A therapist with a half-full caseload has no shortage of people willing to sell them a solution. The problem is that they are not selling the same thing. A directory listing, a Meta ads retainer, an SEO project and a consultant's report are four different products with four different failure modes, and the language used to sell them is close enough that it is hard to tell which one you are being offered.
I run one of the businesses in this comparison, so read it with that in mind. What follows is what each route actually does, what it costs, and the circumstances in which each is the wrong choice. Where a company makes a claim about results, I have described it as their claim rather than as a fact, because none of these are testable from the outside.
First, know which problem you are buying a fix for
Every route below solves one of four problems: not enough people find you, people find you but do not enquire, people enquire but do not book, or clients book but leave quickly. Buying the wrong one is the most common and expensive mistake in this whole category.
If you have not worked out which of the four applies to you, start here rather than with any of the options below. Twenty minutes with your own numbers will save you a year of paying for the wrong thing.
Or take Clay's free Growth Check. It takes about five minutes and shows which part of your practice is most likely holding it back.
Directories
What they are: paid profiles on sites that already rank well, so you are renting someone else's visibility rather than building your own.
Counselling Directory advertises membership from £24.50 a month. Psychology Today's UK signup page lists £19.95 a month after six free months, with no contract. Therapy Directory advertises from £19.50 a month. BACP's Therapist Directory is available to registered members as an add-on to membership.
Who they suit: almost everyone, as a floor rather than a strategy. The prices are published, the commitment is monthly, and one client who stays a few months covers a year of the fee.
Where they fall down: saturation. In a city you are one of hundreds of profiles, and being listed is not the same as being found. They also build nothing you own. Stop paying and the visibility disappears the same day.
Lead generation agencies
What they are: paid advertising, usually Meta, run on your behalf to produce enquiries.
TheraMedia describes itself as a psychologist-founded UK agency for therapists, offering PR, social media and Meta ad campaigns, and its advertising page says it delivers qualified client leads every month, guaranteed. Note that a separate business, Thera Media UK, operates under a similar name with a different offer built around automation and AI follow-up, so check which one you are talking to. For Client Agency markets itself specifically on client acquisition for therapists and advertises a system intended to add ten to fifteen new clients over twelve weeks without the therapist needing to appear on social media.
Pricing in this category is generally not published, so expect a call before a number.
Who they suit: practitioners who genuinely have a visibility problem, have the cash to fund a test, and are comfortable with paid advertising sitting alongside their professional obligations.
Where they fall down: if your website or your reply time is the weak link, more enquiries will not help, and you will pay for every one of them. Ask any agency in this category for two things: therapists they have worked with who went from a small caseload to a full one, and what those therapists spent to get there. A guarantee of leads is not a guarantee of clients.
Therapy-specific SEO and website specialists
What they are: building or fixing your own site so it gets found, rather than renting visibility or buying it.
Psyche Creative works with therapists, counsellors, psychologists and supervisors on websites, SEO, content and advertising. SEO for Therapists focuses specifically on getting UK private practices found in search. The Social Connection works on ethical social media and visibility for therapists in private practice.
Who they suit: practitioners thinking in years rather than weeks, and anyone whose site currently fails to answer the basic questions a visitor has.
Where they fall down: slowness. Search work rarely shows meaningful results inside three months, which is no use if you need clients this term. The asset is yours permanently, which is the trade.
Client matching networks
What they are: services that introduce clients to therapists directly, rather than marketing you to the world.
Aligned offers private practice therapists client introductions without monthly fees. At the time of writing it was operating a waitlist, so availability needs checking.
Who they suit: anyone who wants clients rather than marketing, and who is comfortable with another organisation holding the relationship with the person seeking help.
Where they fall down: you do not control the flow, the fit, or the terms, and a network that goes quiet takes your caseload with it.
Business coaches and generalist agencies
What they are: support that is not therapy-specific, either coaching on the business or a local marketing agency doing the usual services.
