April 26, 2025 • 6 mins
Thinking about adding a second niche to your practice? In today’s Ask Allison, I’m answering a question from a therapist who’s spent 10 years working with women healing from trauma and is now feeling curious about couples therapy. I'm sharing how to make that shift—without starting from scratch—and how to talk about having two specialties without confusing your audience. Prefer video? This episode is also available to stream on our YouTube channel!
Sponsored by TherapyNotes®: Use promo code Abundant for 2 months free
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to Ask Allison.
Y'all ask the questions about having a
fun and thriving practice and I answer them.
We have a worksheet for you today so
you can bring this answer into your life.
You can access that at abundancepracticebuilding.com slash
links, where you'll also be able to ask
any questions you have for Ask Allison.
If you want more support, we've got some
free trainings in there too.
(00:28):
If you can't get enough Ask Allison, check
out our YouTube channel for our entire Ask
Allison library.
Welcome back to Ask Allison.
Here's today's question.
I've been in private practice treating individual women
with trauma for 10 years, but I'm getting
bored and feeling like I'd like to change
it up and try out couples therapy after
getting some training and supervision.
(00:49):
If and when I start adding this to
my practice, can I add a page on
couples counseling since I've worked so hard at
SEO, or do you recommend starting an entirely
new website and building up that niche from
scratch?
How can I talk about having two niches
with other providers without confusing them?
Thanks.
So before I answer this, I'd like to
thank TherapyNotes for sponsoring Ask Allison.
(01:09):
I know their features by heart by now,
you probably do too if you listen a
lot, but I want to talk about what
really sets them apart, and that's that they
genuinely care about your experience.
It's not just about troubleshooting, they actively implement
user-suggested features.
Everyone at TherapyNotes believes in the product and
they want you to love it too.
Plus they're independently owned, which means no venture
(01:29):
capital, no pressure to prioritize investors over customers.
That independence allows them to keep their prices
fair, to focus on innovation and to prioritize
the customer experience.
With over 100,000 therapists already on board,
they've proven that you don't have to compromise
success for quality.
If you're ready to see for yourself, try
TherapyNotes free for two months with code ABUNDANT
(01:49):
at therapynotes.com.
So I love that you're switching it up
to keep things interesting.
I hope that other people listening or watching
this know that you are not stuck with
your niche, with your modality, with your services.
Couples counseling isn't as much of a niche
as it is a service.
I want to know who your niche is
within couples counseling.
So if your couples niche includes someone in
(02:10):
the relationship who has experienced trauma, which is
a lot of couples, then your current website
could be absolutely amazing.
Of all the women that you've worked with
over the last decade, how many of them
were in couples counseling or would have benefited
from couples counseling?
Likely many of them, right?
So it depends on your ideal balance of
couples to individual sessions.
I see four scenarios.
(02:32):
Okay.
If your ideal couple is impacted by trauma
and you want to do primarily one-on
-one still with couples kind of sprinkled in,
that's about as easy as it gets.
You can keep your current site and SEO
and write up your couples page and SEO
that as well.
You can sprinkle in mentions of couples counseling
on your homepage with a link to that
(02:53):
new service page.
While networking, you can talk about how you
provide individual and couples counseling for women impacted
by trauma.
Easy.
If your ideal client is impacted by trauma
and you want to do primarily couples counseling,
make your homepage about couples, the dynamics that
happen when there has been some trauma.
You don't have to mess with any established
(03:15):
SEO.
You may be able to keep the same
headers, for example, but talk primarily about couples
on your homepage, have a specialty page for
individual counseling, a specialty page for couples, mention
both on the homepage, start blogging about how
trauma impacts couples, keep your old blogs and
SEO, just add new ones specific to couples.
(03:35):
While you're networking, emphasize that you see couples
impacted by trauma.
You'll likely continue to get individual referrals because
that's what you've known for so long.
To bolster your couples numbers, only talk about
couples while you're networking.
Now, if your couples work as as much
of a departure from trauma as you can
get, and you just want to sprinkle some
(03:56):
in, I would consider a specialty page or
a separate site.
