How to Write a Strong Professional Statement

Your Zencare professional statement serves as high-level overview of your practice, covering the clientele you serve, your therapeutic approach and style, and any basic information a client needs to know prior to starting therapy with you. Read on to learn how to make the most of this 3-5 paragraph written introduction.

(Don't want to deal with writing? Not to worry! You can request the Zencare team to write your professional statement.)

1. Basic guidelines

As you get started, here are some basic guidelines on formatting your professional statement!

• Length: We suggest writing about 250 words, with a minimum length of 100 words and a maximum length of 300 words. This tends to be a digestible amount of content for therapy seekers, and allows you to communicate just enough key information about your practice without becoming overwhelming.
• Structure: We recommend writing 3-5 paragraphs, written in the third person, in this rough outline (more detail below!):
  First paragraph: Describe your specialties and clientele
  Second paragraph: Describe your treatment approach
  Third paragraph: Describe your therapeutic style
  Fourth paragraph: Describe your relevant professional experience and any key logistic information about your practice.
• Tone: The professional statement is an opportunity for your clients to learn about you both as a professional and a person. Try to use a tone that conveys your expertise and professionalism, and include details that make you personable and relatable.

2. Sample template

Writer's block is real! We completely understand the uncertainty that can come with staring at a blank document. To make things easier for you, here's our "Professional Statement Mad Libs."

Fill this out to get your professional statement written – and try to add some creative wording to it as well to make it unique to you! More information on each section below.

{Your full name} is a {credential}  in {neighborhood}. They work with {client demographics}. Many of {Your name}’s clients come in when {common challenges, symptoms, development points}. {Your name} is particularly passionate about serving {population}. They also have advanced training in the area of {niche specialty}.

{Your name} is trained in {approach}, which uses {describe how approach works}. In session, {Your name} focuses on {what happens in session with you}. This approach supports clients to {result of treatment}.

{Your name's} style is {describe style}. When a client first comes in, {describe therapeutic environment or how you build the treatment plan}. {Your name} is dedicated to providing a relationship that is {describe relationship}.

{Your name} received their {degrees, universities, study focus}. They gained experience at {fellowship, training institutes, previous employment} which enables them to {significance of experience}. Outside of private practice, they {personal or professional note}.

3. Writing prompts

As you're writing your professional statement, here are some prompts to get your creative juices flowing. Think how you'd describe your practice to a friend who wants to refer a colleague to you – how would you share each of these parts of your practice?

(1) First paragraph: Specialties and clientele

In the first paragraph, you want to immediately draw the reader in. Your first few sentences should give prospective clients a sense of "Oh, this therapist could be a great fit for me because they see clients struggling in the areas I need support with!"

The majority of therapy seekers are looking for help with general concerns, so be sure to include and allude to these if you see clients experiencing: anxiety, depression, stress, work and career, life transitions, relationship issues.

Here are some questions to help you think of your unique specialties and any niche clientele you want to market to:

• Who are the clients you work with most frequently? Who are your ideal clients?
• What are they struggling with when they enter your office?
• Why do they come to therapy with you?
• Are there any populations you are particularly well-positioned to serve?

(2) Second paragraph: Describe your treatment approach

In this paragraph, think of both the specific types of modalities that you are trained in, as well as how that translates to the client's experience. For example, you may be trained in cognitive behavioral therapy – to a client, that could mean understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and learning specific skills to interrupt unhealthy patterns.

Here are some prompts for communicating your treatment approaches:

• What therapeutic orientations are you most trained in and informed by?
• What happens in a therapy session with you?
• What skills or approaches do you use to guide clients in addressing challenges?
• How are their lives, relationships, self-concept, emotional responses different after treatment?

(3) Third paragraph: Therapeutic style

This paragraph is a great opportunity to describe your therapeutic style – are you more of a listener or active in therapy? Do you provide homework? Set concrete goals and measure progress? Focus on healing through the therapeutic relationship?

Here are some prompts to get you thinking about your therapeutic style:

• What do your clients most appreciate about you? What words do they use to describe sessions?
• What kind of relationship or environment do you seek to offer to new clients? What happens in a first session with you?
• How do you think about progress in therapy?

(4) Fourth paragraph: Professional experience and logistics

In this final paragraph, describe your relevant professional experience and any key logistic information about your practice.

• Think about the credentials, training, and work experiences you've gained. What trainings or experiences outside of private practice most influence your therapeutic framework?
• This is a good place to include any logistical information about your practice that can help clients access care. How, when, where do you currently offer sessions? For example: do you offering remote therapy? Do you have an office close to public transit and/or with lots of parking space? Do you have a therapy dog that accompanies sessions?

4. Excellent examples

Here are some examples you can reference as you get started!

Example one

Marian Cooper is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker based in Queens, NY, who works with individuals across the lifespan, with a focus on professional women. Many of her clients have found great success in their careers or academically, but struggle to feel connected in their relationships or at peace in their daily lives. Marian is particularly sensitive to clients facing moments of transition, like a move to the city, job loss, or breakup, when the delicate balance can seem to tremble, and symptoms of anxiety, depression, and self-doubt can emerge.

Marian’s approach is rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, an evidence-based approach that focuses on helping clients understand how their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, so that they can begin to make targeted change. She works to help clients understand their physical response to external stressors, and begin to problem-solve ways to introduce moments of calm, to choose to respond rather than react in the face of change.

Marian is focused on ensuring that her clients see real progress: her style is interactive, non-judgmental, and positions clients as the experts on where they are now, and where they want to go. A trauma-informed therapist, Marian is sensitive to the influence of past experiences on present challenges, and works closely with clients to reframe the narrative of their life in a way that increases self-confidence and compassion.

