88. How to Build a Website that Supports Your Client's Nervous System

But here's what I really want to talk about today.

A therapy website isn't like any other website.

This industry isn't like any other industry.

But if you're forcing your therapy practice into some other website framework, whether that's the one that your niece's girlfriend created or that you saw on Instagram or whatever, you're going to get a site that looks polished but is not set up to meet your client and their nervous system at their point of need to book a therapist.

Those things have to be in place for a website to work.

Now, like I said, therapy is a fundamentally different industry.

When people ask me why I got into working with therapists and creating Walker Strategy Co., I share that before I ever started actually offering anything to therapists, I spent about six months developing a point of view, trying to get to know this industry.

Because holy cow, is it different.

We are not selling backpacks here.

We are not selling a haircut.

We're not selling coaching or interior design or whatever else we could possibly think of, right? Therapy is so unique.

We're not even selling dental services or other medical provider services.

Therapy is unique.

I mean, think about it.

Think about the experience of your client's as they look for a therapist compared to any other service.

The emotional state that they are in when they decide to seek out therapy versus when they decide to buy a backpack or find a dentist, right? They're in a completely different place.

The level of trust required before they book.

Now, we always need to trust the people that we buy from, whether that is a backpack, a hair salon, a dentist, whatever that might be.

But the level of trust required to work with a therapist, pretty much the most vulnerable thing we do, right? They have fears holding that client back.

The hesitation they have about therapy versus the hesitation they have about going to the dentist, which might be legitimate as well.

But can you see here how the experience of your client deciding to work with a therapist is fundamentally different than any other way that they spend their money? So if you are expecting your website to...

support that journey and meet them at that point of need and walk them through that experience by using another website framework or just expecting to slap something together that looks nice, we're going to be missing what is fundamentally required in order to meet them at that point of need and show them that you're the therapist for them.

Your website has to be different, too.

And I don't just mean cosmetically.

We're not just talking aesthetic.