The Challenges and Successes of Building Sites for Therapists

Most web developers will build you a nice-looking site and hand it over. That works fine for a bakery. For a therapist, a few things can go wrong that nobody warns you about, and I've made it my job to catch them.

A therapist's website has a different job

A person looking for a therapist is often nervous. They may have been putting off the search for months. Within a few seconds on your site, they're deciding whether you seem like someone they could talk to.

So the design has to be calm and easy to read, and it has to load fast on a phone, because that's where most of these visits happen. The first thing a visitor should see is who you help and how to reach you. Clever animations and long introductions get in the way.

I also make sure the site sounds like the therapist. Stock phrases like "a safe space to heal" appear on thousands of sites, and visitors skim right past them. A bio that sounds like a real person talking does more for your inquiries than any layout trick.

The privacy details most developers miss

This is the part I care about most. Many therapists don't realize their site might be creating risk for them.

Contact and intake forms are a common problem. If a form collects anything about a person's mental health and sends it through ordinary email, that information is traveling somewhere it shouldn't. I set up forms that use secure, HIPAA-conscious tools, or I route people to the therapist's practice management system instead.

Tracking is the other one. Some analytics and advertising pixels, including Meta's, can capture information about who visits certain pages. On a therapy site, that's a real concern. I audit what's running on each page and remove anything that doesn't belong.

I also keep testimonials off by default, since many licensing boards and ethics codes discourage or prohibit them. If you want to build trust on the page, there are better ways to do it.

What a good therapist site includes

Every practice is different, but most sites I build cover the same ground:

• A clear description of who you work with and what you treat
• Fees, insurance details, and sliding scale information, stated plainly
• A page explaining what the first session looks like, which lowers anxiety for new clients
• Telehealth details and the states where you're licensed
• A warm, honest bio with a good photo
• One obvious way to book a consultation, whether that's a form, a phone number, or a link to SimplePractice, Jane, or TherapyNotes

I also set up the basics of local search, so that someone searching for a therapist in your city has a decent chance of finding you without you paying for ads.

Who I work with

I work mostly with solo practitioners and therapists starting out on their own. Many of my clients are leaving an agency to open a practice, or finally replacing a site they put together years ago and have been avoiding ever since. Most of them have told me they're not interested in learning web design, and they shouldn't have to be.

What working with me looks like

I offer a fixed-price starter site with a clear list of pages, so you know the cost before we begin. After launch, I offer a monthly plan that covers hosting, updates, and security, so you never have to think about it. If something breaks, you email me and I fix it.

If you're a therapist and you're not sure whether your current site is helping you or quietly causing problems, I'm happy to take a look. I'll record a short video walking through what I see, including speed, mobile layout, privacy concerns, and how easy you are to find. There's no charge and no pressure.

You can reach me at paul@bluecanarywebdesign.com or use our contact form.