Website design for therapists: Make the first message feel safe to send.
Before writing to a therapist, people often look for two answers: are you properly registered, and is it safe to get in touch? Your site answers both, for counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists in private practice.
Business build £3,950 ex VAT, paid once.
Four questions first
What someone checks before they book a first session
Someone choosing a therapist may read a few sites, often late in the evening, before writing to one. These are the four questions your site answers before anyone gets in touch.
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Are you on a register?
Counsellor and therapist are titles anyone can use, so this is the proof: the body you belong to, your registration number, and a link to your entry on the BACP, UKCP or NCPS register, or the HCPC Register for a practitioner psychologist.
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Do you sound like someone I could talk to?
A real photograph and a first paragraph in your own words: how you work, who you see, in person or online. No jargon, and no list of conditions.
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What happens first, and what it costs
The fee per session, how long a session lasts, your cancellation terms and how to arrange a first call. The fee goes where nobody has to hunt for it.
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Is it private?
What happens to a message before you have met: who reads it, what you keep, and a form that asks only what it needs. On a quiet page that reads easily on a phone at eleven at night.
Titles, badges and data
The rules behind a therapy website
A counsellor’s website answers to four bodies at once: the HCPC on titles, your professional body on badges, the ICO on data and CAP on claims. At the time of writing, this is what each asks of your pages, with a link to read it for yourself. None of it is legal advice.
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Use a protected title only if it is yours
Counsellor, therapist and psychotherapist are open titles. The nine practitioner psychologist titles and the arts therapy titles are protected by law, and anyone using one must be on the HCPC Register. The site uses the title you hold and links it to the register that holds you.
Read it: HCPC, the regulation of psychologists · HCPC, protected titles
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Your registration number, on show
BACP asks registered members to display their number on all their promotional material, and lets them put the member logo on their website with its collective mark wording intact. Student, newly qualified and retired members cannot use it.
Read it: BACP, promoting your membership
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In a shared practice, the UKCP logo sits by your name
Full clinical and trainee members can use it after their name and on their own website. Within a practice it goes beside the member's name and on their own profile page, never on the practice homepage or a page that isn't about them, and a trainee says so.
Read it: UKCP, use of the logo policy
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An enquiry about therapy is health data
The ICO treats details of someone's mental health as special category data, and appointment details can reveal health status too. Collecting it needs an extra legal condition, such as explicit consent confirmed in words, so the form asks for less.
Read it: ICO, what is special category data · ICO, explicit consent
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Describe what clients bring, not conditions you cure
CAP says treatment for serious conditions such as depression, addictions and eating disorders can only be advertised under suitably qualified medical supervision. Your pages talk about what you can work on together instead.
Read it: CAP, mental health treatment claims
The first message
An enquiry form that asks for less
Someone writing to a therapist for the first time is often about to tell a stranger something hard. The form saves that for the first session, and asks only what a first call needs.
The form asks for
- Your name
- An email address or phone number
- A good time to reach you
- In the room or online
It leaves for the first session
- What brings someone to therapy
- Their history, a diagnosis or any medication
- Anything they would rather say in the room
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Bots turned away at the form
A bot check on the form turns automated submissions away before they reach you.
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Google Analytics waits for a yes
Visits are counted without cookies. Google Analytics loads only after someone agrees, and saying no is as easy as saying yes.
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A privacy page people can read
Who sees a message and what you keep, in plain words, for the person about to send one.
A directory, or your own address
A directory rents you a profile. The site you own keeps working when you stop paying.
Psychology Today, Counselling Directory and the professional bodies’ own directories all list therapists, and a listing can bring a first enquiry. Keep one if it works for you, and point it at a site that stays yours.
On a directory
- Psychology Today UK charges £19.95 a month once six free months for new members run out, at the time of writing, and a listing lasts as long as the payments do.
- Psychology Today's profile is its own template, an intro video, a personal statement and a photo gallery, and it offers a protected phone number and tracks the calls and emails the profile brings in.
- BACP lists registered members on its Register free, and charges extra for a place in its therapist directory.
