We get into our website process or hit the ground with our referral engine strategy and we immediately start looking at what people around us are doing. That’s natural.
One of the greatest benefits of being part of this community is being able to apply what worked for someone else to your own practice building efforts.
Being inspired by others, taking cues from their approach: that’s how we grow together.
But always take care to transpose anything you borrow into your own key. It’s very tempting to slip into imitation or comparison in a way that will undercut your unique message or trash your mindset.
You see that therapist in your networking group, the one with the six-week waitlist and the gorgeous website. The one who seems to have cracked some code you missed.
And the thought creeps in: What’s on their landing page?
Maybe you screenshot their Psychology Today profile. Study their website copy. Notice they mention attachment theory, so you add attachment theory to yours.
They use warm, inviting language, so you soften your tone. They have a niche, so you adopt a similar one.
It feels logical. They’re successful. You want to be successful.
That therapist’s full practice isn’t the result of their website copy. It’s the result of them. Their specific training. Their clinical intuitions.
The way they show up in session. The particular population that gravitates toward their energy. The referral relationships they’ve built over years.
The timing of when they entered the market. A hundred invisible factors you can’t see from their online presence.
When you copy their marketing, you’re copying the surface while missing the substance.
You’re reproducing the symptom without understanding the cause.
And you’re now competing with them on their terms.
They have the track record, the testimonials, the established presence.
You’ve entered a game where they have every advantage.
You’re a knockoff version of something that already exists.
The clients who resonate with that therapist’s message will still choose that therapist. Why wouldn’t they? They’re the original. You’re marketing to someone else’s ideal client while ignoring your own.
You Are a Market of One
There is no other therapist in the world with your exact combination of training, clinical experience, life experience, theoretical orientation, personality, communication style, and perspective. None.
The populations you’ve worked with. The books that changed how you think.
The way you explain things. The metaphors you reach for. The moments in session where you come alive.
The Unique Strengths Inventory
We cover this early on in the TPA journey.
Try this right now.
Grab paper and write down:
Your education and specialized training. Yes, your degree. But also certifications, workshops, consultation groups, continuing education courses that actually shaped your clinical work.
Your clinical strengths. What do you do well in the room? Where do you feel confident? What types of stuck moments do you know how to move through?
Your successes. Cases that went well. Clients who made progress that surprised you. Moments where something clicked.
Client compliments.
What have clients actually told you? Not what you hope they think. What have they said, in their words, about what helped?
This inventory becomes the raw material for authentic positioning.
When You Own What Makes You Unique
Authentic positioning means building your marketing around what’s genuinely true about you, not what you think sounds impressive or what worked for someone else.
The clients who find you are looking for the specific thing you offer. The way you think. The approach that matches how they want to work.
These clients show up differently. They’re more engaged. They stay longer. They refer others like them.
Your practice fills with people who fit, not people who chose you because your website sounded vaguely similar to someone else’s.
“But What If My Unique Thing Isn’t Special Enough?”
This fear stops more therapists than any other.
You don’t need to be extraordinary. You need to be specific.
The therapist who says “I help anxious perfectionists in demanding careers learn to trust themselves” will attract more ideal clients than the one who says “I help adults with anxiety.”
Not because the first therapist is better. Because the first therapist is findable by the people who need exactly that.
Your combination of specific experiences, perspectives, and skills is the differentiator. You just have to articulate it.
This Week’s Challenge
List five things about your background or approach that are specifically you. Not generic strengths.
Specific details. The supervision model that shaped you. The population you understand from the inside.
The theoretical framework you’ve made your own. The life experience that informs your clinical intuition.
Write them down. Look at them. These are the building blocks of marketing that works.
Build a practice around what makes you different with TPA. Click here to get started.