Clients ARE Still Investing. The Real Question Is: Can They See You?
If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ll have seen the familiar winter conversation rumbling away in Counselling Forums: “The economy is bad.” “Clients aren’t spending.” “No one can afford therapy right now.”
And if you’re a therapist who already leans towards self-doubt or invisibility, it’s easy to internalise this narrative. It feels like evidence. It feels like confirmation of the quiet fear so many therapists carry beneath the surface: Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe people don’t want therapy. Maybe this isn’t going to work for me.
But the truth is far less dramatic, and far more empowering.
Because while the online world is busy panicking, the actual data paints a completely different picture.
What the numbers actually say
Adobe reported that UK online shoppers spent £3.8 billion across the Black Friday weekend, calling it “a 4.6 percent increase year on year.”
And Reuters noted that online orders “hit £5 billion despite wider economic uncertainty.”
People haven’t stopped spending. People haven’t stopped prioritising what matters. People haven’t stopped investing in support.
What has changed is the intentionality behind purchasing.
Clients are more selective, they’re looking carefully, and they’re choosing based on clarity and value, not noise. And this is where therapist marketing becomes deeply human and deeply powerful.
This isn’t about price. This is about priority.
A 4 percent rise isn’t simply inflation. If this were only a price shift, consumers would be buying fewer items for more money. But they’re not. They’re spending more because they’re investing with intention.
Human behaviour always tells the real story.
People will spend on the things that feel meaningful, supportive, relieving, or identity-affirming. Which means when therapists aren’t getting enquiries, the issue usually isn’t the economy. It’s a gap in visibility, message, or identity.
Not inadequacy. Not incompetence. Just… invisibility, and most therapists don’t realise:
Clients can only choose you if they can recognise you.
That means: recognise your marketing message, recognise your outcomes, recognise your speciality and recognise you as THE therapist who understands the world they’re walking through.
That only happens when your marketing is clear enough and consistent enough to cut through the noise.
Your clients aren’t disappearing. They’re choosing.
Let’s take my client Kathy who is a Trauma and Narcissistic Abuse Therpaist. Last week she received four enquiries. From four different profiles. All of which clearly state she is full. In December, the month therapists notoriously fear. And she has significantly raised her fees to high end levels.
That isn’t luck. That is the outcome of clarity.
Clients chose her even when they knew she was full because they felt connected to something in her message and her identity as a therapist. That is the power of psychographic marketing – speaking to the inner world of the client, not just listing services.
And it’s the same reason so many of my membership clients are still growing waitlists, increasing fees, and booking paid initial consultations without hesitation.
They stopped trying to sound like “professional therapists” , stopped trying to impress their peers and they started sounding like themselves.
They stopped hiding behind neutral, watered-down copy. They started communicating outcomes and impact.
They stopped fearing repetition. They started becoming recognisable.
If you want to grow in a noisy economy, here’s what actually matters
This is not about posting more or chasing trends. And it’s definitely not about sounding clever.
It’s about anchoring into three simple principles that shape every stable, confident practice:
1. Communicate value through clarity of outcomes
Clients don’t know what “integrative therapy” or “relational depth” means for their life. They do understand feeling less tense, sleeping better, breaking cycles, understanding themselves, or finally dealing with the thing they’ve been carrying alone.
When your marketing focuses on outcomes, clients feel understood.
2. Show why you’re the therapist who can support them
Your story, your lens, your positioning- these are not marketing extras. They are the signals that help a client decide, “That’s who I trust.”
3. Repeat the message you want to be known for
Repetition isn’t annoying. Repetition is identity-building.
If you want to be remembered, you must be recognisable. If you want to be recognisable, you must be consistent. If you want to be consistent, you must know what you stand for.
This is the real work therapists come to me for. Not templates. Not hacks. Identity.
So if enquiries feel quiet… it isn’t the economy.
It’s that your message hasn’t yet reached the clients who need you. And that is something you can change.
The therapists who thrive in uncertain seasons are the ones who sit in clarity, not fear. They show up when others withdraw. They build identity when others chase quick fixes. They communicate value when others apologise for their fees.
And the market responds to that energy.
Your future clients aren’t waiting for the economy to improve. They’re waiting for the therapist who feels like a safe, steady, grounded match for their inner world.
They’re waiting for you, but only if they can find you.
If you want support to do this properly… the waitlist is open
Inside the membership, I teach therapists how to build a digital presence that feels ethical, confident and recognisable. No gimmicks. No hype. Real depth. Real messaging. Real identity. The kind that fills practices even in noisy economic seasons.
If you want to receive consistent enquiries, raise your fees without fear, and become the therapist clients immediately “get”, you’ll want to be inside.
Join the waitlist here: https://www.melanielaysolutions.uk/waitlist
Doors re-open 1st January, and you’ll be the first to gain info on joining bonuses.
Clients are still investing. Let’s make sure your practice is a place they feel confident investing in.
Mel Lay – Private Practice Marketing Coach
Private Practice Marketing Coach for Counsellors and Therapists l Mel Lay 
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