“I thought this would be the easy part!”

Just so I’m clear – and I feel like I’m eating humble pie now after judging other counsellors’ ‘dodgy’ websites – it is not easy to build a website!

I am fairly tech savvy and I’m not afraid of giving most digital tasks a go. But website building is an art – and I stand in admiration of those who do it for a living!

So many decisions when setting out:

Who to use?

What profile photo won’t put people off?

Do I really need to have all the bells and whistles? Or is a basic site enough?

I enjoy reading the bio blurbs on other therapists’ websites (I’m nosey), but does that mean there will be anyone that wants to read mine?

Counsellors and psychotherapists traditionally use directories for the ease of clients being able to filter by location, or a specific technique like EMDR. Which is great. The limits of it are the directories’ own template dictates what can be posted, and I’m not sure how much of the ‘person’ of the counsellor can come across. Which is why a website is a must.

As I ‘write’ this (and I am literally writing this blog post in a notebook, as ‘creating’ on a screen just doesn’t happen for me) I Whatsapped a photo of my location (see photo) to someone. They responded: “That would be a good image for your website.” They are of course right, and the photo captures something of me. The fact I like to write things down. And that I feel my most inspired by the sea. The photo was taken at Hopeman Bay in Moray. The sea is also where I do a lot of thinking, and go to take any knotty problems I need help with.

So for me, the reality of creating the content for the website has taken place offline, then come online. An invaluable resource has been Jane Travis’ fantastic podcast on private practice. As well as the combined wisdom of several counsellor facebook groups. Something Jane Travis said was to try to create a website that you love. And being in the process of creating one, that seems like great advice.

Perfectionism has prevented me doing many things in my life. Accepting my limits (I am not a web designer) has freed me up a lot. I used the thought ‘I’ve never made a website before, and I’m going to give it a go’. And that helped me feel hopeful about getting something out there, no matter how unpolished!