convincing them they need it

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'cause they're gonna pick someone.

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Your marketing is simply about

whether or not they choose you.

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They're already looking.

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They're already willing to invest.

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So it's not that they don't value

therapy, it's not that your website or

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your marketing has to share all of the

values of therapy, but what it does need

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to do is establish your value so that

the thing that they're looking for, a

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clinician who deeply understands them and

can help them experience that change that

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they're seeking, that person could be you.

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That's what your marketing gets to do.

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So it's not about creating need.

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It's not selling

something they don't need.

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Like when you go to the, get your car

fixed at the mechanic, and all of a sudden

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you leave with a $3,000 bill and a bunch

of things you didn't know were wrong.

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That's not what this is about.

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This is simply about clarifying fit,

making yourself available to the person

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who already is looking for someone

like you, and making sure that they

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value what you bring to the table.

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It's why clear marketing so often

helps clients decide quicker.

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Reach out sooner.

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Feel confident in their choice.

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Stop the shopping around.

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And it's not, of course that

shopping around is bad, but

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that's what good marketing can do.

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It can make that decision more

confident for your clients.

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Now, I mentioned earlier that marketing

is part of running a business, period.

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End of discussion.

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If you would like to have a

successful practice, guess what?

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You have to market yourself.

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We can't get around that anymore, but.

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What if you could remind yourself

that marketing is supporting

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the business you're creating?

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So many of you come from toxic agency

settings, community mental health,

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where you were burnt out and seeing

30, 40 patients a week that you

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didn't get to choose and weren't

necessarily the right fit for you.

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Perhaps you're pivoting from a

different career and deciding to

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launch a practice This practice, this

business, it means something to you.

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It's hopefully giving you autonomy.

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It's hopefully supporting your wellbeing.

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It's hopefully allowing you to

practice in a way that aligns with

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your values and your strengths.

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Isn't it important to remember that and

that marketing is making that possible?

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You are more well now, , hopefully,

in private practice than you

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were in your previous role.

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And marketing is supporting the

sustainability of that decision.

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It's not separate from your work, but

it is allowing you to continue the work

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in a way that is viable and true to you.

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So could you call that a necessary evil?

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Sure.

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But could you also call it something that

is supporting your ability to be well?

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Yes, , you absolutely could.

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Now one of the last things that I

think marketing offers to folks that

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again, could undergo a really powerful

reframe is the idea of networking.

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Now our state of the industry survey the

report for that will be coming out later

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here in February, but it proved to us

yet again how important networking is.

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And when I talk about the

non-negotiables of building a full

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fee thriving practice in this market.

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It's a strong website and a strong

network, but the IIC factor most

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clinicians have around networking

is as extreme as any other

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IIC factor around marketing.

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They say, I'm an introvert.

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I hate talking to people.

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This feels awkward.

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What if the networking piece

of marketing was actually

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about getting out of isolation?

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Building community?

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Creating support, building a solo

private practice, even a group private

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practice is incredibly isolating.

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I, of course, am not a clinician,

but I do sit in an office by

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myself day in and day out.

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I have an incredible team and I

talk to them remotely, but there is

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something about business ownership as an

entrepreneur that is incredibly isolating.

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You can feel like you're on an island.

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What if networking was your

opportunity to get off that island?

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It's not transactional referral

chasing, or hi, here's my business card.

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Please send me clients.

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It doesn't have to be awkward

coffee meetings that you cringe at.

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It can be a place to build relationship.

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Relationship that will reduce

your burnout, create longevity.

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Make this whole private practice thing

feel less lonely, and also build powerful

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reciprocity where each of you can

be sending clients one another's way

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that are a fantastic fit for the work

that each of you does, and that come

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in already trusting the work that you

do because of the trust transfer that

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happens in networking conversations.

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I've offered you some

powerful reframes here.

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And like I said, maybe the goal isn't

to just fall in love with marketing.

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Maybe you're never going to love

this, but what if it is about

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just being in relationship?

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Every year my husband and I go out for a

date night around our oldest daughter's

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birthday, and it's to celebrate,

being a parent for another year.

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And so we like to spend time reflecting

on, of course, our little girl.

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What it's like to be parents.

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But we went on that annual date this

past weekend because our oldest turned

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five in January, and we ended up

reflecting not just on our journey as

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parents, but just the journey of our

relationship and talked about how it

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feels different than it did early on,

how we feel different and also the same.

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You know how that is.

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We've been married for almost 12 years.

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We've undergone a lot of change

and those early stages of.

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Dating and then engagement

and even marriage.

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There's a lot of intensity, right?

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There's a lot of emotion.

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For better or for worse, there's

certainly less stability, especially

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before you're, committed to

each other in a long-term way.

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But now, 12 years in, having been with

him for what feels like half my life,

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it's just safe and steady and life giving.

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Not dramatic, but real, just grounded.

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So the relationship isn't better

or worse, but it certainly

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feels more sustainable now.

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So maybe you're never gonna have

that honeymoon phase with marketing.

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But maybe you can reach a place where the

relationship feels steady and reliable

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and like it means something to you.

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Maybe you're not gonna love it every

day, maybe you're not even gonna

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feel particularly excited about it.

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But that doesn't mean you can't have a

steady and healthy relationship with it.

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A relationship that serves your values,

that supports your work, that doesn't

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drain you, and that allows you to show

up authentically in order to create

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a practice that serves you, your

family, your clients, your community.

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What if marketing is

just the doorway to that?

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So maybe here in the week

of Valentine's Day, we don't

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have to romanticize marketing.

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We can be honest about it.

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It can be tough, it can be anxiety

inducing, but maybe you don't

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have to be at war with it anymore.

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Maybe you can start viewing it

differently, relating to it differently

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when you start to reframe the

idea of marketing as connection,

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as invitation to the right people

to do powerful work with you.

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I've seen time and time again how

incredibly transformational that can

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be, not just for you as a practice

owner, but for your results, for the

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way that you attract clients, who you

attract, what caliber of clients you

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attract, and that's what I want for you.

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Marketing doesn't have to be something

you love, but it can be something

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that you relate to differently.

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Of course, if you are looking for

how to relate to it differently, how

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to get in touch with the right fit

clients, how to do that attracting and

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blessing and releasing, to put yourself

out there in a way that doesn't feel

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salesy or manipulative, confident

copy is 100% the best place to start.

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You're gonna learn not just how to

figure out your niche or how to write

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your website, but how to view the

idea of putting yourself out there

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through a lens of what sets you apart,

who your right fit clients are, and.

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A sense of knowing that the way that

you're doing that is grounded in strategy

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and a proven framework for what it means

to actually stand out in today's market.

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All the details for Confident Copy

Walker strategy co.com/confident-copy

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if that's something you're

interested in jumping into.

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It's available to enroll in right this

minute, and we would love to see what

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you create as part of that process.

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But I hope, like I said, as part of

this Valentine's Day week that I've

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offered you a little nugget or two

to walk away with, maybe a little bit

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of a deep breath or sigh of relief.

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And a new way of thinking about and

approaching marketing that again, serves

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not just you, but also the business

that you're creating and all of the

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liberation and freedom that it represents.

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Wishing you a very happy Valentine's

Day to those who celebrate

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Valentine's Day to the rest of

us, and I'll see you next week.