Episode #734: What Content To Create For Your Private Practice

Summary

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Abundant Practice Podcast

Episode #734: What Content To Create For Your Private Practice

Host: Allison Puryear
Guest: Kim Wheeler Poitvian
Date: February 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Abundant Practice Podcast tackles a major concern for therapists in private practice: how to create content that feels ethical, authentic, and sustainable without oversharing or feeling “cringe.” Host Allison Puryear is joined by long-time Abundance coach Kim Wheeler Poitvian to offer grounded, practical advice for building your online presence (or not!) in ways that actually align with who you are, rather than chasing trends or sacrificing privacy. They unpack the common anxiety around marketing, challenge myths about social media necessity, and provide actionable ideas for content creation that centers your voice, your boundaries, and your long-term sanity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Core Question: Finding Authenticity in Content Creation ([00:35])

• Listener Question:
  How do I market myself online in a way that feels ethical and true to who I am, without oversharing or feeling gross, and without becoming invisible?

• Allison’s Framing: Therapists often feel pressured between two extremes — sharing too much and feeling inauthentic, or remaining invisible and worried about practice sustainability.

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2. Consistency vs. Authenticity ([02:06])

• Kim’s Experience:

  • “If you’re going to be online, you have to be consistent, but you also have to find something that’s going to be authentic for you.”
    (Kim, 02:12)
  • Kim advises that content should feel genuine, as if speaking to a client, and authenticity should guide your approach.

• Practical Tip:

  • Practicing with blogs or videos and “crowdsourcing” content ideas from people you trust can help refine what feels comfortable and determine what is truly helpful to your audience.

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3. Navigating the Line Between Personal & Professional ([03:30])

• Key Insight:

  • Not everything from your life needs to be online; keep clear boundaries according to what feels ethical and necessary.
  • “It’s the Internet. Do you really want all your personal stuff out there? They don’t really need to know all the goodies.”
    (Kim, 04:45)

• Guiding Question from Allison:

  • “If my most dysregulated client saw this, would it cause harm? Would it be a problem in any way, shape or form?”
    (Allison, 04:53)

• Professionalism > Oversharing:

  • Allison discusses how therapy “influencers” often skip boundaries, but as clinicians, carefully navigating disclosure is crucial.

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4. Content Buckets & Repetition ([05:30])

• Core Strategy:

  • “What are your content buckets? What are the three things you do talk about? Please expect to talk about the same three things over and over and over. You do not have to create new stuff constantly, just different angles on the same thing.”
    (Allison, 05:39)
  • Sharing stories or experiences should feel “from a scar, not a wound”—share what’s resolved, not what’s raw.

• Avoiding the Urge for Originality:

  • You don’t need to keep inventing new content; focus on varied approaches to your main topics.

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5. Rejecting Trends That Don’t Fit ([06:39])

• Permission to Opt Out:

  • “You don’t have to dance or follow trends or do any of that stuff if it’s not you.”
    (Allison, 06:37)

• Kim’s Reality Check:

  • Some clients and therapists prefer more subdued, grounded social presences.
  • Consistency and authenticity outweigh trendiness.

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6. Imposter Syndrome & Comparison ([07:30])

• Mental Hurdles:

  • Kim highlights that comparing yourself to others leads to inauthentic, unsustainable content.
  • If it doesn’t feel good, “you’re not likely to do it consistently anyway.” (Kim, 07:49)

• Building Your Brand:

  • The goal is to control and be mindful of your own voice and brand, not mimic others.

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7. You Don’t Have to Be on Social Media ([08:20])

• Myth-Busting:
  • Allison emphasizes: “You can have a huge, thriving practice for the rest of your life without ever being on social media.” (Allison, 08:21)
  • Kim shares her own experience: she stopped posting new content after 2021 yet continues to run a successful private-pay group practice. “I have done zip zero since then with that. And I have a private pay group practice and I’m doing great. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” (Kim, 08:30–08:49)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You have to be consistent, but you also have to find something that’s going to be authentic for you.”
  (Kim, 02:12)

• “Keep it in a tone of how you would actually speak to your clients... really following the rules of disclosure.”
  (Kim, 03:30)

• “If my most dysregulated client saw this, would it cause harm? Would it be a problem in any way, shape or form?”
  (Allison, 04:53)

