“We can fix you.”

That was the promise on a sign outside the sports massage clinic I walked past every morning on my way to work.

The goal was clear: catch the attention of anyone in pain or discomfort, and convince them to book in.

It wasn’t subtle. But in a world where wellness advertising so often promises empowerment while quietly preying on our insecurities, at least this message was direct.

As therapists considering our own marketing choices, these are the kinds of options we’re presented with: bold, sweeping claims or subtle, manipulative spin.

The Problem with Mainstream Wellness Marketing

If you’re trying to build a successful practice, the standard marketing advice goes something like this:

First, present yourself as the solution to someone’s problem. You’re the answer to their pain, confusion or struggle. You can fix it.

If that feels uncomfortable, you’re told to push past it. “This is just how marketing works,” they say. “Don’t let your discomfort hold you back.”

Next, you’re encouraged to zero in on your ‘ideal client’, then get inside their head. Identify their pain points. Highlight what’s wrong or missing in their life.

And finally, you’re taught to offer the fix: the unique wisdom, treatment or what-worked-for-me-will-work-for-you guarantee.

You’ve defined your ideal client? Great. Now get inside their head and emphasise their pain points.

These tactics aren’t exclusive to wellness. But in a field that’s meant to support healing, they can cause the greatest harm.

Because whether it’s spelled out directly or simply implied, the underlying message is this:

“You are broken, and you need to be fixed.”

Where Capitalism Meets Wellness

The idea that we need to be fixed is a profitable one.

Research by the Global Wellness Institute revealed that the Global Wellness Economy is valued at $5.6 Trillion, encompassing everything from traditional and complementary medicine to healthy eating, exercise, weight loss, mindfulness, wellness tourism, personalised and preventative medicine and personal care and beauty.

Let’s be clear: a growing demand for services that support our physical and mental health isn’t a bad thing. More of us prioritising self-care and self-actualisation is overwhelmingly positive.

But where capitalism meets wellness, things can get murky.

How Marketing Messages Shape Our Self-Worth

Because even the most healing practices, the most effective treatments and the most common-sense recommendations can be packaged up in a way that diminishes our self-worth, makes us dependent on experts, or pulls us into a never-ending cycle of (often costly) self-improvement.

Neuroscience and popular culture are catching up with what therapists have long known, and a truth that most of us recognise in our bodies at some level: it’s not possible to separate our health from our sense of self-worth.

The mind-body connection is well established, but we’re learning all the time that it’s impossible to separate our thoughts, emotions and past experiences from the state of individual and public health.

There’s a growing body of research showing how messages of deficiency and inadequacy affect not just how we feel, but how we heal. Feelings of not-enoughness and shame have been found to correlate highly with depression, addiction and eating disorders. The destructive impact of shame and its relationship with societal expectations is researched and explored in depth by Brené Brown in her book ‘I Thought It Was Just Me, (But It Wasn’t).’

And Dr Gabor Maté, author of the ‘The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture‘, writes that when we internalise messages of not being good enough, not being worthy enough, we become more susceptible to autoimmune dysfunction and chronic diseases.

In other words, the state of our health is built partly on a foundation of self-worth. If that foundation is shaky or unstable, our resilience and recovery from trauma and stress are severely impacted.

The messages we receive — from earliest childhood through to adulthood — play a central role in building those foundations of self worth.

Some messages come from our caregivers. Others come from our culture. And not all cultural messages seem overtly harmful at first glance. They can come wrapped in soft colours, gentle smiles, and pastel affirmations, like the idea that healing means always feeling calm, or that peace looks a certain way.

These aesthetics often promote a narrow image of wellness, one that idealises whiteness, detaches from real-world struggle, and sidelines the messy, nonlinear process of healing.

This is what it comes down to: all of the messages we receive can contribute to low self-esteem and poor health, or they can nurture a sense of wholeness, and strengthen our capacity to heal.

Why Standard Marketing Advice Fails Therapists

You could think of marketing as micro-messages about what we should aspire to and what makes us worthy of love and belonging. We’re bombarded with these micro-messages hundreds of times each day.

And many of the companies and self-styled gurus in the wellness sphere create micro-messages that set out to reinforce our insecurities. Messages that promote ‘ideals’ of body shape, skin tone and hair texture, and reinforce gender stereotypes and unattainable standards.

A study from Phrasee in 2018 asked thousands of respondents about the emotions they had felt in response to marketing:

Among the most common emotional responses to marketing were feelings of inadequacy (39%), anxiety (38%) and sadness (38%).

This, in turn, drives the need and the demand for the services and products they sell.

Even the most well-intentioned therapists, following the standard marketing advice that is still taught on most build-a-fully-booked-practice trainings, get pulled into a set of persuasion tactics that are deeply at odds with the values behind their work.

Here’s the thing.

Most therapists don’t want anything to do with unethical marketing. Aside from the negative impact it has on the very people you want to help, it damages your reputation. Nobody wants to feel ‘sold to’.

So, what can you do? How do you promote your work in a way that’s responsible? Can marketing ever be aligned with integrity and wholeness?

Yes, it can. Letting people know that you’re there, and how you help, is simply communication. It’s how you do it that matters.

8 Ethical Marketing Practices for Therapists

So what does ethical marketing look like for those of us in the healing professions?

