Dear Therapist, Love Squarespace: An Open Letter on the Website Mistakes That Might be Costing You Clients
Dear Therapist,
It's Squarespace. We've spent a lot of late nights together, usually you, a cup of tea gone cold, and me, patiently waiting while you drag the same image block around for the ninth time.
I love that you built your own website. Genuinely. Doing it yourself instead of paying a designer thousands of dollars is a completely reasonable choice, especially when you're just getting your practice off the ground. But I have to be honest with you about a few things, because I'd rather tell you now than have you find out from a potential client who quietly bounced off your site and called someone else instead.
Here's the truth: a therapy website has a slightly different job than a typical small business site. It's not just selling a service, it's helping someone in a vulnerable moment decide whether they trust you enough to reach out. And here's the part that trips up almost every DIY site I see: that trust doesn't come from your resume. It comes from a visitor reading a sentence and thinking, quietly, wait, that's me.
So let's go through the mistakes I see most often on private practice sites, and more importantly, how to fix them.
Quick Mistakes Checklist
Your homepage reads like a bio instead of describing what your client is actually going through
Your copy leans too heavily on clinical jargon
There's no clear, single next step for a visitor to take
Your specialties list services instead of helping someone recognize themselves
Your site isn't accessible or easy to read
You're leading with credentials instead of connection (hint: it's not testimonials either)
Your mobile site is an afterthought
If a few of these sound familiar, keep reading. Every single one is fixable.
Mistake 1: Your Copy Is Written About You, Not About Them
Someone lands on your homepage in the middle of a hard week. They are not going to read your full bio. They're not looking for your resume at all. They're scanning for one specific feeling: does this person already understand what's going on in my head right now, before I've said a word?
This is the single biggest gap between a good therapy website and a well-designed one that still doesn't convert: whose experience is the copy actually describing, yours or theirs?
Compare:
"I use an integrative, evidence-based approach to help clients manage anxiety and improve emotional regulation."
That's accurate. It's also entirely about you, and a stressed, skimming visitor doesn't relate to "emotional regulation." Now compare:
"Your mind won't stop replaying that conversation from three hours ago. You've rehearsed what you should have said a dozen times, and you're exhausted, but it won't quiet down."
That's not a credential. That's a client's actual internal monologue, close to the words they've probably already said to themselves this week. When someone reads that and thinks wait, that's exactly it, you've done more trust-building in two sentences than three paragraphs of modality names ever could.
How to actually write this way:
Before you touch your homepage copy, write down the exact phrases clients have said to you in session, not your clinical translation of it, their actual words.
Read your current homepage out loud. Every time you hit a sentence that sounds like it belongs on a professional bio (credentials, modalities, years of experience), ask: does this describe what it feels like to be this person, or what it's like to be me?
Lead with their felt experience. Follow with how you help. Save your clinical framing and credentials for further down the page, where they support the trust you've already built instead of trying to build it from scratch.
To be clear, this doesn't mean stripping out your expertise or dumbing it down. It means sequencing it correctly: their experience first, your qualifications after, as support rather than the opening pitch.
Mistake 2: Too Much Clinical Jargon, Not Enough Plain Language
This is really Mistake 1 wearing a different hat. Most potential clients are not clinicians. Terms that feel completely normal to you, like "modalities," "psychoeducation," or "somatic processing," can feel confusing or even a little intimidating to someone who just wants to know if you can help them stop dreading Sunday nights.
That doesn't mean dumbing down your expertise. It means translating it.
Instead of:
"I utilize an integrative, somatic-based approach informed by attachment theory."
Try:
"We'll work with both your thoughts and your body's stress responses, using an approach grounded in how early relationships shape the way we cope now."
Same expertise. Much easier for a stressed-out visitor to actually absorb while skimming on their phone during a lunch break.
Mistake 3: No Clear Next Step
By the time someone scrolls to the bottom of your homepage, they should know exactly what to do next: book a free consult, fill out a contact form, or call your office directly.
If your site has five different calls to action scattered across the page ("Learn More," "Contact," "Book Now," "Read My Bio," "Subscribe"), a nervous, overwhelmed visitor is more likely to close the tab than pick one.
Pick one primary action you want most visitors to take, and repeat that same button language consistently across your site:
"Schedule a Free Consultation"
"Request an Appointment"
Everything else (your About page, your FAQ, your specialties) can support that one action instead of competing with it.
