Mentored with Dr Brooklyn Storme PhD

👉 Get the free episode companion guide here

She first came to me for a Website Wellness Check, and during that review I could see how much potential her business held and where friction on her website was making it harder for people to take the next step, so we went on to refine her niche, install the service delivery systems she was missing, and work through the mindset blocks around fees and paying herself.

I talk through how to niche down as a psychologist or counsellor even when it feels counterintuitive, why tracking your private practice numbers and conversion rate turns anxiety into confidence (her conversion rate has averaged 50% over six months), and how a weekly podcast with a clear call to action sent listeners to her website and increased her therapy bookings month after month. I also share how her sharper messaging began attracting referrals from medical specialists who now send clients directly to her, and why the best private practice website tips all come back to refining a little each month because a website is never finished.

If you would like to see where the gaps are in your own website, you can order a Website Wellness Check here: https://sales.brooklynstorme.com/wwc-aud/ and any refinements you make now will help keep your diary full over the Christmas period.

Q: Can I grow my private practice without social media?

Q: Does niching down mean fewer clients in private practice?

Q: What is website friction and why does it affect bookings?

Q: What is a good conversion rate for a private practice?

Q: How often should I update my private practice website?

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That frustration sent me looking at an AI receptionist for private practice, and because I avoid the phone wherever I can and have no work phone number (I even bought my home and got my mortgage without a phone call), I was thrilled to find out you can have one without it. I built Ava in about two or three hours, chose voice over text or a hybrid, and spent the next few days smoothing out the glitches until she felt easy to use.

Within about three days, two people I had never heard of emailed me to say how much they loved her, one of them mentioning how good it was to get answers after hours without sending an email, and two new consultations booked after dinner time as a result of working with Ava, at A$300 to A$600 each. If you want more enquiries for private practice, or you are wondering why your therapy website is not getting bookings because everything depends on a contact form and an email back and forth, an AI receptionist for psychologists and counsellors can take someone from question to answer to booking, which is how you convert website enquiries into bookings instead of losing them, and it also gives you after hours booking for therapists without you being at your desk.

If you are wondering whether this is about cutting costs and replacing the person on your books, I share why I think the better use of AI for counsellors in private practice is handing over everyday AI admin tasks for private practice, like the question of whether you offer a Medicare rebate (you know how many times that one gets asked), so your admin person gets hours back to work at a higher level and you get time for online booking for therapy practice improvements, referral pathways, marketing, creating your online course or program, and hiring a contractor.

I am building a free pilot for a small number of practices, so the link is in these show notes if you would like me to build one for you, with the understanding that a pilot can be a little clunky at first and nothing goes on your website until it is working. I will be offering to teach you how to build your own or to build it for you in the next few weeks, and you are welcome to have a play with Ava and tell me if you come across a hiccup so I can fix it for you.

Keywords used: AI receptionist for private practice, AI receptionist for psychologists, website chatbot for therapists, more enquiries for private practice, convert website enquiries into bookings, AI for counsellors in private practice, after hours booking for therapists, online booking for therapy practice, AI admin tasks for private practice, therapy website not getting bookings

Mini FAQ:

Q: Do I need a business phone number to have an AI receptionist?

Q: Can an AI receptionist turn website visitors into bookings?

Q: How long does it take to build an AI receptionist for a private practice website?

Q: Will an AI receptionist replace my admin person?

Q: Why is a website chat bubble not turning into bookings for my therapy practice?

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You might be doing everything right with your website and still wonder why the inquiries are slow, so in this episode I walk you through what is changing in October 2026 and how to get found by AI as a therapist as well as by Google. I share why traffic that arrives through AI converts at around 12% while traffic from a Google ad converts at around 2%, and what that means for AI search optimisation for psychologists, counsellors and social workers who have only ever focused on private practice website SEO.

We talk about why information is the foundation of marketing right now, why an attention economy rewards niching in private practice even further than you have already gone, and what to put on a therapist website so it answers the questions your ideal client is typing instead of offering flowery lines about safe spaces. You will hear how to explain your most common presentations and your modalities, how to add a simple reference, and how to pair all of it with your own experience and practice wisdom so your counselling website copy stands apart from AI generated pages, including why an AI disclosure in your website footer is needed if AI has touched your writing at all.

I also share my love-hate relationship with Meta ads (including a A$500 bill on an ad that was meant to cost A$10 a day, which I am still sorting out) and why a Google ad will only send traffic to a website that may not be ready to convert it. From there we look at private practice lead magnet ideas such as quizzes, guides, infographics, step by step visuals and companion videos, and at how to get referrals from GPs as a psychologist by tailoring your information to what is on the referrer's mind. Marketing changes take around 90 days from the day you hit publish to show results, which makes October a good time to start if you want to get more clients in private practice before the summer dip.

