Therapy News

Hi! My name is Jeff and I am a therapist. I am also the co-creator of TherapyDen. TherapyDen is a brand new online therapist directory with a mission to fight racism, homophobia and other forms of hate. In order for TherapyDen to be successful and compete with the larger directories, we need therapists all over the country to sign up. Obviously. So I present you with 100 reasons why I think every therapist should create a profile on TherapyDen. If one or more of these reasons convinces you to sign up and you feel inspired to post on social media which reason it was, you’ll be my personal hero. Click here to learn more and sign up!

1. Because TherapyDen is easy for clients to use due to its very intuitive design. 
2. Because a person of color seeking counseling as a result of living in a society that makes them feel oppressed can easily filter for a therapist that has a racial justice framework.
3. TherapyDen encourages therapists to give feedback about the site. We are integrating changes all the time. 
4. My mom would be proud of me. She’s a therapist just like me. I am a therapist because of her. I have a sister who’s the hero of the family and has the cute grandkids. My sister and mom are best friends. I am the scapegoat of the family that moved 1,000 miles away. Creating a successful therapist directory that’s used around the country will get my mom’s attention and she’ll be forced to be proud of me. Or it will at least motivate her to complete her profile. Come on mom! I haven’t asked you for anything in over 10 years! 
5. Our logo is super cool, right? Raffi says that the circle logo with just the lamp looks like an airplane. Can somebody tell him this isn’t a Rorschach inkblot test?
6. Clients can filter for therapists by entering in their local insurance companies. Something you can’t do on other directories. Crazy, right? Which means that someone in Oklahoma can look for a therapist that accepts SoonerCare. 
7. Because, Grant, TherapyDen’s developer, is getting married to Eva, TherapyDen’s user experience expert/project manager this September and what a wonderful wedding gift it would be if they both felt like what they’ve been working on for the past two years actually matters. You don’t want to ruin their wedding, do you??

   

8. Because I’m asking nicely for you to sign up :)
9. Because TherapyDen has a mandate to fight racism, homophobia and hate of any kind. 
10. Because therapists can choose 10% of their monthly profile fee to be donated to:
    1. Mercy Corps
    2. Planned Parenthood
    3. The Trevor Project
    4. Life After Hate
    5. ACLU
11. Because clients can search for a therapist that specialize in treating people that are stressing out over our political climate.
12. Because how about our color palette? Sure it sorta feels like we stole the colors from the Miami Dolphins, but nobody’s complaining about that. Go fins!

    

13. Because TherapyDen is going to work. I promise you it will. But the only way it will work is if therapists sign up first. I’m asking you to trust me. I know that. And because of your initial time investment of creating a profile, I am going to give it to you for free until I know you’ll get something back in return. 
14. Because we have partnered with SimplePractice to give new users their first three months for the price of one. Not bad!
15. Because I’m a real person that wants to hear from you. I’m not some corporation that has a monopoly and doesn’t really care. 
16. Because TherapyDen is free right now. 
17. Because I am obsessed with helping therapists rank on the first page of Google search results and I created a really cool and easy to follow online course on exactly how you can do that and you’ll get access to it completely free if you sign up now. 
18. Because if TherapyDen is a success my sister will be jealous. I mean, she says she’ll be proud of me. Which is probably true to some extent. But a part of her will be jealous of my success and if you have a sibling then you understand how important it is to feel like you’re sibling is jealous of you. So help me out here people. I don’t get this opportunity very often. 
19. Because you can submit blogs and my wife will edit them for free! She’s a copy editor so it’s totally legit. 
20. Because my sweet dog Josh really wants you too. Look at that face!

