6 Challenges Therapists Have When Writing Their Therapy Website About Page

If you feel like writing the About page for your therapist website is a challenge, you’re not alone.

In fact, many therapists have websites with an About page that they don’t feel confident about.

They may have written something they feel doesn’t reflect them, or that it is too long and wordy. Perhaps the page is full of jargon they don’t know how to translate into normal-people-language. 

Or maybe instead of writing a great About page, they just share a long list of their credentials because they didn’t know what else to write about.

An About page that doesn’t feel great can hold the entire website back. When the About page doesn’t speak to who a therapist is and how they help, their website isn’t something they can proudly do their marketing with.

But why is it so difficult to write an About page as a therapist? What’s keeping therapists from writing the About page of their dreams?

Let’s discuss the top six challenges many therapists face when writing their About page. Plus, get some actionable insights to help you overcome each challenge so you can start moving towards an About page you feel confident about.

6 Challenges Therapists Have When Writing Their Therapy Website About Page

1. Your Training Tells You Not To Share Anything About Yourself

Almost all therapists have been told, at one point or another, that self-disclosure ought to be avoided always at all costs. Usually it has to do with honoring the space you hold for your clients. Essentially that space is for them, not for you. 

So it makes sense that writing an About page on your private practice website leads to confusion. You are trained to not share about yourself but there’s an entire page that you’re supposed to fill about yourself? How in the world is that supposed to work?

Here’s what it can sound like if you’re stuck feeling like your training is keeping you from opening up about yourself on your therapist About page:

• “It feels safer to only share about my credentials and training and stuff like that”
• “Self-disclosure is wrong, or at least it feels wrong”
• “I don’t want to say something about me that will derail the relationship before it even starts!”

How To Go From Scared To Openly and Appropriately Sharing About Yourself

This is a mindset shift! Know that although you may have learned not to share about yourself, appropriate self-disclosure is actually a huge gift. “When used sparingly, professionally and appropriately, counselor self-disclosure can build trust, foster empathy and strengthen the therapeutic alliance between counselor and client.” – Bethany Bray

Appropriate self-disclosure helps your website visitors connect with you on a human level. And further still, doing so models vulnerability that inspires your website visitors to be vulnerable too. 

Not only is it ok to share about you, in fact, it is encouraged for marketing and for a better relationship. 

Here’s the test as to whether or not you should share something on your website: ask, “would I share this in session with a client?” If the answer is yes, then it’s ok to share on your website too.

2. You Don’t Know What To Say

What is supposed to go on your therapist website About page anyway? It can feel like a huge mystery.

It will only be made more mysterious if you go onto the web and browse what’s out there. One therapist will be sharing about how they love coffee and Brene Brown, another therapist will have nothing on the page but a bulleted list of credentials, and another therapist will spend 4 paragraphs explaining how important it is to find a good fit therapist. 

With good examples hard to find and zero copywriting training in grad school, many therapists are left wondering, “what should go on a therapist About page?”

This challenge can also relate to not knowing how much to write. Should the About page be one paragraph or ten? Trying to find the balance between having enough on the page and being too wordy or complicated is also a feat.

Here’s what it can sound like if you don’t know what to put on your therapist website About page:

• “I am not sure what I want to say on the About page”
• “Should I share that I’ve also struggled with addiction?”
• “I don’t know how to capture everything I want to say without it getting too wordy”

How To Go From Not Knowing What To Say To Knowing What To Include And What To Edit Out

Luckily, the question of “what to say on my therapist About page” is easily solved with knowledge. If you get the knowledge of what ought to be on a therapist’s About page (and what shouldn’t), then you’ll gain the insight you need to know what to include and what to edit out.

When it comes to learning stuff, what style of learning and support works best for you? For many, the easiest way to gain knowledge is through getting some help. To understand About pages more, you could read more of our blog, find a website writing class, use our writing service Empathycopy, or even hire a writer for an hour to edit or make suggestions.

The knowledge of how to write a great therapist About page is out there. How would you like to get that knowledge?

3. You Don’t Like Talking About Yourself

If you are struggling to talk about yourself on your therapist website, my guess is that you feel this one on a somatic level.

When I’ve witnessed therapists sharing about this challenge, it’s often paired with a look of disgust, a shiver or shrug throughout the body, or a general inward collapse of the body.

Out of all of the reasons why writing About page is hard, this one is both common and deeply felt. 

Talking about yourself as a therapist may feel like you’re doing the opposite of what you do in your therapy services. 

In session, you never put the spotlight on you. You literally never do. So feeling like you need to do so on your About page is awwwwkwarrrd.

Here’s what it can sound like if you don’t like the idea of needing to talk about yourself on your therapist About page

• “Ugh, I hate talking about myself!”
• “Feels like I’m saying, “look at me everyone!” – like I want to be the center of attention or something”
• “Usually I’m the one listening to others that are sharing about themselves. It feels awkward to talk about me”

How To Go From Hating Talking About Yourself To Enthusiastically Sharing Your Help

Overcoming this challenge includes acknowledging that you ARE a major part of the healing you are offering and then understanding what aspects of you to share. 

(And don’t worry, you don’t have to share things like what hobbies you are into or what your favorite color is – unless you want to).

Firstly, as a therapist, you know that you are the person that your clients will be in a relationship with. And you know that that relationship is a key part of their healing. Mirror neurons and all that stuff, amiright?

When you are talking about yourself on your website, you are actually starting the therapeutic alliance by sharing about who you are. That is a gift to your incoming clients.

