This essay is a response to Darragh Sheehan’s piece, The Therapist as the "Good-Enough Commodity": From Holding to Selling, published on Everyday Analysis. As someone with a deep (and perhaps alarming) interest in the marketing of psychotherapists and psychotherapy, I was really excited to see an actual thinkpiece on the topic, instead of the usual breathless regurgitation of Amy Porterfield maxims (love ya girl, but they can hit weird in Therapyland). I was even more excited to see it gaining traction in therapist Facebook groups, where the usual discourse on marketing tends toward despair.

Then I read it…

Interpersonal Branding arose from the work I did for my “culminating project” in CSUN’s MFT program - a multidisciplinary literature review. This thesis established Interpersonal Branding as a conceptual framework for psychotherapists for their marketing and professional identity development, all in the service of improving clinical outcomes. If you are inspired to wade through all 200+ pages, click below…