I believe there isn’t one definition or set of practices that applies to all therapists. Some of us follow clear rules or guidelines from professional bodies, and have restrictions around using testimonials or how we describe our work. Others, in less regulated fields, make those decisions ourselves.

But beyond the rules, we all have a deeper responsibility: to stay aware of the impact our marketing has. It’s easy to default to tactics that play on vulnerability, just because ‘that’s how it’s done’. Ethical marketing asks you to pause and consider: is this way of talking about my work aligned with what I believe and how I want to show up?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Don’t set yourself up as a guru.

When people are in pain or seeking support, they’re vulnerable to the promise of certainty. Ethical marketing avoids exploiting that. Instead of presenting yourself as the solution, the source of wisdom, or the provider of the ‘best’ approach (and reinforcing a power hierarchy) focus on encouraging your client’s agency and empowerment.

Try this:

• Replace “I help you overcome anxiety” with “We explore ways to navigate anxiety together, at your pace.”
• Avoid exaggerated or definitive claims like “I can heal your trauma.” Instead, speak about the process: “My approach supports people in creating safety and resilience after trauma.”
• In your bio or on your website, name your training and modalities, but centre your client’s agency: “I bring my experience in [modality], and you bring your knowledge of yourself.”

2. Respect your future clients.

Don’t listen to marketers who tell you that ‘facts don’t sell, you need to tell stories.’ Yes, good stories are powerful! But it’s important to share information and evidence-based research. Respect your clients’ intelligence, autonomy, and capacity for discernment.

Try this:

• Share small pieces of evidence-based insight in your content (e.g., “Research shows that regular bodywork can lower cortisol levels.”).
• Invite reflection rather than trying to convince: “You might notice if this feels familiar…” or “What do you sense in your body when you read this?”
• If you tell a story, make sure it’s grounded: e.g., a time when your work supported someone’s growth — not a “miraculous transformation.”

3. Demystify.

Watch out for vague language or explanations that are crafted to sound impressive or mysterious. Mystery can feel exclusive. Transparency makes your work more accessible, and clarity builds safety.

Try this:

• Add a page or section to your website called “What to Expect” that outlines:
  • What happens in a first session (arrival, intake, discussion, treatment).
  • What a client might feel afterwards.
  • How you approach boundaries, consent, and choice.
• Instead of abstract language like “alignment” or “release,” briefly explain what that involves and how someone might experience it.

4. Words are tools for healing or harm. Use them to heal.

Marketing isn’t separate from your work — it is part of your work. What you say to potential clients on the internet shouldn’t feel out of keeping with who you are as a practitioner. This means talking or writing about what you do with honesty, care and awareness of how your words might impact someone.

Try this:

• Try reading your website content or your Instagram captions out loud — would you say the same kinds of things in your treatment room? If not, revise.
• Avoid phrases that sound like diagnoses or that push people further into fear (“Are you stuck in a scarcity mindset?“) Let your words reflect the kind of therapeutic space you offer: calm, compassionate, empowering.

5. Empathise in order to empathise. That’s it.

When you understand someone’s pain, it can be tempting to use that knowledge to push them toward your services. Don’t. Your empathy is enough.

Try this:

• Validate rather than catastrophise: “It’s common to feel overwhelmed at the start of a healing journey”, rather than “If you don’t take action now, things will only get worse.”
• Share posts that mirror real experiences without attaching urgency or solutions. If it’s appropriate in your field of work, share testimonials (with permission) from clients about what their recovery journey has looked like with your support.
• End with a soft offering, not a pitch: “If this approach sounds like it might be right for you, I’m here.”

6. Share what you stand for.

People are not only looking for help — they’re looking for alignment, resonance and connection. If you want to be relatable without oversharing personal details, a great way to do this is by getting clear on your values, and sharing them.

Try this:

• Make a list of 3–5 core values in your practice. Maybe it’s consent, equity, slowness, presence.
• Reflect these values in your messaging, include them on your webiste, or post about them once or twice each month: eg. “This work unfolds slowly, with care and consent at every step.”
• Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of how your values shape your work: “I updated my intake form to make it more trauma-informed…” or “This post was inspired by my commitment to anti-oppressive practice.”

Help people to understand why you care.

7. Actively resist the trends of mainstream marketing.

Ethical marketing means being the antidote to damaging cultural norms and messages.

Try this:

• Share posts that actively interrupt damaging norms: “You don’t need to ‘fix’ yourself to be worthy of care.”
• Use inclusive images and captions that reflect diversity in bodies, ages, identities, not just stock photos of slim, white, serene women doing yoga.
• Avoid countdown timers, false urgency, or manipulative language. Instead, say: “You’re welcome to get in touch when the time feels right.” If you do have limited appointment slots, or a programme that only has a couple of spaces left, it’s fine to say this – it’s the truth. But note that this is very different from choosing to employ scarcity tactics in order to create anxiety so that someone books in!

8. Nurture your own self-worth as a therapist and a human.

Genuine self-worth leads to a calm, grounded, compassionate presence. Empathy combined with professionalism radiates outwards and draws people to you.

Try this:

• Remember that digital platforms like social media are designed to keep you on them for as long as possible. Tune in regularly to how you feel when you’re using them, and take breaks when the comparison spiral sets in.
• Cultivate non-client-centred practices that remind you of your value: journaling, peer supervision, embodiment practices, or time in nature.

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