If you would like feedback on your own site, a Website Wellness Check is a great place to begin, and you will find the link below along with more ways to work with me at brooklynstorme.com.

Keywords used: how to get found by AI as a therapist, AI search optimisation for psychologists, private practice website SEO, niching in private practice, what to put on a therapist website, counselling website copy, AI disclosure in your website footer, private practice lead magnet ideas, how to get referrals from GPs as a psychologist, get more clients in private practice

Mini FAQ:

Q: How do I get my private practice website found by AI?

Q: Is traffic from AI better than traffic from Google ads for therapists?

Q: Do I need to tell clients if I used AI to write my website?

Q: What information should a counselling website include?

Q: How long does it take to see results from updating my website?

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Wondering how to create an online course for therapists over the summer break? These seven course creation steps will help you map out an online course for private practice that people want to buy and are likely to finish, before you record a single lesson.

We begin with the honest question of why you want to make a course in the first place, because if the answer is that you need money now or you do not have enough clients, a course will not fix either one, and your marketing systems or existing financial structures are the better place to start, particularly if passive income for therapists is the hope behind it.

From there we look at how to validate a course idea through market research for an online course, and I share the story of the marketing course I built that nobody wanted until I listened to what my clients were asking for, stripped it back and relaunched it as Clients On Demand, which sold out the first time it opened.

You will also hear why the average online course completion rate sits at around 12 percent for self-paced courses, how that number can shape the format you choose, and how to place your course inside your private practice business model so it supports your wider vision to grow a private practice instead of sitting untouched on your website. We finish with creating your content and then taking time to beta test an online course (or pilot it, if that word feels more familiar) so honest feedback can polish it before you go live.

If you would like help mapping a course that has been researched and tested, the Programmed Passive tool is included inside my Skool community, which is $7 a month with the first seven days free: https://www.skool.com/brooklyn/about

And if you would like support to start, grow or scale your private practice, you can visit my website at https://brooklynstorme.com

Keywords used: how to create an online course for therapists, online course for private practice, course creation steps, validate a course idea, market research for an online course, online course completion rate, passive income for therapists, beta test an online course, grow a private practice, private practice business model

Mini FAQ:

Q: Why isn't my online course selling?

Q: Will an online course fix a lack of clients?

Q: What is the average completion rate of a self-paced online course?

Q: How do I test my online course before I launch it?

Q: Should I create a course if I need money quickly?

👉 Get the free episode companion guide here

Keywords used: Claude vs ChatGPT for private practice, AI for therapists in Australia, AI hallucinations, AI drift, is Claude safe for therapists, AI privacy and data retention, using AI as a thinking partner, AI for counsellors and psychologists, AI report writing, AI consulting for private practice

Mini FAQ:

Q: Is Claude or ChatGPT better for private practice?

Q: What is an AI hallucination?

Q: What is AI drift?

Q: How can therapists use AI as a thinking partner?

Q: Is Claude safer than ChatGPT for privacy?

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Money tends to land in your business in drips and drabs, and if you have ever handed your accountant a shopping bag full of paper receipts once a year and then spent the next few weeks working just to pay the tax bill (I did exactly that in my first years in private practice), this episode is for you. I walk you through how to give yourself a pay rise in private practice, and it starts with seeing that the money coming in is a response, both to how you see yourself and to how well you are stewarding your private practice finances. We look at why reactive money decisions keep you stuck under a financial thermostat, why you need to separate your business and personal bank accounts, and how to pay yourself a weekly wage through a scheduled payment so the money for tax, GST and business expenses stays put in your business account, which is also why the last quarter of the year is such a good time to build these foundations.

Then we get into the numbers, because it is very easy to look at a $200 session fee and assume the whole $200 is yours. I pulled together a rough breakdown of how much therapists take home per session in Australia, and the take-home pay after tax, Medicare, bookkeeping fees, business expenses and super is sobering: about $37 from an $80 session, $46 from $100, $55 from $120, $69 from $150 and $92 from $200. From there you can work out what it costs to fund your personal life, add 10% for the things you have forgotten, and calculate how many clients you need to see each week to cover it, and you will see why charging your cancellation fee is so important to your income. I also share why you need to track your income so you can feel safe with money, and what to do when your fees are right but you still need more clients through the door, which is where my 90 day sprint comes in. You can explore my group programs at https://brooklynstorme.com/group-programs, and do grab the companion guide in the show notes for resources to help you build financial systems for private practice that leave you feeling safe.