    

21. Because a therapist directory is just phase one. You’re going to love phase 2. And you won’t believe phase 3. And if I told you what phase 4 was all about, you wouldn’t even believe it could be possible. But it totally is. You just need to sign up for a profile so we can all get there. 
22. You can filter for a therapist that has specialized experience in health at every size and is body positive. How effing cool is that and why don’t all therapist directories have that ability???
23. It’s just smart marketing to be seen in multiple places on the internet. You should sign up for a handful of therapist directories so that potential clients can keep seeing your face. It’s marketing 101.
24. TherapyDen has an inclusive and progressive brand. Don’t you want to align with that brand?
25. Clients that want to find a therapist that is trans-competent can easily filter for one. It’s important to know your therapist is competent in treating trans people so that damage isn’t done with an incompetent counselor. 
26. Sex workers can feel confident in finding a therapist who is sex worker positive by simply filtering for one. 
27. Because as a therapist you care about people and believe in helping everyone find the care they really need. TherapyDen makes it easier for all types of people to find a therapist who is a good match. 
28. Because you’ll get some pretty sweet discounts from trusted companies that make websites for therapists. Check out Brighter Vision and Create My Therapist Website. Sign up for TherapyDen to receive awesome discounts!
29. Because we have gender neutral icons. It’s true! Go to our homepage and scroll down a bit. See the icons for individual therapy, couples, family therapist and so on? They’re gender neutral. How awesome is that?
30. And speaking of, clients can search for a therapist that has gender neutral bathrooms. Nice, right?
31. Because my little brother looks up to me and he’d be so bummed if his role model didn’t create a successful therapist directory. Do you really want to let down such a sweet kid. I don’t think you do. 
32. Because TherapyDen features a diverse set of voices through our blog page and we’d like to get more exposure for them.
33. Because you watched this video where I compare Psychology Today to TherapyDen and you can clearly see that TherapyDen is the future of directories. I know that Psychology Today gets more traffic for now, but the only way to change that is for therapists like you to sign up for a profile so that we move up in search rankings.
34. Because if TherapyDen is successful we can hire employees and create jobs. Which would be great because TherapyDen is run by three people who all co-own the business and we all have full time jobs so it’s tough to juggle everything. An employee would be nice!
35. Because clients can easily filter for therapists with ADA accessible offices. 
36. Because you can search for a therapist that specializes in cultural and systemic oppression. 
37. Because a white person can find a therapist to help them process their white privilege.
38. Because a person of color can find a therapist to process their feelings about living in a society that has white privilege.
39. Because you have a really good time filling out forms and answering questions about yourself, sometimes in essay form, and creating a profile with TherapyDen will really scratch that itch.
40. Because you just got a brand new headshot and you want to show it off to the world by uploading it to your profile. 
41. Because you want to boost your SEO and move up in search rankings by having a link from your TherapyDen profile point to your website. 
42. Because all the cool therapists are signing up for a profile and you want to be cool don’t you???
43. Because all the cool therapists are signing up for a profile and you’re not cool and you’re totally fine with that so you want the cool therapists to see that you signed up so that they can see that TherapyDen isn’t just for the cool kids and they should probably just get over themselves. 
44. Because you’re willing to be more authentic in your marketing efforts and TherapyDen is a great platform for you to do that with. 
45. Because I’m almost halfway through this list and all my mom has done is uploaded her photo to her profile. And I think what she did was take a picture with her phone of a picture that she hung on the wall in her condo. Come on mom! You can do better than that! 
46. Because TherapyDen pays their local and federal taxes, which I can’t say with certainty about Psychology Today since they’re based in the Cayman Islands. 
47. Because you want to integrate your SimplePractice online scheduling tool with TherapyDen so that clients can make an appointment right from your profile. Check out this video tutorial to learn how.
48. Because you specialize in treating folks that are in poly and open relationships and TherapyDen makes it super easy for you to be found. 
49. Because sexual outsiders that are into kinky stuff can filter for a therapist that specializes in that sorta thing. 
50. Because I am determined to come up with exactly 100 reasons to join and I’m not going to bed until I do it and there’s really something to be said about that kind of determination. 

