Abundant Practice Podcast

Episode #745: Be the Therapist AI Recommends

Host: Allison Puryear
Guest: Amber Lyda
Date: April 1, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Allison Puryear interviews psychologist and practice-building expert Amber Lyda to demystify how therapists can position their private practices to be recommended by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms like ChatGPT. With client behavior shifting from Google searches toward conversational AI for personal recommendations—including for therapists—this conversation breaks down practical strategies to ensure you don’t get left behind as digital referral patterns evolve. Amber shares actionable steps, explains core concepts, and debunks misconceptions, making this a must-listen for any therapist wanting more client referrals in the AI era.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Therapists Need to Care About AI Referrals

• AI is fast replacing Google for provider search:
  • Clients increasingly use AI to get quick, tailored recommendations instead of sorting through Google listings.
  • AI offers specificity and a "parasocial relationship”—people trust platforms like ChatGPT because of repeated positive interactions.
  • Notable Stat: "85%, if I'm remembering correctly, of people in the United States are willing to or have already been using AI of some kind to find providers, healthcare providers." (Amber, 05:54)
• You don’t have to like or use AI to benefit:
  • Therapists only need to optimize how their sites are understood by AI—not necessarily use AI directly.
    • "You do not have to use AI or like AI to get recommended by AI." (Amber, 04:03)

2. How AI Determines Who to Recommend: Not Like Google!

• Three Core Steps for AI Recommendations:

  1. Eliminate:
     • Remove therapists who don’t clearly list:
       • Their license
       • State(s) of licensure
       • Who they treat and who they do NOT treat
     • Quote: “Step one is all about elimination.” (Amber, 10:34)
  2. Group:
     • Among those left, AI groups by specialty (e.g., pelvic pain) to present the best matches.
     • Prioritizes clinicians listing empirically-supported treatments (e.g., CBT).
     • Looks for clear, contextual qualities (e.g., being directive).
     • Quote: "It prioritizes empirically supported treatments. So if you do CBT, this is a time to list CBT..." (Amber, 13:01)
  3. Match:
     • AI considers the specificity of issues and therapist attributes to best fit the client’s detailed request.
     • More context, details, examples, and lived experience help.

• Contrast with Google SEO:

  • Google ranking depends on factors like domain age, backlinks, and tons of content (often out of reach for solo practices).
  • AI’s elimination-first method is much more attainable for small practices.

3. Optimizing Your Website for AI Discovery

• Make it easy for AI to verify your credentials and focus:

  • Explicitly state your license and where you are allowed to practice.
  • Have a clear statement of who you help, what you help them with, and your specialties; specificity is better than broad statements.
    • Quote: "If you don't have a clearly quotable statement somewhere ... it's not going to list you." (Amber, 09:35)
  • Clearly define who you DON’T treat or issues outside your scope.

• Where should this information live?

  • Ideally, create a separate, easy-to-find page optimized for AI—clear, straightforward, “boring” for humans but easy for AI to scan.
  • Make sure this page is a clickable menu or dropdown link and cross-linked to specialty pages.
    • "Right now it's important that it is a clickable link and it should be listed at least in a dropdown." (Amber, 12:07)
  • Consistency matters: echo your statements on specialty pages and social media (AI rewards consistency; SEO punishes identical text).

4. Refining Your Copy: Speak to Both AI and Humans

• Specificity is key:
  • Use concrete examples of client struggles and aspirations.
  • Avoid vague copy like, “I help people who feel overwhelmed.”
  • Use bridge copy (summary sentences above your bullets/lists) to clarify the type of client and issue you address.
    • Quote: "Have the lived experience...and above each of those lists, make sure you have a very clear summary sentence." (Amber, 17:27–18:27)
• Balance warmth (for humans) with clarity (for AI):
  • Blend poetic, lived-experience copy with direct, credentialed language about what you do, how, and for how long.
  • AI especially values credibility signals—where you trained, years of experience, well-known affiliations.
    • Quote: "AI loves credibility...If you have an affiliation with any big institution, like, let's say you went to University of Florida, list that somewhere on your website because it likes it." (Amber, 20:10)

5. Comparing Blogs, Videos, and External Directories for AI

• Blogs still help, but with limitations:
  • Good for SEO and can assist with AI visibility, but AI is more likely to summarize your blog’s contents than to link to your website.
• Videos offer extra findability:
  • Create short videos from your blog posts and post them to YouTube.
  • AI will link to your video (it summarizes written content but not video as easily—yet).
    • "Maybe consider making a little video based on the blog and put that video on YouTube because that helps both with your SEO, both with AI search. And it will link to a video even if it won't link to a blog." (Amber, 26:01)
• Maintain a Psychology Today profile:
  • Even if you get zero clients from it directly, it’s seen as a credibility marker for both SEO and AI.
    • Quote: "They are seen as a credibility source when it comes to both SEO and AI search." (Amber, 24:19)

6. Timing: Why Acting Early Matters

• Early adopters have an edge:
  • Like with early SEO and TikTok, acting now can provide lasting advantage, as this window is still open for solo therapists.
  • Eventually, AI recommendations will be monetized and dominated by big tech platforms, so get in while you can.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• AI for therapist searches is not the future—it’s the present:
  • “Clients are looking to AI to find their recommendations for therapists. They just are.” (Amber, 04:08)
• On what it takes to get recommended by AI:
  • “If you do nothing else after this podcast, just make sure you don't get eliminated. Take those few steps to list the things.” (Amber, 15:20)
• Getting specific:
  • “The more examples you have on your website of what your ideal client might be going through on a daily basis, the better your chances you’re going to have at rocking with AI and landing that client.” (Amber, 16:41)
• Warmth + credibility:
  • “AI wants to be able to defend the recommendations that it’s giving. So if you hold that in your mind, it starts to tell you what kind of things to have on the website.” (Amber, 21:01)
• On the urgency to act now:
  • “We have this opportunity, and I would get in while we can because AI and human referrals are basically where we can win right now.” (Amber, 23:11)
• On early adoption’s benefit:
  • "This is like getting in TikTok or doing SEO 15 years ago... now is the time." (Allison, 27:32)

Essential Timestamps

• AI is the new therapist search platform: 04:30–06:14
• How AI works differently from Google: 07:05–11:00
• Three-step AI recommendation system: 10:34–15:20
• What to write on your website for AI: 16:41–18:27
• AI’s love of credibility: 19:46–22:01
• External directories (Psychology Today) matter: 24:19–25:02
• Blogs vs. video for AI findability: 26:01–26:58
• Why act now (early advantage): 27:32–28:44

Action Steps for Therapists

1. Update your website:
   • Add a dedicated “AI-friendly” page or update specialty pages:
     • State your license, exact specialties, population focus, location(s), and issues you do NOT treat.
     • Make this page a clickable link in your menu.
2. Increase specificity in your copy:
   • Write in clear, client-focused language, with examples of daily struggles and aspirations.
   • Add bridge copy (synthesized statements at the top of pain/hope point lists).
3. List empirically-supported modalities and years of experience.
4. Maintain consistency:
   • Mirror these statements on your About page and your social media/business page bios.
5. Keep your Psychology Today profile active.
6. Consider supplementing blogs with brief YouTube videos.
7. Act now—don’t wait for the field to be crowded!

For further deep-dive resources, check out the free worksheet and detailed training available to Abundance Party members (linked in the episode show notes).