Keywords used: how to give yourself a pay rise in private practice, private practice finances, pay yourself a weekly wage, separate your business and personal bank accounts, how much therapists take home per session in Australia, take-home pay after tax, how many clients you need to see each week, cancellation fee, financial systems for private practice, track your income

Mini FAQ:

Q: How do you give yourself a pay rise in private practice?

Q: How much does a therapist take home per session in Australia?

Q: Should I pay myself a wage from my private practice?

Q: How many clients do I need to see to fund my life?

Q: Why do I need to charge a cancellation fee?

The transcript says "$100" twice when listing take-home figures, so I used $150 for the $69 figure, based on Loom's summary of the video.

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If you have been in private practice for a year or three and your diary is still not full, or you are close to finishing your studies and wondering how to start a private practice in Australia that fills quickly, this episode is for you. I recorded it in the middle of a week of being down for the count, using the time to dust off my business foundations, and it got me thinking about the one thing I would tell every woman before she opens her doors.

How to get clients in private practice has changed, because information used to be valuable simply because it came from a health professional, and now anyone can make mental health resources with AI. Your wisdom is what people are looking for now, more than your knowledge, and AI can only recommend a practice it can see and tell apart from the rest, which is why learning how to get recommended by AI as a therapist starts with standing out.

We talk about private practice positioning in a way that does not mean more courses or more work. Learning how to niche as a therapist is the first step, and your niche might be a modality you love, a personal philosophy or something you stand against, and then you decide what you want to be known for and identify three ways you deliver your service differently from the other practices in your niche. Those three ways can come from your lived experience, your personality or an innate skill, and I share how mine came through in client surveys as being blunt, calling a spade a spade and spotting gaps. Summarise it in two or three sentences, put it everywhere and use it as the anchor for every blog, podcast, post and program you create, and you have a simple way to stand out as a counsellor while cutting through the overwhelm.

I also cover undercharging in private practice (I still hear of women with master's degrees charging $60 to $80 a session), why your website is where people convert and not what gets them there, what my 21 post-it notes of daily marketing look like, why 90 days is the average time it takes to build trust with a vulnerable audience, and how a private practice marketing plan grows out of your business plan. Once you know what to be known for, you are in the best position to fill your diary in private practice, even before day one.

If you would like a personalised plan and weekly live support to put your positioning into action, you can find the 90 Day Sprint here: https://brooklynstorme.com/group-programs

Take care of yourselves, my lovelies, and I will talk to you soon.

Keywords used: how to get clients in private practice, how to start a private practice in Australia, how to get recommended by AI as a therapist, private practice positioning, how to niche as a therapist, what to be known for in private practice, how to stand out as a counsellor, undercharging in private practice, private practice marketing plan, how to fill your diary in private practice

Mini FAQ:

Q: How do I get clients in private practice now that AI is recommending therapists?

Q: Is niching still enough to stand out as a counsellor?

Q: What can my niche be if I do not want to focus on one age group or problem?

Q: How long does it take to fill a diary in private practice?

Q: Should I lower my fees to fill my diary?

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You know that feeling when you sit down to work in your private practice and your chest goes tight before you have even opened your laptop? That is what this episode digs into, and Brooklyn is talking about why you feel anxious working for yourself even when nothing outwardly stressful is happening.

She walks through her own week of rearranging furniture, painting kitchen tiles, and falling hard for peel and stick wallpaper, then gets into the heart of it, the butterflies that show up the moment you open your business laptop and start bouncing between dozens of open tabs. If you have ever wondered why you cannot focus on your business the way you focused when you worked for somebody else, this episode has an answer worth sitting with.

Brooklyn breaks down a five step process for working through procrastination in private practice, starting with noticing the anxious feeling, checking in with what you are saying yes and no to, identifying the story underneath the obstacle, doing the work to clear it, and getting yourself back on track. She talks through how imposter syndrome in private practice often traces back to a lack of direction rather than a lack of ability, and why avoidance in private practice marketing is rarely about not knowing how.

This episode is also a good primer if you are weighing up business mentoring for therapists Australia wide, because Brooklyn shares how she works through this exact process with her own private practice clients. She closes out talking about the 90 day business sprint for therapists, starting the first week of October, a small group container capped at four women, running three weeks on and one week off with weekly group calls and a private community for support. You can read more and apply at https://brooklynstorme.com/group-programs, find everything else at www.brooklynstorme.com, and if you want more free resources you can hang out inside the Claude for Therapists community at https://www.skool.com/brooklyn.

Keywords used: why do I feel anxious working for myself, how to stop procrastinating in private practice, private practice business mindset, how to focus when self-employed, imposter syndrome private practice, business mentoring for therapists Australia, why can't I focus on my business, avoidance in private practice marketing, how to overcome self-doubt in business, 90 day business sprint for therapists

Mini FAQ:

Q: Why do I feel anxious every time I sit down to work in my private practice?