Marian’s first priority in starting with a new client is ensuring that they feel safe, heard, and like an equal partner in the therapeutic process. As a seasoned telehealth provider, she offers the convenience of remote sessions to help make therapy a core component of your self-care calendar.

Example two

Dr. Melba Nicholson Sullivan is a licensed clinical-community psychologist committed to promoting individual and collective resilience. Her clients are big thinkers, dreamers, and decision makers who sometimes find themselves held back by painful experiences of the past. Dr. Nicholson Sullivan treats old wounds with curiosity, creativity, and compassion, creating an opportunity for clients to move with greater freedom into their bright future.

Many of Dr. Nicholson Sullivan’s clients navigate feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression that have become overwhelming, and impact how they show up at work and in relationships. She works with clients to explore core beliefs about themselves, others, and the systems they exist within, co-creating practical strategies tailored to each client and their life journey.

Dr. Nicholson Sullivan’s therapeutic approach is rooted in mindfulness and human rights. She draws from her training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and executive coaching strategies in order to expand clients’ internal and external resources for healing, rest, and joy.

Dr. Nicholson Sullivan is committed to maintaining a diverse, equitable, and inclusive practice, which serves as a safe harbor for people who identify as LGBTQIA and people of the global majority. In addition to her Midtown office, Dr. Nicholson Sullivan offers the flexibility of remote therapy sessions, and welcomes new clients to her online practice.

Example three

Dr. Todd Kray is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a private practice in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, where he welcomes both individual adults and couples who are seeking to create change in their lives. Many of his clients bring in emotional pain, whether the symptoms of anxiety and depression are taking a daily toll, relationships feel unbalanced and disconnected, or stress and self-criticism are impacting performance at work. Together, he supports clients to pull back the layers of present challenges in order to release painful past experiences and re-engage with their careers, their loved ones, and themselves in more meaningful ways.  

Therapy sessions with Dr. Kray integrate both insight-oriented and skills-based approaches. He gently challenges clients to explore the root cause of their symptoms, gaining new awareness into their emotional and relationship patterns. At the same time, he focuses on practical strategies, with an emphasis on relaxation and meditation practices, to help clients feel better in the here and now.

Having served as a consultant at local hospitals, Dr. Kray is uniquely skilled in working with those experiencing chronic pain, chronic illness, and other serious medical illnesses. He brings a special awareness to the healing power of the mind-body connection, and his office serves as a safe harbor to freely process pain and find relief.

Dr. Kray is committed to maintaining an inclusive practice. With a background in the arts, he is particularly sensitive to the creative process, and welcomes a wide range of creative professionals, freelancers, executives, parents, and young adults to his practice.

5. Reviewing your work!

Once your professional statement is written, here are some things to look out for and avoid:

• Therapy jargon
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• All caps
• Rhetorical questions
• Vagueries, clichés, and anything that is unspecific to your practice
• Long lists of every diagnosis you would see or training experience that you've had
• More than one sentence on your speaking, writing, teaching, or other activities outside of private practice
• Quotes from other people
• Typos!

6. Advanced considerations

A writer at heart? Here are some tips for the advanced marketer!

General vs. specialized practices

There are two ways you might about how your Zencare professional statement is focused:

• General: For providers who may have specific interests, but are open to seeing clients outside of one demographic or diagnosis. This is the option we recommend for most providers, due to the nature of how therapist directories work: it’s helpful to appeal to the broadest base of potential clients, so that you can capture the attention of a wide pool and tailor your conversations to them as they proceed through the intake process. Read more on the case against specialization. For a more general professional statement, think about the structure of your professional statement as an inverted pyramid: start broad, covering information that will be relevant to most therapy seekers, and becoming increasingly narrow as you read through, highlighting details that speak to your current  and unique interests towards the end of the statement.
• Specialized: For providers who are experts within a highly specific niche, and only want new referrals for clients within that niche (ie providers who only see couples or only individuals recovering from eating disorders). Note, choosing this path may mean a below average referral volume, since your profile may not appeal to the majority of therapy-seekers, but also less time fielding inquiries from clients who are not within your scope of practice. In tandem with other marketing strategies (offline networking; a well-rounded online presence), a specialized statement can be a good way to deepen your reach within the niche. In particular, know that through your word-of-mouth efforts, when a new prospective client is given your name, it’s highly likely they’ll still Google your practice to learn more and assess if it’s a fit for them. When they are seeking support for a specialized challenge, it’s helpful for you to be positioned as the clear expert in the field. so focus on your niche from the opening sentence, and make sure each paragraph ties back to it. What are the trainings you've taken that make you the expert in this niche? What skills or approaches do you use to address it? What does progress within this area look like?

Reviewing your profile as a whole

Remember that your professional statement is only one piece of a whole puzzle, and should it be considered within the context of the rest of your profile.

In particular, make sure that the areas you focus on in your professional statement are also captured within your Specialties, General expertise, Treatment approaches, and Clientele: these are the sections that determine what filters your practice appears under from the search page.

These sections should also be consistent with what you write in the professional statement to avoid any potential client confusion (for example, if your professional statement reads that you work with "adults of all ages," clientele should probably not include "Children").

Lastly, remember that you don't have to fit everything in your professional statement if it's covered elsewhere on the profile! For example, if a complete list of your previous employment is visible under Work and Education, you only need to mention the most important experiences in your statement.

Still stuck? If you're left starting at a blinking cursor on a blank page, we're here to help. Request the Zencare team to write your professional statement.