Your best marketing copy is already written by your clients.
You sit down to write website copy and immediately switch into academic mode. Clinical terminology and marketing jargon. It sounds competent.
It also sounds like every other therapist in your city.
Meanwhile, your clients have already told you exactly how to market to them. They have given you the language. Word for word.
Have a look at Videos 2 and 3 from Module 1.
Mine your current and past clients for the exact words they use to describe their struggles and hopes.
Where do you look?
Start with intake forms. Clients are often at their most honest and unfiltered when filling these out. They are not trying to impress you. They are trying to get help. Read the question where you ask, “What brings you in?” Highlight the phrases they use. Do not paraphrase. Copy and paste.
Next, look at session notes. Look at the direct quotes. What did they actually say in the first or second session? How did they describe their pain? What do THEY call it? People often repeat the same core phrases. Those repetitions are gold.
Then check emails. Especially the first contact email. When someone reaches out cold, they are usually describing their situation in raw, everyday language. That language is powerful because it reflects how they think about their problem before therapy reframes it.
Testimonials are another obvious source. Clients often articulate change in simple, emotionally resonant ways. Pay attention to what they say improved and how they describe the before and after.
Then head out for a tour of the open internet. Subreddits that cover the topics and pain points you address in your work are a fertile ground for client-centric language.
Then, look at Facebook groups that focus on the ideal client groups you’ve identified – Moms’ groups, codependency groups, spiritual communities, gamers, coaches, other therapists, entrepreneurs. You are there to learn and participate where appropriate. Bring all of your ethics with you. We are not coaching ambulance chasing. This is a chance to make contact with the language of genuine struggle.
Capture how they describe the problem. Instead of “generalized anxiety disorder,” they may say, “I feel on edge all the time and I cannot relax, even when nothing is wrong.”
Capture what they have tried before. “I’ve read all the self help books.” “I tried talking to friends but they just tell me to get over it.” “I’ve been in therapy before but we just talked in circles.”
Capture what they hope therapy will do. “I want to feel normal.” “I just want to stop snapping at my kids.” “I want to wake up and not dread the day.”
Capture emotional language. “I’m exhausted.” “I feel like a failure.” “I’m constantly bracing for something bad to happen.”
Capture metaphors. Metaphors reveal how someone organizes their inner world. Those images are sticky and persuasive. “My brain is like a hamster on a wheel.” “It feels like I’m carrying a backpack full of rocks.” “We keep having the same fight on repeat.”
These phrases are not polished. That is the point.
When your marketing uses their language, they think, “This person gets me.”
A therapy website works best when it lives in the lived experience of the person reading it. When someone sees their exact internal phrasing reflected back, it creates recognition. Recognition builds trust. Trust drives inquiry.
If your copy says, “I treat executive functioning deficits,” that signals competence to colleagues. It does not necessarily resonate with a potential client.
Compare that with their language.
Your words: “Executive functioning deficits.” Their words: “I can’t keep track of anything. My brain is like a sieve. I start ten things and finish none of them.”
Your clinical vocabulary has its place in supervision, case consultation, and insurance documentation. It does not belong at the center of your marketing.
Your job is not to impress other therapists. Your job is to be found and chosen by the people you serve.
There is another advantage to using client language.
It sharpens your niche.
When you collect enough phrases, patterns emerge. You will notice that your ideal clients describe their struggles in similar ways. Maybe they use words like “stuck,” “exhausted,” “walking on eggshells,” or “numb.” Those recurring phrases tell you who you are really serving.
You can then build your website sections around those themes. Headlines can echo those exact phrases. Subheadings can elaborate. Body copy can mirror their aspiration. Show people that you understand the problem as they experience it.
Here is your assignment.
Pull out three to five recent intake forms. Sit down with a highlighter. Highlight exact phrases clients used. Resist the urge to edit them.
Create a simple document called “Language Library.” Organize it into sections: Problem, Failed Attempts, Desired Outcome, Emotional Words, Metaphors.
Copy and paste the phrases directly into that document. Over time, this becomes a resource you can return to whenever you write copy, craft ads, or refine your Unique Message.
When you draft new marketing materials, open that document first. Ask yourself: Am I using their words, or am I hiding behind mine?
Stop trying to sound professional. Start sounding like your ideal clients.
Build trust with the words that matter. Join TPA. Click here to get started.