96. The 3 Kinds of Trauma Clients (& How to Market to Each)

Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of Marketing Therapy.

I am glad you're tuning in today.

We're talking today about the three types of trauma clients because holy mackerel, not every trauma client is created equal.

Now, I've had the chance to sit down with thousands of therapists at this point.

and talk about their niche and talk about their ideal client.

And a couple themes often arise.

One, typically they want that client to be incredibly motivated and insightful and self-aware.

No doubt that makes your work a lot more fun, right? Similarly, one of the really common themes we see is that there is some sort of trauma history, right? We've all had some sort of trauma.

And a lot of times, therapists will tell me, Anna, I love working with that CPTSD, that relational trauma client, helping her untangle the patterns behind her people-pleasing and addressing the way that her early relationships shaped the way she's relating now.

All those amazing things that come as a result of this type of work.

So Clients often come to me, Anna, I love relational trauma.

I love attachment work.

I love fill in the blank.

And a lot of times, because the clinician doesn't have any other language, they're talking a lot about trauma.

Because hello, that's the issue.

But often these therapists still aren't getting the clients that they want and they're frustrated, right? The ones that they are getting tend to be a bit of a mismatch, or they just aren't getting many at all.

And while she might still have some favorite clients, they're typically coming through referrals or other means, and it doesn't feel consistent.

This therapist knows who they want to work with, but they're not getting that client on the regular.

Now, when we dig into who that client actually is, typically she's coming in for anxiety, for relationship issues.

She might struggle with people pleasing or perfectionism.

She might be inclined to put everyone else's needs before her own, to say yes when she means no.

Maybe her last three relationships all ended the same way.

And three months, six months in, she starts to put the pieces together.

She starts to have those incredibly fulfilling breakthrough moments you get to be part of where she's like, oh, that's why I do these things.

That's why I find myself in this position, whatever that might be.