You don't have to trash your old site
if you're holding onto women with trauma as
your primary population, but know that if it's
a specialty page on your trauma website, you're
likely going to get couples with some trauma.
You can downplay that on the specialty page,
maybe talking about, say, communication problems in couples,
(04:18):
if that's your couples niche.
But if you build another website for this
niche, specifically this new couples niche, be really
strategic about who you share that site with.
Share it with your therapist friends who don't
see couples, share it with couples counselors who
work with communication issues and are full, create
a new online listing like Psychology Today specific
to couples.
(04:39):
That is if you really want to stick
with your individuals primarily and your couples are
not trauma related.
Now, if you want to go whole hog
with your non-trauma couples niche and make
it the majority of your practice, I would
transition your current site.
I'd switch up the home page.
I'd make your specialty pages very couple-centric.
Don't delete any blogs or anything, but do
(05:00):
start blogging exclusively about what your new ideal
clients care about.
Do some SEO magic on those blogs, network
your tail offs exclusively about couples.
Even if you only market couples, you're still
going to get individual trauma clients because you've
built on that for a decade.
So you can decide the percentage you want
from each.
If you feel kind of full up on
(05:21):
those individual clients, you can just refer them
out.
It's totally fine.
So for those of you who are full
and you're wanting to make changes like this
in your practice, our Limitless practice program helps
you make those changes, whether it's switching niches
or establishing a niche if you haven't had
one.
It also can help you get off insurance
or increase your private pay rate.
(05:42):
Our Limitless grads are working less.
They're making more than before the program.
So message me Limitless if you want to
chat about that.
Today's free worksheet is the niche versus ideal
client sheet.
It's going to help you get more specific
so that your marketing is much, much easier.
Message me the word sheets and I will
send it your way.
All right.
I hope that that's helpful.
(06:03):
Have a really great day.
If you're ready for a much easier practice,
Therapy Notes is the way to go.
Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo
code abundant for two months free.
I hope that helped.
If you have questions for Ask Alison, or
you want to get your hands on the
worksheet for this episode, go to abundancepracticebuilding.com
(06:27):
slash links.
If you're listening, you probably need some support
building your practice.
If you're a super newbie, grab our free
checklist using the link in the show notes.
I'd love for you to follow, rate, and
review, but I really want you to share
this episode with a therapist friend.
Let's help all our colleagues build what they
want.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to Ask Allison.
Y'all ask the questions about having a
fun and thriving practice and I answer them.
We have a worksheet for you today so
you can bring this answer into your life.
You can access that at abundancepracticebuilding.com slash
links, where you'll also be able to ask
any questions you have for Ask Allison.
If you want more support, we've got some
free trainings in there too.
(00:28):
If you can't get enough Ask Allison, check
out our YouTube channel for our entire Ask
Allison library.
Welcome back to Ask Allison.
Here's today's question.
I've been in private practice treating individual women
with trauma for 10 years, but I'm getting
bored and feeling like I'd like to change
it up and try out couples therapy after
getting some training and supervision.
(00:49):
If and when I start adding this to
my practice, can I add a page on
couples counseling since I've worked so hard at
SEO, or do you recommend starting an entirely
new website and building up that niche from
scratch?
How can I talk about having two niches
with other providers without confusing them?
Thanks.
So before I answer this, I'd like to
thank TherapyNotes for sponsoring Ask Allison.
(01:09):
I know their features by heart by now,
you probably do too if you listen a
lot, but I want to talk about what
really sets them apart, and that's that they
genuinely care about your experience.
It's not just about troubleshooting, they actively implement
user-suggested features.
Everyone at TherapyNotes believes in the product and
they want you to love it too.
Plus they're independently owned, which means no venture
(01:29):
capital, no pressure to prioritize investors over customers.
That independence allows them to keep their prices
fair, to focus on innovation and to prioritize
the customer experience.
With over 100,000 therapists already on board,
they've proven that you don't have to compromise
success for quality.
If you're ready to see for yourself, try
TherapyNotes free for two months with code ABUNDANT
(01:49):
at therapynotes.com.
So I love that you're switching it up
to keep things interesting.
I hope that other people listening or watching
this know that you are not stuck with
your niche, with your modality, with your services.