• “Create content from a scar, not a wound.”
  (Allison, 05:09)

• “You do not have to create new stuff constantly; just different angles on the same thing, which makes it so much easier than trying to be super original.”
  (Allison, 05:42)

• “You don’t have to dance or follow trends or do any of that stuff if it’s not you.”
  (Allison, 06:39)

• “If being online in that way…doesn’t feel authentic to you, then please don’t do it.”
  (Kim, 07:59)

• “You can have a huge, thriving practice…without ever being on social media.”
  (Allison, 08:20)

• “I have a private pay group practice and I’m doing great, guys. You don’t have to do it.”
  (Kim, 08:47)

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Episode Structure – Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Notes | |-----------|----------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:35 | Listener Question | How to show up online authentically, without oversharing or self-hate | | 02:06 | Kim's insights on authenticity & consistency | Practice, feedback, and the value of authentic voice | | 03:30 | Where to draw the personal/professional line | Determining appropriate self-disclosure for therapists | | 05:30 | Content buckets and repetition | Focus your message; share recurring themes from safe, resolved places | | 06:39 | Permission to skip trends | Rejecting influencer-style content in favor of grounded professionalism | | 07:30 | Comparison & Imposter Syndrome | The pitfalls of comparing yourself to other therapists online | | 08:20 | Busting the social media “necessity” myth | Stories from Kim’s group practice success—without social media |

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Takeaways & Action Steps

• Define your “content buckets”—the 2-3 themes that you revisit from multiple angles
• Only share what you feel resolved about (a “scar, not a wound”) and always through an ethical, client-safety lens
• Skip trends and social platforms if they’re not your style; authenticity and comfort are more important than follower count
• Practice on smaller scales—blogs, videos, peer feedback—before posting for wider audiences
• You don’t have to be visible everywhere online to have a successful, sustainable practice

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This episode offers reassurance and practical steps for therapists struggling with content anxiety, making it clear that authentic, ethical marketing is possible—and that success is not contingent on social media visibility.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to Ask Abundance. Y' all ask the questions about having a fun and thriving practice. We answer them. We have a worksheet for you today so you can bring this answer into your life. If you want support in your practice, we have you covered with on demand or one on one support. Links for the worksheet and support are in the Show Notes. Can't get enough Ask Abundance. Check out our YouTube channel for the entire library. Welcome back to Ask Abundance. Today I'm joined by Kim Wheeler, Poitvian. Kim's been doing one on ones with Abundance for many years. If you want to hop into her schedule, you can do so with the link in the show notes or you can get in touch with me on social. Here's today's question. I know I'm supposed to show up online more if I want to keep my practice steady, but every time I try, it feels either way too personal or painfully cringe. I don't want to overshare my life or turn into some someone I don't recognize just to attract clients. At the same time, staying invisible doesn't feel like an option if I want this practice to last. How do I market in a way that feels ethical, grounded, and actually like me without oversharing or hating myself afterwards? I think this is so good. Before we get into it, I want to thank our sponsor Therapy Notes. I've talked about them for years and know their features by heart. What truly sets them apart is that they genuinely care about your experience. It's not just about troubleshooting. They actively implement user suggested features like Therapy Search, secure Messaging and their AI notes feature. Therapy fuel. Everybody at TherapyNotes believes in the product and they want you to love it too. Plus, they're independently owned, which means no venture capital and no pressure to prioritize investors over customers. This independence allows them to keep their prices fair, to focus on innovation, and to prioritize 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 TherapyNotes free for two months with the code abundant therapynotes.com all right, Kim, what do you think?

[A]

