The client will primarily make their decision based on how they feel about you personally and what they think therapy with you will be like, and not so much on your professional background. This is why smiling in your photo and having a digestible description that feels personal is so important.

Another thing that is also important is this: do not copy and paste from one of your other profile descriptions on the internet! Google penalises this, so when they find duplicate content (e.g. your profile description on PlusGuidance is the same as your 'About' page on your website) it hurts the chances of both your profiles showing in Google’s search results. It also prevents you from getting verified on PlusGuidance as we manually check whether you've used duplicate content before we verify you. Making your written description different than any of your other profiles is ideal, but rewriting a profile from elsewhere will also satisfy search engines as long as you rewrite the structure, grammar or order of the words of almost all sentences.

The general advice for the text on your profile are:

• Too little text will not entice readers enough to message you, and too much can make people give up before they even get started reading. You need to write enough to give clients a clear impression about your personal style and method, and not too much so they won't read to the end. An ideal limit is 150-300 words per section ("How I Can Help You", "What To Expect" and "About Me" sections). Make your paragraphs about 50-60-words each. Paragraph style can vary according to what and how you write, and bullet points are good as long as you don't overdo it.
• Avoid using medical terms like ‘presenting’, ‘patient’, ‘mental health’, ‘mental’, ‘illness’, ‘treatment’ etc., which may intimidate or deter potential new clients. Technical language may make the client feel bracketed before treatment has even begun.
• Including links and videos are great to give readers a better feel for you. On your 'Edit Profile' page, you'll see there are also options to format your text and include tables if you feel they are helpful to present certain information.

The first few sentences are most effective if they are a bit unexpected (e.g. a quote that pinpoints what you’re about) or speak directly to readers’ hearts and minds. You could paraphrase what many of your current clients tend to tell you. For example, “feeling like I’m banging my head against the wall” could be turned into “Are you feeling like you’re banging your head against the wall and there’s no end to it?”. Try to think of the exact struggles your clients come to you about, and use that knowledge when you write the profile text. Being specific really helps. If you're too bland and vague, readers can get second thoughts about you.