You have spent years learning how to hold space for other people. But, writing about yourself in a way that feels honest and professional at the same time is a different skill entirely. And nobody teaches it in grad school.
So the About page gets written in a rush, or copied loosely from a colleague’s site, or left untouched for three years while your practice evolves around it.
When a client sends me their site for the first time, the About page almost always does one of two things. It either starts somewhere around second grade … a formative moment, a family member’s illness, a calling that arrived early … and spends so much time on origin story that there is almost nothing left about what they actually do or who they help. Or it goes the other direction entirely: two paragraphs, a credential list, and a contact link. Both versions leave the reader without what they actually came for.
Research from Nielsen Norman Group found that About pages are among the most visited pages on professional service websites … often the second or third stop after the homepage. A potential client or referral partner is forming an opinion about you in seconds. That opinion shapes whether they reach out or move on.
This post walks through what your private practice About page should actually include, what to cut, and how to make it work harder for you without sounding like a brochure.
Why is your About page so hard to write?
Your training centered the client. You were taught to stay in the background, to listen more than you speak, to let the work do the talking. Writing an About page asks you to flip that completely … to step forward, describe your value, and make a case for why someone should trust you.
It feels a little uncomfortable. That is actually a sign you are taking it seriously.
The other challenge is that most clinicians default to credential-listing when they sit down to write. And credentials matter … but they are not what makes someone choose you. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that patients evaluating healthcare providers online weighted warmth and communication style nearly as heavily as professional qualifications. People want to know if you are good at what you do. They also want to know if they will feel okay in the room with you.
I have had clinicians tell me their inquiry rate jumped after they rewrote their About page to sound more like them … same credentials, different tone.
Your About page has to carry both things at once. That is why it is hard.
What are people looking for on an About page?
When someone lands on your About page, they are looking for three things: proof that you understand their problem, a sense of whether they could talk to you, and confirmation that you are the real thing. They are not reading it the way you would read a résumé. They are scanning quickly, asking themselves: does this person get what I am dealing with? Do they seem like someone I could sit across from? Are they actually qualified?
Think about the questions your clients bring to a first session. Many of those questions … “Will you judge me?” “Have you actually worked with people like me?” “What is your approach?” … can be pre-answered on your About page. That is not manipulation. That is good communication.
It is also worth knowing that Google and AI search tools are increasingly surfacing About pages in response to branded and specialty searches. When someone types “[your name] therapist” or “registered dietitian for [your specialty] near me,” your About page is often what gets pulled. Pages with clear, plainly written descriptions of who the practitioner is and who they serve are significantly more likely to be cited in AI-generated search summaries. Clarity is not just good writing. It is good strategy.
What does an About page need for a private practice?
A well-built About page for a private practice typically covers five things.
Your credentials and licensure, stated plainly. Do not bury this. Clients and referral sources need to confirm quickly that you are licensed and qualified. List your degree, your license type, and your state. If you hold specialty certifications that are meaningful to your ideal client, include those too.
A clear signal of who you work with. Not a vague “I work with adults navigating life’s challenges.” Something specific. “I work with adults managing chronic illness, particularly people who are newly diagnosed and figuring out what their life looks like now.” Specificity is not limiting. It is reassuring to the right person.
A short piece of professional story. Not your whole origin story … just the part that explains why you do this work. One or two sentences. Enough to feel human without oversharing.
A real, current photo. Not a stock image. Not your LinkedIn headshot from 2016. A natural photo where you look like yourself. This matters more than most clinicians realize. It is often the first visual confirmation that you are a real person.
When I start working on an About page with a clinician, I ask them three things before I write a single word.
- What is your approach to the work?
- What makes you different from someone with the same credentials down the street?
- And what do you actually value as a practitioner?
The answers to those three questions are almost always where the real About page lives … not in the credential list, but in how they think about what they do.
What should I exclude from my About page?
A few things show up constantly on private practice About pages that work against you as the clinician, not for you.