On your own site
- Your registration number and a link to your entry, wherever your body lets them go.
- An enquiry form whose questions you choose, so it never asks for more than a first call needs.
- Nothing to pay us each month. The one running cost is your domain renewal, at cost.
- 10 pages, so your approach, fees, the first session and your credentials each have a page of their own.
- First calls booked online and synced to your calendar, with enquiries routed and tracked.
- Easier to find: your practice’s Google Business Profile set up, and keyword research worked into every page.
- Yours to change: a new fee or a holiday notice is yours to edit in the editor, no developer needed.
Two to four weeks from go-ahead to live.
Lite is enough if you work alone and are happy to arrange first calls by email or phone: 5 pages and a contact form, at £1,950 ex VAT. Business adds the booking calendar and routed enquiries.
What therapists and counsellors ask us
Do I need to be on a register to call myself a counsellor?
No. The HCPC says counsellor, therapist and psychotherapist are not protected titles, so no law stops anyone using them. Some nearby titles are protected: the nine practitioner psychologist titles, counselling psychologist among them, and the arts therapy titles such as art therapist. Using one of those means being on the HCPC Register. That gap is why a voluntary register, and a number a client can look up, carry so much of the trust on your site.
Can I put the BACP or UKCP logo on my website?
If your membership allows it. At the time of writing, BACP lets registered members show their logo on their website, with its collective mark wording left on, and asks them to display their registration number; student, newly qualified and retired members can't use it. UKCP lets full clinical and trainee members use its logo after their name and on their own website. In a shared practice it goes beside the member's name and on their own profile page, never on the practice homepage, and trainees must say they are trainees. Check your body's current policy before launch.
Is my contact form collecting health data?
If it asks what someone is struggling with, very likely. The ICO counts details of a person's mental health as data concerning health, which is special category data, and handling it needs an Article 9 condition on top of an ordinary lawful basis. Explicit consent is one of those conditions, and it has to be confirmed in words rather than read from a click. The simpler route is to ask for less: a name, a way to reply and a good time to call. Even a bare message to a therapist says something about the person sending it. That is how we build the form; it is not legal advice, so settle your own basis with your professional body or an adviser.
Can my website say I treat depression?
Be careful with it. CAP's guidance lists depression among the serious conditions whose treatment, diagnosis or advice can only be advertised under the supervision of a suitably qualified medical professional, and any claim to treat or cure needs robust evidence behind it. Writing about what clients bring, and what you can work on together, sits more comfortably. That guidance dates from 2021 at the time of writing; your professional body can tell you how it applies to your own work.
Can new clients book a first call online?
Yes. Booking that syncs with your calendar, and enquiry forms that are routed and tracked, come with Business. We set the booking to ask for a name and a way to reply, not a reason, so the diary entry holds a name, a way to reply and a time, and nothing about why: the ICO's guidance notes that a list of someone's appointments can reveal something about their health. Taking a card payment as a session is booked, or a link to practice management software, is a job for the advanced integration add-on, at the price printed in the configurator.
Is a directory listing still worth paying for?
It can be, as one way in. At the time of writing, Psychology Today UK shows £19.95 a month on its own sign-up page, after six free months for new members, and BACP lists registered members on its Register free while charging extra to advertise in its therapist directory. A listing is rented, though: it lasts as long as the payments do. Point it at a site you own, so a profile always leads somewhere that stays yours.
Once the site is live, who keeps it within the rules?
You do, from a sound starting point. At the time of writing, the build follows what the HCPC, your professional body, the ICO and CAP set out: the enquiry form asks for the minimum, your registration shows where your body's policy lets it, and the pages talk about what clients bring rather than conditions treated. Every later change is yours to weigh against your body's policy and the ICO: a new question on the form, a blog post, a new badge. None of this is legal advice.
Who owns the site, and what is left to pay after launch?
You do, outright. The domain, hosting, code and editor are set up in your own accounts and we are added as a collaborator, so the site stays put whoever you work with next. And once it is live? Your domain renewal, at cost. Hosting and the editor run on free tiers in your own accounts, so nothing comes to us unless you choose a care plan.