Therapists Networking

It can be tough.

You say you’re a therapist and suddenly people are afraid to talk to you in a public networking place. No one wants other people to think they’re crazy, and the fashion of everyone having a therapist had its peak in the late 80s and early 90s.

Or worse, people think you being at a networking event means you’re giving away freebies and you have someone spilling life history from birth at you over a plastic cup of wine. Not a good position for you to be in.

There are also the laws that keep you from saying or doing certain things. You don’t want to risk your license.

In cases like this you can get listed in sites like :

• The Therapy Directory (powered by Psychology Today)
• Find A Therapist
• findCounseling.com
• Check and see if your Chamber of Commerce has a listing of businesses and make sure your listing says who you’re looking for and what you want in a client/patient.

Or you can focus on listing yourself in the Yellow Pages, or HomePages or whatever your local big book o’ businesses is called. But then you get the random people calling – that’s not what you want for your practice.

So how do you network and let people know what you’re looking for in a client?

Very carefully.

You can use subtle cues – such as mentioning organizations that are known to the people in the demographic you want to capture as part of your practice. Looking for more upscale clientele? Go for a conversation about golf or charitable donations. Looking for people that are the same religion as you, talk about your church and the denomination (without being overbearing.)

The people you want will be drawn to you and the people you don’t want will be drawn away from you.