Mistake 4: Your Specialties Read Like a Service Menu, Not a Mirror
If someone has to click three pages deep to find out whether you work with couples, or teens, or trauma, you've already lost a chunk of visitors who gave up before finding the answer. But even when specialties are visible, they often still fail, because they're written like a menu instead of something a visitor can recognize themselves in.
Compare "Anxiety, Depression, Trauma" (a list) to something like "For the overthinker who can't turn her brain off at night" and "For the couple who love each other but keep having the same fight" (a mirror). The first tells a visitor what you treat. The second lets them see themselves in it before they've even read your bio.
Your specialties should be visible and scannable near the top of your homepage or in your main navigation, not tucked into a paragraph on page four of your About page, and written in the language of the experience, not just the diagnosis.
Mistake 5: Accessibility Gets Skipped
This one matters more for a therapy practice than almost any other type of small business, because your visitors may be anxious, distracted, fatigued, or navigating your site during a genuinely hard moment. That's exactly when accessibility basics matter most.
A few things worth checking today:
Color contrast: Is your body text easy to read against its background, especially pale or pastel palettes that look pretty but are hard on the eyes?
Font size: Is your body copy large enough to read comfortably on mobile without zooming in?
Heading structure: Does your page use one clear H1, then organized H2s and H3s, instead of picking headers based on how big or small they look?
Alt text: Do your images have real descriptions, especially any graphics that contain important information like fees or office hours?
You don't need to become an accessibility expert overnight. A free tool like the WebAIM Contrast Checker can flag color issues in minutes, and Squarespace's built-in SEO/accessibility panel can catch missing alt text.
Mistake 6: Leading With Credentials Instead of Connection
If you've read general small-business website advice, you've probably seen "add customer testimonials" and "list your credentials up front" both treated as musts. Both deserve a second look here.
On testimonials: skip them. Most state licensing boards and ethics codes (APA, ACA, NASW, and most state boards) either prohibit or strongly caution against soliciting or posting client testimonials, since a former client's public endorsement can raise confidentiality and undue influence concerns. When in doubt, check your specific licensing board's guidance before posting anything that could be read as a testimonial.
On credentials: include them, clearly and honestly, but don't lead with them. Your license, state, and certifications build credibility. They confirm you're legitimate once someone already feels understood. They rarely convince someone to feel understood in the first place, that comes from Mistake 1. A visitor decides whether to trust you emotionally before they ever check your license number.
So here's the order that actually builds trust on a therapy website:
Copy that reflects their real experience (see Mistake 1). Still the single biggest trust builder on the page, by far.
A real, current photo of yourself, not a generic stock image. People want to see a human face before they reach out.
A warm About page that shares enough of your story and why you do this work to feel human, without reading like a CV.
Transparent fees and insurance information, so there are no surprises before someone even reaches out.
Clear credentials: license type, state, and relevant certifications, included and easy to find, supporting the page rather than leading it.
Notice where credentials land: last, not first. That's intentional. They're what someone checks after they already feel like you get it, not what makes them feel that way in the first place.
Mistake 7: Your Mobile Site Feels Like an Afterthought
A large share of your visitors are checking out your site from their phone, often quickly, often while genuinely stressed. If your mobile layout is cramped, your buttons are hard to tap, or your text requires pinch-zooming, you're losing people who would've otherwise reached out.
Before you consider your site finished, actually open it on your own phone and check:
Can you read the text without zooming?
Are your buttons easy to tap with a thumb?
Does your navigation menu work smoothly?
Can you fill out your contact form without frustration?
A Simple Website Audit
Next time you have a spare 20 minutes, run through this:
Does your homepage describe what your client is feeling and thinking, in their words, not your clinical language?
Is your copy in plain language, not clinical jargon?
Is there one clear, repeated call to action?
Do your specialties read like a mirror a visitor can see themselves in, not a service menu?
Have you checked color contrast, font size, and alt text?
Do credentials show up as support further down the page instead of leading the pitch, with testimonials skipped entirely?
Have you actually tested your site on your own phone recently?
Fix one thing at a time. You don't need a full redesign to make meaningful progress this week.
With love (and a promise to stop crashing mid-edit right when you finally get the hero section perfect),
Squarespace
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