Is Psychology Today still worth paying for?
Keep it as a small extra.
It used to fill practices. Now far fewer people come through it. So check whether yours still earns its keep, instead of renewing on autopilot.
The math is easy, and that ease is what hides the problem. Run it anyway:
- - What it costs a year. Say $30 a month. About $360.
- - What one client is worth to you. A client who stays a few months at $250 a session is worth thousands. Use your real rate.
- - How many it brought you last year. Six? Two? One?
Multiply the clients by what one is worth, and hold it against the cost. One real client covers the year, so it almost always passes.
That is the trap. It stays cheap enough to keep forever, so you stop noticing it stopped working. The real cost sits somewhere else. A $360 listing becomes your reason to skip the things that grow a practice now: your Google listing and your reviews.
So how do people find a therapist now?
The path split in two.
First, they ask. Someone opens ChatGPT or Google's AI and types "find me a therapist for postpartum anxiety in Denver." The AI comes back with a few names. The short list gets built inside the AI, before anyone opens a directory.
Then they check. People look you up before they book, mostly your reviews and your Google listing. The AI gets you onto the short list. Your reviews get you booked.
The most important part comes next. Getting onto that list has little to do with ranking your own site. The AI recommends whoever gets talked about in the most trusted places, so being mentioned across the web counts for more than a number-one Google ranking.
Mentions are the new ranking.
Why this is good news for a small practice
Under the old rules, the biggest budget and the most pages won. A solo practice couldn't out-spend a directory.
The new rules flip that, and the flip favors you.
- - Being mentioned beats a big site. No solo therapist can out-publish a directory, but any therapist can be useful in a few places the AI trusts. One person can do that.
- - Specific wins, and you can be specific. No directory can be the best answer to "therapist for adult ADHD burnout in Boston," but you can. Go narrow enough and you become the only real answer to that question.
- - It's fast. Old Google ranking took years. This starts working in a few weeks to a couple of months.
Small and specific is your advantage now.
What to actually do
Five moves. You don't need all five this week. Start at the top.
To see it in one piece, meet Maya. She does EMDR, mostly with first responders, in San Diego. Watch her run the list.
1. Claim your free Google listing.
Search "Google Business Profile," claim your practice, and fill it out all the way. Set it as a service-area business, so you don't need to post a home address. This is the most important free thing you can do. Google's AI pulls from it, and it's what people check first.
Maya — Her listing says "EMDR for first responders, San Diego." That specific line is what matches her to a specific search.
2. Ask for reviews, on purpose.
Reviews are your receipts. They're the bridge between the AI naming you and the person booking you. Ask happy clients to leave one. Check your licensing board's rules first, since some limit how you can ask. Keep it low-pressure, and take care with current clients. A steady trickle beats a big burst.
Maya — A paramedic she worked with leaves two honest lines. That does more for a nervous first responder than any tagline she could write.
3. Get mentioned where the AI looks.
Pick one and do it for real:
- Answer questions honestly on Reddit or a Facebook group, as yourself, with your real name and where you practice. No spam. Useful answers.
- Put up one simple YouTube video answering a common question in your niche. Say the question out loud on camera, because the AI reads the audio.
- Get named on one other site: a guest post, a podcast, a local write-up.
Maya — She answers honest questions in a first-responder thread and records a five-minute video, "Does EMDR work for on-the-job trauma?" Now when someone asks AI that exact question, she's one of the few solid answers it finds.
4. Answer real questions on your site, one page at a time.
Skip the "complete guide to therapy." Write one page that answers one specific question a client types, and put the answer in the first two sentences.
Free way to find those questions: Google your topic and read the "People also ask" box. Those are questions real people type. Answer the ones your page doesn't.
Maya — Her page answers "Can EMDR help with PTSD from work?" in the first two lines. One page, one question.
5. Point Google at the ready-to-book moment.
People still Google "therapist near me" when they're ready to go. Put your city and your specialty in your page titles and your listing. That's where the booking happens.
Maya — Her page title reads "EMDR for first responders, San Diego," so the person ready to book lands on her the moment they search.
