Abundant Practice Podcast

Host: Allison Puryear
Episode #681: Narrowing Your Niche
Date: August 27, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Allison Puryear coaches therapist Cheryl through the process of narrowing down her niche for a private practice. Together, they examine the emotional and practical barriers therapists encounter when choosing a specific client focus. The discussion explores perfectionism, parental struggles, and how to articulate a niche that is meaningful, marketable, and personally engaging.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Initial Struggles with Niche Narrowing

• Cheryl shares her resistance:
  • Fear of being bored with a narrow focus or repetitiveness in marketing.
  • Worry about excluding potential clients she could help.
  • “I don’t want to be bored either in sessions or in my marketing.” (03:44, Cheryl)
• Allison reassures:
  • The niche should never feel restrictive or boring if shaped thoughtfully.
  • She suggests narrowing by demographics, personality, and the client’s current reason for seeking therapy.
  • “If we can add in some demographics, some personality potentially... then we can probably narrow it in a way that is people you love to work with and not in a boring way.” (03:55, Allison)

2. Exploring the Perfectionism Niche

• Defining the ideal client:
  • Cheryl is drawn to “moral perfectionists”—people who feel compelled to be exceedingly ethical, kind, or generous, but feel resentful or overwhelmed by these demands.
  • The impact of the political climate on clients’ feelings of suffocation, guilt, and overwhelm.
  • “It’s so much that it becomes impossible. It feels like there’s no place to start.” (05:12, Cheryl)
• Allison probes deeper:
  • Encourages Cheryl to consider what tips clients from just feeling these pressures to actually seeking therapy (e.g., when the burden becomes untenable).

3. Parenting and Perfectionism

• Parent-specific stressors:
  • Parents struggling with perfectionistic tendencies, especially when children become less compliant.
  • The sense of loss when old parenting strategies stop working.
  • “There’s a loss of, like, competence. And when you already feel like you’re not good enough and like you’re not doing a good enough job, it can be really hard for folks.” (12:06, Allison)
• Allison’s real talk on parenting:
  • Even therapists feel challenged during their children’s developmental changes, using anecdotes from her own family to illustrate commonality.

4. Real-Life Language and Marketing

• Communicating client struggles:
  • Importance of using clients’ own language rather than clinical terms (e.g., clients won’t say “moral perfectionism”).
  • Focus marketing materials on the present, lived experience—what a client says in a consultation call.
  • “Focusing on that for the most part is... helpful to try to, like, just picture the living room where the preteen is upset about something... and the parents are feeling stuck and overwhelmed.” (23:34, Cheryl)

5. Subtypes and Clarifying “Perfectionist”

• Different ‘types’ of perfectionists:
  • Successful vs. failed perfectionists; can’t-stop vs. can’t-start presentations.
    • “I think of it as like successful perfectionists and failed perfectionists.” (15:32, Allison)
    • “The problem with it isn’t the standards. It’s the punishment that we use to meet the standards.” (17:33, Cheryl)
  • Use of qualifying adjectives/adverbs (e.g., “overly generous perfectionists”) to convey the nuance and help people self-identify.
  • This approach also helps combat the fear of boredom and allows for future expansion and deeper topics in the long-term marketing plan.

6. Trauma, Comparison, and Societal Pressure

• Underlying trauma:
  • The role trauma plays in perfectionism, and whether clients have awareness of it.
  • Not bringing up trauma in marketing unless the client already identifies with that language.
• Modern challenges:
  • Increased comparison (social media, contradictory parenting advice).
  • Societal gender expectations (“the woman who does too much”).

7. Moving Forward with Marketing and Niche

• Client-facing message:
  • Lean into the imperfections, overwhelm, and guilt that perfectionists feel, especially as parents.
  • “The overwhelmed perfectionist is a trap... because they’re not allowed to be overwhelmed.” (24:21, Cheryl)
• Phased approach:
  • Reassure that marketing can evolve; start simple and grow the niche or messaging over time.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Cheryl’s vulnerability:
  • “I'm doing this stupid therapist thing of like, I just feel for you. That’s... It’s really hard.” (09:32, Cheryl)
• On contemporary parenting:
  • “There's more education that all contradicts each other and then there's more opportunity for comparison because we're not just comparing to our neighbors anymore—we're comparing to the wide Internet and all of social media.” (14:47, Allison)
• On the marketing journey:
  • “There might be... in that part of me that's worried about feeling bored or limited, that I can be like, okay, that's year two material.” (19:22, Cheryl)
• On self-identification:
  • “Maybe you just throw ‘over-functioning perfectionists’ or ‘overly generous perfectionists’... it might just be, you add a word to clarify for the short version that helps people understand...” (20:33, Allison)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:17 – 03:55: Cheryl voices anxiety about narrowing her niche; Allison reframes the process.
• 04:22 – 06:19: Defining “moral perfectionists” and current triggers for seeking therapy.
• 07:19 – 12:07: Parental struggles with perfectionism, insight into developmental transitions, and marital stress.
• 14:38 – 16:48: Discussion of societal comparison, modern pressures, and the “successful” vs. “failed” perfectionist dichotomy.
• 17:33 – 19:22: Trauma’s role in perfectionism; how/if to include it in marketing.
• 20:33 – 21:12: Brainstorming descriptive language for the niche.
• 23:34 – 24:21: How clients describe their experience, and the “overwhelmed perfectionist” trap.
• 24:27 – 25:06: Wrapping up, encouragement to continue refining and get feedback.

Final Takeaways

• Narrowing your niche can be anxiety-provoking, but specific, descriptive language helps you find the right clients without feeling boxed in.
• Perfectionism is best marketed by breaking it down into relatable, everyday experiences—especially feelings of overwhelm, guilt, and comparison.
• Parenting complications provide a tangible and widely relatable entry point for therapy services focused on perfectionism.
• Allowing yourself flexibility in your marketing as your practice evolves relieves the fear of boredom or being “trapped” by a niche.

For therapists looking to refine their niche: Focus on real-world struggles, clients’ lived experiences, and don't be afraid to adjust and expand your messaging over time.