    

51. Because TherapyDen is the scrappy underdog, playing by it’s own rules, and that’s something that you can really get behind. 
52. But even if you can’t relate to the underdog thing, you still have a lot of compassion for that type of person and you just know their heart is in the right place and you want them to succeed. 
53. But why is a therapist directory like TherapyDen an underdog to begin with? Why didn’t someone else create an easy to use national directory that has modern and progressive search filters? It’s crazy that we had to wait so long for something like this. 
54. Because TherapyDen asks therapist to not only choose specialties, but to explain a bit about why they specialize in those areas. 
55. Because you can easily upload a welcome video on your TherapyDen profile, which will help attract more clients.
56. Because it feels good to be on the leading edge of innovation and creating a profile with TherapyDen early on will help us push the edge forward even faster.
57. Because you were going to go out with your friends tonight, but you had a long day and you just feel like being alone and working on marketing your business. (I can’t be the only one who feels this way sometimes.)
58. Because you’re sick of seeing skinny white women on the cover of Psychology Today magazines and if you support TherapyDen, we can create a much better and more diverse magazine to live in all of our waiting rooms.
59. Because Freud would want you to sign up.
60. And also his daughter, Anna. Anna would probably want you to sign up even more actually. 
61. Because TherapyDen is different and you enjoy challenging the status quo. 
62. Because you specialize in treating people that suffer from burn out and compassion fatigue and for some reason those issues aren’t listed on many other directories. 
63. Because therapists deserve better than the directories that are out there today.
64. Because clients deserve better than the directories that are out there today.
65. Because therapists can choose to label themselves as male, female and trans/non-binary. Which means that clients can filter for a therapist that is trans/non-binary. That’s incredibly important. 
66. Because clients can easily filter for therapists that provide online/video counseling. 
67. Because me and my team have worked hard on this project. It’s just been the three of us and we’re all putting so much work into TherapyDen. We believe in what we’re doing. We’re proud in what we have created so far and we badly want to keep developing and innovating for the mental health community. And the only way to do that is for you, and all your therapist buddies, to sign up for a profile. 
68. Because we want that kid who’s scared to come out to their family, and is searching for a therapist online, to come across TherapyDen and be able to filter for a therapist who is queer competent and can trust that there is a safe space waiting for them with a therapist that has deep knowledge about their situation. 
69. Because you’ll be featured on our homepage if you provide extra content focused on the different causes we highlight each month.
70. Because our frame for the photo on your profile is circular instead of square and I think that’s probably the only reason you’ll need to sign up, right?
71. Because I’m a highly sensitive person and we added the term “Highly Sensitive Person” to the list of issues you can select, because we are highly attuned to the highly sensitive therapist that wants to see this issue featured on their profile.
72. Because I’m on reason number 72 and my mom still hasn’t completed her profile. Do you not love me mom??? I know you’re busy, but are you too busy to support your youngest child who is trying to reach his dreams?
73. Sorry mom. I feel like I can get worked up and be really touchy sometimes. (See reason 71).
74. Because when my team and me were discussing what we’d call this website, we were trying to decide between PilloFort (like pillow fort) or ShrinkBlot (like inkblot). But we got a lot of feedback that both names sucked. So we went with TherapyDen. I’ll always wonder what could have happened if we went with ShrinkBlot. 
75. Because you like to try new things!
76. Because you’re a therapist that is 12 step friendly and you can label yourself as one so clients that are in recovery and are in 12 step programs can easily find you. 
77. Because you have specialized experience working with veterans and TherapyDen has created a filter to allow veterans to easily find therapists like you.
78. Because you specialize in medication management and, so far, there are no practitioners on TherapyDen that practice medication management so you’d be one of the first on the site which means you’d get all the clients!
79. Because you want to support a site that allows clients to easily search for a therapist based on ethnicity.
80. Because you love the idea of TherapyDen and instead of waiting to see if it’s super successful and then creating a profile, you’d rather be the person who makes it successful in the first place. 
81. Because you want to be the first person in your consultation group to be like, “Hey, did you guys hear about this new socially progressive and inclusive therapist directory, TherapyDen? It’s pretty cool and I signed up for it.” And then the other therapists in your group will be impressed with all the valuable knowledge you bring to the group. 
82. Because it feels like an important time to show your support for mental health access for all.
83. Because you are sex positive and want to attract all the sex positive clients you can and you know that people can filter for sex positive therapists just like you!
84. Because you’re a therapist that saw something missing on TherapyDen so you emailed me and told me about it and then I added it and you were like, “Wow! That was quick. I’m totally going to sign up for this site!” 
85. The return on investment that you’re going to get will be off the charts. Your profile will be free until the site starts to get regular traffic. And then even if you get only one regular client from your TherapyDen profile, it will be well worth the 20 bucks per month you spend on it. That one client will bring in hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. And I’m sure you’ll get more than one client from this site. 