Who they suit: practitioners whose problem is genuinely about confidence, pricing, or how they use their week, rather than about marketing at all. That is more common than the marketing industry admits.
Where they fall down: a generalist agency will apply a template built for plumbers and dentists, and neither understands why your professional body's rules make testimonials complicated.
Clay Consulting
What it is: this one is mine, so treat what follows accordingly. Clay is a consultancy, not an agency. The work is diagnosing which of the four problems above is actually holding your caseload down, and telling you what to do about it, in order. That comes either as a Growth Session at £120 an hour, or a Growth Strategy, a written review of your site, search visibility, directory listings and local competitors with a walkthrough call.
Who it suits: practitioners who suspect they are about to spend money on the wrong thing, and would rather know first. The Growth Strategy is a one-off £1,200 fee with no retainer; here is exactly what that fee covers.
Once you know what needs doing, Clay can do it. The website, the search visibility work, the directory and Google listings: whatever the review identifies, it can be built rather than just recommended. There is no obligation either way. Plenty of practitioners take the report and do the work themselves, or hand it to someone else, and it is written to be useful in either case.
The limitations, plainly: Clay does not run paid advertising campaigns and does not promise a number of clients, so if what you want is someone to buy enquiries on your behalf, one of the agencies above is a better fit. It is a small consultancy rather than a large team, which means fewer clients at a time and a wait if the diary is full.
Which to pick
| If your situation is | Look at |
|---|---|
| You have no online presence at all | Directories first, then your own site |
| Nobody is finding you and you can fund a test | A lead generation agency |
| Your site is dated, unclear, or does not rank | A therapy-specific SEO or website specialist |
| You want clients rather than marketing | A matching network |
| You do not know which of these applies to you | A diagnostic conversation, with Clay or anyone else who will give you one |
| Your issue is pricing, boundaries, or how you use your week | A business coach, not a marketer |
Two things to ask anyone in this list
What exactly am I buying, and what happens if it does not work? Ask whether you are buying enquiries, visibility, an asset, or advice. Ask what the exit looks like. A monthly retainer with a twelve-month minimum is a different commitment from a directory you can cancel in thirty days.
Can you show me a practitioner like me? Not a testimonial. A practitioner at a similar stage, with what they spent and what changed. Every business in this comparison, mine included, should be able to answer that or explain why it cannot.
One last thing worth saying. More enquiries is not the goal. Eleven well-matched clients who stay are worth more than fifty enquiries that go nowhere, and considerably more to the people on the other end of them. Any provider who talks only in lead volume is measuring the wrong thing.
Frequently asked questions
Are there companies in the UK that help therapists get more clients?
Yes, and they fall into five groups. Directories such as Counselling Directory and Psychology Today rent you visibility from about £20 to £25 a month. Agencies such as TheraMedia and For Client Agency run paid advertising to generate enquiries. Specialists such as Psyche Creative and SEO for Therapists build your own search visibility. Matching networks such as Aligned introduce clients directly. Consultancies such as Clay Consulting diagnose which of those you actually need, and can carry out the work that follows.
Is a directory listing enough on its own?
For some practitioners, yes, particularly outside major cities. In saturated areas a listing puts you on a page with hundreds of others, so it works better as a floor than as a plan.
Should I pay for ads to get therapy clients?
Only if your problem is that too few people find you. If people are visiting your site and not enquiring, paid ads will increase the number of people who do not enquire.
How much does it cost to get help with marketing a therapy practice?
Directories run at roughly £20 to £25 a month. Agency retainers are usually not published and are quoted after a call. Consultancy is priced per piece of work, for example £120 for an hour with Clay.
How long before it works?
Advertising can produce enquiries within weeks and stops when you stop paying. Search and content work usually take three months or more and keep working afterwards. Anyone promising both speed and permanence is selling you something.
Claims and prices checked on 18 September 2026. Providers change both, so check before you buy.
Not sure what's right for you?
That's fine. Most people aren't, until they talk it through. A short call costs nothing and tells you which path makes sense, or whether it's a bit of both.
Let's talk it through