Secondly, what aspects of you should you share about on an About page? If you aren’t sharing about hobbies, favorite colors, movies you love, going to the beach, then what should you be sharing about?

Try sharing things like why you do what you do, what you believe in, what you advocate for, and how you support your clients during session. These are all important aspects of you as a therapist. In sharing about how you, uniquely you, provide help, you allow website visitors to get to know and trust you. And that is a very good thing.

4. You Don’t Want To Sound Full Of Yourself

You know you have the ability to help people heal. You’ve witnessed amazing resiliency and helped guide many through incredible life transformations. 

But you’re also not one to brag about how awesome you are. 

It’s a weird place to be in: both knowing that you can help, knowing that you have the training and experience to help, but also not knowing how to write about it in a way that doesn’t sound stuck up. 

Here’s what it can sound like if you are scared of sounding “full of yourself” on your therapist website About page:

• “I have a lot of training and experience but I don’t want to brag”
• “I hate the idea of “selling” what I can do”
• “It feels weird to share that I’m confident I can help people.”

How To Go From Scared Of Sounding Full Of Yourself To Easily Sharing The Benefits Of Your Services

The good news is that effective therapist website copy doesn’t brag or make a therapist sound full of themselves.

Instead, the focus is shifted from the therapist to the benefit that the therapist can bring. For example, if you are trained at Stanford, and don’t want to drone on and on about how amazing it is to be Stanford-trained, write instead about WHY that would be a benefit to your clients. For example, does it mean that you know what actually works for healing trauma and use effective treatments proven to help trauma survivors heal? 

Telling everyone you are great is not the same as sharing the value of your services. Focusing on the latter gets you out of the brag zone and moves you towards inspiring hope and aligning with what your potential clients desire in life.

5. You Want Your Voice To Come Through But You’re Not Sure How

If you’re working on writing your About page, you might come to that frustrating place where you have words but they don’t feel like they are YOUR words. 

It could be that they sound way too clinical or jargony, or it could be that it sounds a bit salesy. 

Or, you may have been attempting to write openly and authentically but it comes out sounding like woo-woo fluffy sappy-ness that isn’t really quite accurate to how you speak.

Conveying what you want and in a way that really captures your voice is such a challenge.

Here’s what it can sound like if you want your voice to come through on your therapist website About page but you’re not sure of how to do that:

• “I want to write from my heart but it ends up sounding way too fluffy”
• “I don’t know how to show up and be seen on my About page, I am so used to hiding”
• “I know in my head what I want to get across but I can’t get it to come out in a way that I’m happy with”

How To Go From Confused On How Your Voice Can Come Through To An About Page That Reflects How You Speak 

Grab a friend and read what you wrote out loud, sentence by sentence. If something sounds like you’d actually say it in conversation, then your voice is coming through. If not, try again until it sounds like the words that would come naturally out of your mouth.

For another voice-injecting-technique, write a list of questions that your website visitors are likely to ask on your About page. Maybe questions like, “do you help people who are struggling with depression?” or “why did you become a therapist?” List the questions a client might ask when they are seeking your help. 

Next, imagine the client is with you and answer the question out loud, recording your answer. You will find that speaking the answer gives you a lot more “you” rather than typing on a keyboard. 

There are so many great ways to ensure you come through on your About page.

6. You Doubt Yourself Or Get Lost In Perfectionism

Finally. You’ve written something. But hm, something isn’t quite right? Maybe you should edit one more time…

When you are in the process of writing, it’s very common to doubt what you are writing is any good. 

It’s also very common to go into perfectionism mode: where what you wrote could always be edited to be better in some way. Maybe more clear. Perhaps more simple. Or maybe less psychobabble-y. 

Between the doubt that anything sounds coherent and the perfectionism that the words are the right ones, it’s easy to continually get lost in the writing. Either circling back multiple times, never getting it to a level you are satisfied with or detaching from the process, losing the oomph needed to get the writing done.

Here’s what it can sound like if you are doubting yourself of getting lost in perfectionism:

• “I have written and re-written the page one million times by now”
• “I can’t seem to get the About page done, it’s on my to do list for weeks now”
• “I edit constantly, questioning everything I’ve written until there’s nothing I’m confident about”

How To Go From Doubt And Perfectionism To Hitting Publish 

Take a step back and ask the doubtful or perfectionistic parts of you what it would take to publish what you have so far? Are you needing more support? Reassurance or perspective from others? Are you needing some clarity on what to write? 

I find this challenge is best solved with your own, inner guidance. Everyone will need something different to help them get to a place of, “this is ok, I can publish it” instead of stuck in, “this sucks and it needs more work”

It’s Possible To Write A Therapist Website About Page That You Love

No one has ever told me that writing their About page was easy. 

In fact, I’m a professional writer and I still struggle with my own. 

I use tools, get feedback, and take a lot of time. I could easily get lost in perfectionism but push myself to publish my best draft so I can get something out there. 

If you are starting to diverge from the training that has told you not to share about yourself and gaining the insight into what to even write on your About page, know that you may still find challenges ahead.

It could be that you don’t like talking about yourself or don’t want to brag. Or that you want to make sure your voice comes through. 

At the end of the day, being able to discover what we need to hit publish is often the final frontier. 

Once you do hit publish, know that your About page is a living body of words that can grow and shift along with you. Approaching your About page as a part of your ever-changing identity may also help. Knowing you can write, publish, and change what you wrote at any time could be of some reassurance. 

The way you help others is amazing. And having an About page that you love will help you continue to show up, be seen, and do the important work you do. Hope this post has helped.