It never ceases to surprise me how many therapy practitioners suffer from self-doubt.
Not just the odd moment of being unsure, but that persistent, nagging doubt that you are not good enough.
The kind of doubt that comes back again and again, even when you’ve got years of experience under your belt.
For many practitioners, it bubbles just out of awareness most of the time, only surfacing when something doesn’t go to plan – such as when a client fails to turn up, or during those quiet times of the year when the phone never seems to ring.
But even though you may not be aware of it, self-doubt often works hard in the background, sabotaging your success as it tries to protect you from failure.
The most common sabotage is to avoid promoting your practice and if the self-doubt part of you is strong, you may even have convinced yourself this is a good thing.
You might believe that marketing your services like a business is somehow unethical. That what you do is a calling, not a career. Maybe you believe that advertising doesn’t work and that your skills and results should be enough to automatically bring people flocking to see you.
Or maybe, just like the film, Field of Dreams you believe that “if you build it, they will come” as word spreads of how great you are at helping people.
Maybe you can relate to these success sabotaging thoughts to some degree?
But here’s the thing, if your only marketing is “word-of-mouth”, you’re doing your potential clients a huge disservice.
That’s because word-of-mouth only works when clients talk to others about their experience.
And whilst many of them would dearly love to sing your praises, the brutal truth is many won’t want their embarrassing problem, or the fact they needed professional help, made known.
So if you don’t actively market your practice, you ignore the needs of countless other people who would book an appointment with you in a heartbeat -if only they knew how great you are!
Think of it this way.
If your work truly helps people change their lives for the better, don’t you have a moral and ethical duty to tell people about it?
Isn’t it in their best interests to come see you instead of living a life of suffering, or wasting their time and money on other practitioners?
But what can you do if you don’t like marketing yourself?
Well, a great way to enhance your existing word-of-mouth marketing is to ask clients to write a review of their experience via Trusted Practitioner. This effectively broadcasts their recommendation to a wider audience.
Not only will our independently verified reviews bring you more clients while saving you from hassle and embarrassment, there’s nothing better than a constant stream of positive feedback to motivate you and keep that self-doubt at bay.
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