    

86. Because you have nothing else to do today.
87. You want free access to my SEO course for therapists. Click here to check it out and sign up to get a special coupon code that will allow you to enroll for free!
88. You also want some guidance on how to build a killer website for your therapy practice and you know that if you sign up you’ll get a coupon code to get 40% off any of these online courses that will teach you how to make a terrific therapy website. 
89. Because you know me from that codependency animation I made a long time ago and you always wanted to figure out a way to thank me for the good advice and the laughs. No need to reach out and say thanks. I’d rather you just sign up for a profile with TherapyDen. 
90. You’re a therapist that specializes in working with clients who are feeling stress about their immigration status and you know that clients can search for therapists that specialize in immigration issues. 
91. Because you want to challenge four of your closest therapist friends to see who can fill out their TherapyDen profile the fastest. But in the end you realize you’re all winners because now you have a new snazzy profile. Way to go!
92. Because you’re a therapist in Portland and you know how hard I have been working on this project and you’ve seen me in the community multiple times, and you’re like, “That Jeff. He’s a good guy.”
93. Because you haven’t heard this joke and you think it’s funny: How many therapists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Just one. But the lightbulb has to really want to change. LOL. 
94. Because you have heard that joke so you’re not LOL’ing, but you know it’s solid so you’re gonna sign up anyway. 
95. Because you’ve made it all the way to the 95th reason, which means you’re probably pretty interested in signing up. I mean seriously. I’m kinda running on fumes right now. I’m not sure the next five reasons are going to push you over the edge. Although I’m going to really try my hardest for reason 100. So maybe you’re waiting for that??
96. Because you’re a Dan Siegal superfan and you are an expert on Interpersonal Neurobiology and you’re excited that clients can filter for therapists that specialize in that intervention.
97. There’s no risk. You can cancel your profile any time. So you can sign up for free and then cancel before you’re charged. I hope you decide to stay because you’ll feel like it’s worth the money, but if you don’t then you’ll be able to unsubscribe hassle free.
98. You can list a second location on your profile so that you have two chances to come up in a client search. I bet you’re happy now that you got that second location!
99. Because you support my relationship with my mom and you know that there must be some sort of tipping point for therapist sign ups that will eventually motivate her to fill out her profile. And you know how important a child’s relationship is with their mother and the impact it can have if the child doesn’t feel supported or truly heard.
100. You’ve made it to 100! Congratulations! I think I’ve come up with some pretty solid reasons for why you should sign up with TherapyDen. I think you’ll get a lot out of being a part of our community. And even though you get what it means to be an early subscriber, you still might not get as many client referrals as you’d like. Which is pretty much the main point of joining a directory. I know that. But it’s a chicken and egg kinda situation here. The only way TherapyDen can rank high in Google search results is if therapists sign up. But the main reason a therapist signs up is to get client referrals. So the only way this is going to work is if I get therapists like you to take a chance on us before all the referrals start pouring in.
     
     I think the best reason to sign up is because TherpayDen is trying to create change in the mental health space. Like I’ve said before, we want to fight racism, homophobia and hate of all kinds. And if you sign up with TherapyDen, then you are taking a pledge to do the same. It may not feel like you’re doing much by just signing up for a profile. But you really are. You’re making it easier for a diverse group of people to find the care that they need. You can’t really do that on Psychology Today or GoodTherapy. They just don’t have the appropriate search filters.
     
     So I’m asking you to sign on to what I think is a pretty ambitious project. I’m asking you to try to disrupt how things have been so that we can all move forward together. I think I’ve made a good case to give us a try. And I think, just maybe, I’ve also motivated my mother to actually finish her profile. I’ll keep you updated on that.