Are Therapy Directories Worth Your Money? Lets share our experiences.
Poll - Which one delivers the most clients
Here’s a question that comes up in almost every Q&A we run.
Which directories are actually getting you, clients?
It sounds simple. It’s not. Because most of us are paying between £10 to £30 a month, some of us for multiple directories, and very few of us are tracking whether that money is coming back.
So I want to ask the 4,000 therapists in this community directly, what is actually working? So that therapists in private practice can make a more informed decision if a directory is worth it.
But first, let’s be honest about what directories actually are and how they work.
A directory is rented land.
You’re paying a monthly fee to appear on somebody else’s platform. You don’t own your profile. You don’t control the algorithm. And the moment you stop paying, you vanish. Nothing you’ve built there carries over to your own practice.
The business model is straightforward: the directory charges thousands of therapists a monthly listing fee, invests heavily in SEO so the site ranks on Google for terms like “therapist near me,” and sells your visibility back to you. Your £25 a month isn’t buying you clients. It’s buying you a spot in a very crowded queue.
Counselling Directory alone lists over 15,000 therapists. At £24.50 a month each, that's in the region of £4.4 million a year in listing fees. The BACP directory has over 18,000. You're not their client, you're their revenue model and that's the queue you're joining. I did use them myself when I was getting started and I think it increased my visibility, but I haven’t tried them again. However, I’m always curious and might give them another go depending on these results.
Here’s what other therapists want to know from you.
I’ve got 4,000 therapists in this community. A huge number of you are using directories and paying monthly. I want real data from real therapists — not opinions, not assumptions. Let’s find out what’s actually working.
👇 Vote in the poll: Which directory gets you the most client referrals?
If there are others I’ve not listed, please let us know in the comments.
For paid subscribers, I’m sharing my own experience with directories below and what they actually returned, why the ROI is harder to measure than you think, and three practical things you can do this week: a directory profile audit to improve what you’ve already got, a simple tracking system so you stop guessing, and exactly how to set up a £25/month Google Ad if you decide the money’s better spent on your own platform.