Q: Is feeling scattered and jumping between tabs a sign of ADHD?

Q: What is the first step to stop procrastinating on your business goals?

Q: How do you know if procrastination is really about not knowing how to do something?

Q: What is the 90 Day Sprint and who is it for?

You've followed the strategy to the letter and still didn't get the result you wanted, and this episode is about why that happens. I start with something unexpected that happened to me this week, a volunteer shift in a local bookstore that looked nothing like the version of "working in a bookstore" I'd been picturing for the last twenty years, and use it to talk about staying open to unexpected opportunities in business even when they don't match the picture in your head. Pinching yourself off from something just because it looks different can cost you more than you realise. Then I get into why business goals need a clear purpose behind them, not just a number, and how mindset vs strategy in private practice plays out with the women I mentor, including one who turned over nearly $200,000 in her first 12 months because her goal had a reason strong enough to keep her going when it got hard. I walk you through how to set goals for your private practice, why tracking KPIs in private practice is non-negotiable if you want to hit them, why self-accountability in private practice is on you and no one else, and why private practice goals Australia-wide get derailed by the same handful of mindset blocks, whatever your specialty. If you've ever wondered how long it takes to build a profitable private practice, I share the Australian Bureau of Statistics figure that might change how you're measuring your own progress. This one's for anyone thinking about how to grow a private practice in Australia and wondering why the goal alone isn't enough.

Mentioned in this episode: my Claude for Therapists community (https://www.skool.com/brooklyn/about) and the 90 Day Sprint (https://brooklynstorme.com/group-programs), with three places left this round.

Keywords used: staying open to unexpected opportunities in business, why business goals need a clear purpose, mindset vs strategy in private practice, how to set goals for your private practice, tracking KPIs in private practice, self-accountability in private practice, private practice goals Australia, how long does it take to build a profitable private practice, how to grow a private practice in Australia, private practice business mentor Australia

Mini FAQ:

Q: How long does it take for a private practice to become profitable?

Q: Why do private practice owners resist setting a goal?

Q: What makes a business goal work?

Q: Should I say yes to opportunities outside my usual niche?

Q: Is it strategy or mindset that gets private practice owners results?

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A client I'll call Jess sat across from me and had no idea she'd made $16,825 for her practice in four weeks, because she'd never been shown what numbers to track. This episode walks through exactly how that happened, and what it means for anyone in private practice who wants a dependable way to bring in the right kind of enquiries without living on social media all day.

Jess came to Momentum 90 wanting help filling her diary, and when we looked closely, the problem had nothing to do with effort. She simply didn't have a lead magnet for private practice that was doing its job properly. Once we looked at her existing freebie for therapists and adjusted a few key pieces, she shared it in two Facebook communities and on her own website, and the enquiries and bookings followed.

The episode covers how to create a lead magnet for private practice that people want rather than something generic, and the lead magnet mistakes therapists make over and over: content that could have come straight off Google or ChatGPT, design pulled from a template with the Canva Sans font never changed, text running edge to edge with no margins, and PDFs that open in Google Drive with no opt-in and no email sequence behind them.

There's also a section on why interactive lead magnet ideas are outperforming the standard downloadable PDF right now, and why building a private practice marketing Australia strategy around one or two well made freebies can grow your audience while you sleep. If you've been wondering how to grow your therapy practice email list, or you're after lead magnet ideas for psychologists and counsellors who want to know how to get clients without social media, this one walks through the whole thing, including the difference between a PDF lead magnet vs interactive lead magnet and why that difference is showing up in conversions.

If you want help figuring out your own freebie strategy, come and join Claude for Therapists, my Skool community, at https://www.skool.com/brooklyn/about, where there's a seven day free trial and a business manifestation coaching app built around this exact approach. Or if you'd rather talk it through one to one, you can book a consultation with me at https://calendar.app.google/KqBm3VEyVvUhCgSb7.

Keywords used: lead magnet for private practice, freebie for therapists, how to create a lead magnet for private practice, lead magnet mistakes therapists make, interactive lead magnet ideas, how to grow your therapy practice email list, private practice marketing Australia, lead magnet ideas for psychologists and counsellors, how to get clients without social media, PDF lead magnet vs interactive lead magnet

Mini FAQ:

Q: What is a lead magnet for private practice?

Q: How much can a lead magnet earn for a private practice?

Q: Why do most therapist freebies not get downloaded?

Q: Should a lead magnet for private practice be a PDF?

Q: How often should a freebie be promoted to keep working?