Episode #643: How To Switch Niches In An Established Practice

Sat Apr 26 2025

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...

Summary

Abundant Practice Podcast: Episode #643 Summary

Release Date: April 26, 2025
Title: How To Switch Niches In An Established Practice
Host: Allison Puryear

Introduction

In Episode #643 of the Abundant Practice Podcast, host Allison Puryear addresses a common dilemma faced by established therapists: transitioning to a new niche within a private practice. The episode delves into strategic approaches for integrating a new area of expertise without disrupting existing operations, ensuring both personal fulfillment and business growth.

Listener's Question

A listener reached out with the following query:

"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. If and when I start adding this to my practice, can I add a page on couples counseling since I work 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."

Allison's Response

1. Embracing Flexibility in Niches

Allison begins by reassuring the listener that it's entirely feasible to evolve one’s therapeutic focus. She emphasizes that niches are not rigid and that diversifying services can enrich both the therapist's and clients' experiences.

“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.”
— Allison Puryear [00:50]

2. Identifying the Couples Counseling Niche

Allison suggests that the listener define a more specific niche within couples counseling to seamlessly integrate it with her existing trauma-focused practice. For instance, specializing in couples where one or both partners have experienced trauma can create a cohesive service offering.

3. Strategic Integration Based on Practice Goals

Allison outlines four distinct scenarios to guide therapists in deciding how to incorporate a new niche:

a. Primarily Individual with Supplemental Couples Counseling

“If your ideal balance is couples to individual sessions, you can keep your current site and SEO and write up your couples page and SEO that as well.”
— Allison Puryear [02:30]

Action Steps:
- Add a dedicated couples counseling page to the existing website.
- Incorporate references to couples services on the homepage.
- Highlight the ability to handle both individual and couples therapy in networking efforts.

b. Primarily Couples Counseling with Trauma Focus

“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.”
— Allison Puryear [03:05]

Action Steps:
- Shift the homepage focus to couples therapy while maintaining specialty pages for individual counseling.
- Continue SEO efforts with new content targeting trauma-impacted couples.
- Emphasize couples counseling in networking to attract relevant referrals.

c. Couples Counseling as a Distinct Service Separating from Trauma

“If your couple's work is as much of a departure from trauma as you can get and you just want to sprinkle some in, I would consider a specialty page or a separate site.”
— Allison Puryear [04:15]

Action Steps:
- Create a separate specialty page or an entirely new website for the distinct couples counseling niche.
- Strategically share the new site with relevant therapists and couples counselors.
- Develop separate online listings (e.g., Psychology Today) tailored to the new niche.

d. Transitioning Predominantly to Couples Counseling

“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 homepage.”
— Allison Puryear [05:10]

Action Steps:
- Redefine the homepage to cater primarily to the new couples counseling focus.
- Develop specialty pages centered around couples therapy.
- Adjust blogging and SEO strategies to attract the new target demographic.
- Continue to handle individual trauma clients, referring them out if necessary to manage workload.

4. Practical Tools and Programs

Allison introduces her Limitless Practice program, designed to assist therapists in making significant changes such as switching niches or establishing new ones. She highlights that graduates of the program often work fewer hours while earning more, underscoring its effectiveness.

“Our Limitless Practice program helps you make those changes, whether it's switching niches or establishing a niche. It also can help you get off insurance or increase your private pay rate.”
— Allison Puryear [05:50]

5. Resources for Implementation

To aid listeners in defining their niches, Allison offers a free Niche versus Ideal Client worksheet, which is intended to clarify target demographics and streamline marketing efforts.

“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.”
— Allison Puryear [06:00]

Listeners are encouraged to message her the word "sheets" to receive the resource.

Conclusion

Allison wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of strategic planning when expanding or changing niches within a private practice. She empowers therapists to embrace new opportunities while maintaining the integrity and success of their existing services.

Key Takeaways

Flexibility is Key: Therapists are not confined to a single niche and can successfully integrate new services.
Strategic Integration: Choose from different models (supplementary, primary shift, distinct separation) based on your practice goals.
Utilize Resources: Leverage programs like Limitless Practice and available worksheets to facilitate smooth transitions.
Maintain Balance: Ensure that expanding services does not overwhelm the practice by managing client loads and referrals appropriately.

Resources Mentioned

Limitless Practice Program: Aimed at helping therapists switch or establish niches, increase private pay rates, and reduce reliance on insurance.
Free Worksheet: Niche versus Ideal Client available by messaging Allison with the word "sheets".
AbundancePracticeBuilding.com: Access to worksheets, training, and further support.

Connect with Allison

For additional support or inquiries:

Email: help@abundancepracticebuilding.com
Website: www.abundancepracticebuilding.com

Empower your private practice with strategic niche integration to achieve more free time, increased income, and greater professional fulfillment.

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Transcript

Allison (0:00)

Foreign welcome to Ask Allison.

Unknown Co-Host (0:09)

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@AbundancePracticeBuilding.com 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. If you can't get enough Ask Allison, check out our YouTube channel for our entire Ask Allison library.

Allison (0:36)

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. If and when I start adding this to my practice, can I add a page on couples counseling since I work 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 Therapy Notes for sponsoring Ask Allison. 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 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 Therapy Notes, free for two months with code abundant@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 couple's niche includes someone in 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. 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 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 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. 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 couple's work is as much of a departure from trauma as you can get and you just want to sprinkle some in, I would consider a specialty page or a separate site. You don't have to trash your old site if you're holding on to 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 if that's your couple's niche. But if you build another website for this niche, specifically this new couple's 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. 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 homepage. I'd make your specialty pages very couple centric. Don't delete any blogs or anything, but do 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 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. 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. Have a really great day.