Finding a Niche

Finding a niche can seem counterintuitive. But the truth is that it is an essential marketing strategy. Learn how to find a niche to build your practice.

The most common reaction that new therapists have when told to find a niche is fear. “Isn’t finding a niche limiting myself? I don’t have any clients to fill my caseload. I don’t think I can afford to have a niche.”

I had the same fear when I started my own private practice. I had doubts and was afraid to market my niche, but a colleague told me something that was so helpful at the time. “There are going to be people that come into your practice either way. Your niche will not hold you back from getting the clients you want. It just helps you specialize.”

And the truth is finding a niche will lead to building your practice, instead of limiting it.

Let’s look at it this way, people are usually looking for therapy for something specific. If you aren’t offering anything specific, then what will lead them to choose you over someone else? There are a gazillion therapists out there with basic training in depression and anxiety, so what sets you apart?

In the age of the internet, a person looking for therapy will not google just “find a therapist,” they will use keywords and look on specific sites to narrow down their search.

So the more narrow your niche is, the more likely you will get someone who might be a better fit than just any person, but someone who needs your niche.

So let's start with the basics:

What is a niche, and how do I find one? A niche is a speciality or focus that you decide you want to work with, a certain population, a certain problem or a combination of them. It is important to ask yourself some questions in order to carve out a niche for yourself.

What are your interests? Seeing what you gravitate towards might be helpful. Just knowing yourself as a person might spark some brainstorming toward a niche. What did you like to study in school? What do you gravitate towards in your free time?

Who do you like to work with the most? What populations excite you? You might like working with kids. What specific ages? School age? Teenagers? Maybe you like working with couples. But what kind? Newlyweds, gay couples, couples with different ethnicities from each other?

What issues or problems are you passionate about working with? You might be drawn to trauma, or LGBTQI issues, or parenting struggles. You might be excited to work with autism or ADHD.

Once you decide who you like working with and what issues you like working with, you can really narrow down your niche. It is up to you how narrow you want to make it. Maybe you like working with women or people of color or even more specific women of color. Maybe you are drawn to working with the LGBTQI population or teens or even more specific LGBTQI teens struggling with their identity.

Some of these questions might be difficult if you are not sure what the answers are.

If you are having trouble just narrowing things down, think of all your past sessions. If you are barely getting out of school, or obtaining your license, think of all the clients that you have worked with and think about all your favorite clients. What was it about them that made you feel rewarded? What were their problems and issues? From this you might be able to identify some patterns or themes.

It is possible that maybe you didn’t like your traineeship or associateship, but just know that knowing who you don’t want to work with is just as important.

If you want to start fresh, it might be helpful to just write out your ideal client. Try to be as specific as possible: what are their demographics, problems or issues, their characteristics? Completely make up a person on paper that you would ideally love to work with. Sometimes, our imagination can lead us to finding our calling.