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Meet the author:
Jill Olkoski

Jill has a MA in Clinical Psychology, a BS in Computer Science, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering.

She currently owns Aldebaran Web Design in Edmonds (near Seattle WA) and enjoys educating her clients on topics related to small business website design.

In Jill's previous life, she spent 17 years in the engineering and quality organizations of a Fortune 100 tech company.

 


Should Therapists Post Their Photos On Their Websites

March 7th, 2012

I do many websites for therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors. One of the things that many really try to avoid is putting a photo or picture of themselves on their websites.

For my small business website clients who are a large company, photos of each employee isn’t necessary. If the site has an “about” page, it is nice though, if available, to have a group shot, if the business is not too large.

But many businesses are micro-sized, consisting of only one person, and therapists fall into this category. Out of all the types of businesses I work with, therapists are the only ones who generally will be sitting with you in their office for an hour each week. Most other small businesses offer services where face to face contact is not this frequent.

This is why, I try very very hard to convince all of my therapist/psychological clients to put pictures of themselves on their websites. People who are shopping for therapists, frankly, want to know what to expect when they are hiring a therapist – and one of the things they want to know is what the therapist looks like. People are shopping for compassion – and seeing a smiling face can go a long ways towards communicating that.

And if you’re a therapist, or counselor, or psychologist or psychiatrist…and you’re thinking, no, I don’t want my picture on my website. You do realize that once someone makes an appointment, they’ll see what you look like anyway 🙂

So bite the bullet and get past the anxiety. Go get a professional picture taken and get it added to your website. The professionals who take pictures will make you look your best, and compared to a therapist with no photo, a smiling, warm, inviting picture will win out.

Jill
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J. Olkoski
Aldebaran Web Design, Seattle
Jill Olkoski has a BS in Engineering, a BS in Computer Science and an MA in Clinical Psychology. She delights in using her advanced technical and psychological skills to help small business owners develop cost-effective and successful websites.



One Response to “Should Therapists Post Their Photos On Their Websites”

  1. Joel Jaro Says:

    Excellent Article Jill!- As someone who utilizes your services I can say that your advice is always spot-on!. I completely concur that as therapists we need to overcome our own internal barriers and reveal ourselves in the most open (albeit professional) fashion and that of course includes the use of photos. The more we personalize our sites the greater the possibility that potential clients will connect with us on a more individualized level and things like photos (as well as content) can help differentiate who we are and how we choose to present ourselves. Keep the blogs coming and have a great day!



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