Couples counseling isn't as much of a niche
as it is a service.
I want to know who your niche is
within couples counseling.
So if your couples niche includes someone in
(02:10):
the relationship who has experienced trauma, which is
a lot of couples, then your current website
could be absolutely amazing.
Of all the women that you've worked with
over the last decade, how many of them
were in couples counseling or would have benefited
from couples counseling?
Likely many of them, right?
So it depends on your ideal balance of
couples to individual sessions.
I see four scenarios.
(02:32):
Okay.
If your ideal couple is impacted by trauma
and you want to do primarily one-on
-one still with couples kind of sprinkled in,
that's about as easy as it gets.
You can keep your current site and SEO
and write up your couples page and SEO
that as well.
You can sprinkle in mentions of couples counseling
on your homepage with a link to that
(02:53):
new service page.
While networking, you can talk about how you
provide individual and couples counseling for women impacted
by trauma.
Easy.
If your ideal client is impacted by trauma
and you want to do primarily couples counseling,
make your homepage about couples, the dynamics that
happen when there has been some trauma.
You don't have to mess with any established
(03:15):
SEO.
You may be able to keep the same
headers, for example, but talk primarily about couples
on your homepage, have a specialty page for
individual counseling, a specialty page for couples, mention
both on the homepage, start blogging about how
trauma impacts couples, keep your old blogs and
SEO, just add new ones specific to couples.
(03:35):
While you're networking, emphasize that you see couples
impacted by trauma.
You'll likely continue to get individual referrals because
that's what you've known for so long.
To bolster your couples numbers, only talk about
couples while you're networking.
Now, if your couples work as as much
of a departure from trauma as you can
get, and you just want to sprinkle some
(03:56):
in, I would consider a specialty page or
a separate site.
You don't have to trash your old site
if you're holding onto women with trauma as
your primary population, but know that if it's
a specialty page on your trauma website, you're
likely going to get couples with some trauma.
You can downplay that on the specialty page,
maybe talking about, say, communication problems in couples,
(04:18):
if that's your couples niche.
But if you build another website for this
niche, specifically this new couples niche, be really
strategic about who you share that site with.
Share it with your therapist friends who don't
see couples, share it with couples counselors who
work with communication issues and are full, create
a new online listing like Psychology Today specific
to couples.
(04:39):
That is if you really want to stick
with your individuals primarily and your couples are
not trauma related.
Now, if you want to go whole hog
with your non-trauma couples niche and make
it the majority of your practice, I would
transition your current site.
I'd switch up the home page.
I'd make your specialty pages very couple-centric.
Don't delete any blogs or anything, but do
(05:00):
start blogging exclusively about what your new ideal
clients care about.
Do some SEO magic on those blogs, network
your tail offs exclusively about couples.
Even if you only market couples, you're still
going to get individual trauma clients because you've
built on that for a decade.
So you can decide the percentage you want
from each.
If you feel kind of full up on
(05:21):
those individual clients, you can just refer them
out.
It's totally fine.
So for those of you who are full
and you're wanting to make changes like this
in your practice, our Limitless practice program helps
you make those changes, whether it's switching niches
or establishing a niche if you haven't had
one.
It also can help you get off insurance
or increase your private pay rate.
(05:42):
Our Limitless grads are working less.
They're making more than before the program.
So message me Limitless if you want to
chat about that.
Today's free worksheet is the niche versus ideal
client sheet.
It's going to help you get more specific
so that your marketing is much, much easier.
Message me the word sheets and I will
send it your way.
All right.
I hope that that's helpful.
(06:03):
Have a really great day.
If you're ready for a much easier practice,
Therapy Notes is the way to go.
Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo
code abundant for two months free.
I hope that helped.
If you have questions for Ask Alison, or
you want to get your hands on the
worksheet for this episode, go to abundancepracticebuilding.com
(06:27):
slash links.
If you're listening, you probably need some support
building your practice.
If you're a super newbie, grab our free
checklist using the link in the show notes.
I'd love for you to follow, rate, and
review, but I really want you to share
this episode with a therapist friend.
Let's help all our colleagues build what they
want.
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