Well, I mean, we all know that you're the expert at this one. Definitely your online presence is. But as a person who I can be and start, start and stop. Hello adhd. I know that you have to. If you're going to be, you know, online, you have to be consistent, but you also have to find something that's going to be Authentic for you. And I think that back when I was making content, it was more so, like, whatever it was that really motivated me. And for that time, I was pretty consistent about it and that you don't have to put your personal life into something, but you can say, okay, is this a thing that I'm genuinely interested in? And am I going to just speak to this person as if I was speaking to a client? Hopefully you're authentic when you're with your clients. And I think that that's kind of the way that I really approach those particular things. I think that we have to kind of figure out what it is that a person is thinking that they have to be and how they need to present themselves and what they think is a professional or a authentic source or a person that would get, you know, get business versus who they really are and really kind of get comfortable with, you know, yourself, try with other people that you actually know and see if it actually works out. What I found was that was really helpful was to actually do blogs or to actually do like, a lot of videos myself, to actually practice and also to crowdsource with people on actual topics that they actually thought would be helpful. That way that we can kind of see if something is too personal or if it is crunchy. We may think that something is really helpful, or we may think that you have a great idea, but that might not be what our desired audience actually wants to hear. What's actually helpful. Yeah. So I thought that those are basically the things that have always been helpful for me. That's what's helpful for blog posts that, you know, we end up putting out. Is that really what is it that other people actually want to hear? Keeping it in a tone of how you would actually speak to your clients and then keeping it that way and really following the rules of disclosure. Like, is it really helpful? Do you really feel like that would be a necessary thing? And also, it's the Internet. Do you really want all your personal stuff out there? They don't really need to know all the goodies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She want to work with you. It's not necessary.

[B]

Yeah, I think really putting it through that lens. I always put it through the lens of, like, if my most dysregulated client saw this, would it cause harm? Would it be a problem in any way, shape or form? I know that, like, when we see other kinds of influencers and even some of the therapy influencers, like, there aren't a whole lot of boundaries sometimes. Right. Like, I don't need to know a lot about some people that I. And so we do have to have a different line. And that doesn't mean we show up as robots. It means we show up. I like to think of it as, like, creating content from a scar, not a wound. So if there's something that you want to share that is relatable to your clients, because we also don't want to show up, like, everything is perfect in my life all the time because nobody's going to trust you, and people will feel less than, which is the. The last thing we want our clients to feel around us. So I think probably for this person, it comes down to thinking up, what are your content buckets? Like, what are the things you do talk about? Please expect to talk about the same three things over and over and over. You do not have to create new stuff constantly, just different angles on the same thing, which makes it so much easier than trying to be super original. And to that end, like, if you're just talking about the same three things over and over, what stories do you have about that that are fair to share? What experiences have you had over your life that don't feel too intimate? And as for the cringy stuff, you don't have to dance or follow trends or do any of that stuff if it's not you,

[A]

not at all. And. And also there's kind of this backlash, a little bit of that. Like, that some people don't really want to see that. Some people are like, I really kind of prefer if my therapist wasn't doing all that, which is fine, too. You know, some people like it, some people don't like it. So it's okay if you are there and you're just sitting at your desk, you're sharing something and you're sharing, like, some tips, and that's what you're putting out there, and it's consistent, then that's great. But I think that we consistently have this thing where we have the imposter syndrome. We compare and contrast consistently with other people. And the reality is that some of this stuff out there, I mean, if they like it, that's great for them. I probably wouldn't necessarily do some of that stuff, but it's okay. And, you know, but you don't have to do that if it doesn't feel good for you. And also if it doesn't feel good for you, you're not likely to do it consistently anyway. So you have to think about something that you're actually going to do consistently. And also if being online in that way of doing Social media doesn't feel authentic to you. If you don't feel comfortable with it, then please don't do it because it's not going to feel great and people are going to actually be able to kind of see that as well. Yeah, the content that you create is probably going to be canned or it's going to be something that you don't feel comfortable with. And so you stick with, you know, what you want and how you want your voice because you're also creating your own brand and so you want to be able to kind of control that, be mindful of it.

[B]

That's a great point that a lot of people feel like they have to do social because they see therapists on social and like you can have a huge thriving practice for the rest of your life without ever being on social media.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I did social for 2020 to 2021 and then I had some YouTube videos that I've still had up from 2018 and they're on my thing and I have done zip zero since then with that.

[B]

And you have a private pay group practice.

[A]

I have a private pay group practice and I'm doing great. I'm doing great, guys. You don't have to do it. You don't have to if you don't want to.

[B]

Love it. Awesome. Well, thanks, Kim. We will have Yalls free worksheet. You can write the word sheets if you're watching this on social or you can click the link in the Show Notes if you're listening on the pod. And we'll talk to you next week. If you're ready for a much easier practice. Therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant for two months free. I hope that helped. Please get in touch with any of your questions for Ask Abundance. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the Show Notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.