Long lists of modalities. EMDR, CBT, ACT, motivational interviewing, somatic approaches … if your reader does not already know what these mean, the list creates distance, not trust. Pick the one or two approaches that are most central to your work and explain them briefly in plain language.
Generic mission statements. “I believe in the power of the therapeutic relationship.” “I am passionate about helping clients live their best lives.” These sentences appear on thousands of websites. They do not say anything specific about you.
Overly formal language. If your About page sounds like it was written for a grant proposal, it is probably working against you. Read it aloud. If you would not say it that way to a client on a first call, rewrite it.
Personal details that serve you more than your reader. Your love of hiking and your rescue dog are lovely. They might belong in a short “outside the office” paragraph at the very end. They should not be the centerpiece of your professional introduction. I usually put these at the bottom!
Bonus points though, if you can tie in your fun facts to your niche or your work. For example, I talk about how much I leg press because it’s impressive but also because I work with fitness professionals!
How do I write about my specialty the right way?
The most common mistake clinicians make when describing their niche is describing it in clinical language rather than lived language. Your ideal client is not searching the way you were trained to document. They are searching the way they think and feel.
| Clinical Language (Avoid) | Lived Language (Use) |
|---|---|
| Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders | Therapist for postpartum anxiety |
| Hormonal health concerns | Help for women in perimenopause |
| Disordered eating and body image disturbance | Support for a complicated relationship with food |
| Adjustment disorder following medical diagnosis | Figuring out life after a new diagnosis |
| Occupational stress and burnout intervention | Burned out and can’t keep going like this |
Write the way they think, not the way you were trained to document. Consider how a dietitian specializing in menopause nutrition might describe her work. She could write “I help women with hormonal health concerns.” Or she could write what my client, Amialya Elder Durairaj, MS, CDN, CN actually wrote on her About page: that she works with women navigating hormonal transitions, that she was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency at 39 after five years of being dismissed, and that she built her practice around offering what she wished she’d had. Same specialty, completely different impact.
The second version tells you exactly who she is for … and if you are a woman in perimenopause who has felt brushed off by her doctors, you feel that immediately.
Specificity also matters for how search tools read and retrieve your page. AI-generated search summaries pull from pages that use clear, direct language about who the practitioner is, who they serve, and what they offer. Write concretely. “I work with adults in their 30s and 40s who are managing burnout alongside a chronic health condition” is retrievable. “I help people live fuller lives” is not.
What tone should you use on your About page?
Your About page is not the place to sound impressive. It is the place to sound like yourself.
The goal is trust and connection … and those two things do not come from a polished, formal introduction. They come from consistency and honesty. When someone reads your About page and then clicks over to your Services page, or your blog, or your contact form, the voice should feel like it belongs to the same person. If your About page is warm and your Services page reads like a legal document, that inconsistency creates a subtle friction. Visitors feel it even when they cannot name it.
Think about what you are actually trying to do on this page. You want someone to read it and feel like they already know a little bit about you before they ever get on a call with you. That is connection. You also want them to walk away confident that you are the real thing … credentialed, experienced, and clear about what you do. That is trust.
A resume delivers information. An About page builds a relationship. Those are not the same thing, and they should not be written the same way.
The simplest test is still the right one: read your About page aloud. Notice where it sounds stiff, where you would never actually say it that way, where it stops sounding like you. Those are the spots to rewrite. Not to make it more casual … but to make it more honest.
FAQ About Private Practice About Pages
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Should my About page be different from my Psychology Today or directory profile?
Yes. Your directory profile is written for a platform with its own formatting rules, character limits, and audience expectations. Your About page lives on your own website, which means you control the length, tone, structure, and SEO. Use your About page to go deeper … more of your voice, more specificity about who you help, and more context than any directory allows. Think of your directory profile as the billboard and your About page as the conversation.
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Do I need a separate About page if I am a solo practitioner?
Yes, and arguably it matters more. When you are the practice, your About page is doing double duty … it is introducing both you as a person and your business as a whole. There is no team page, no company history, no other clinicians to distribute the trust-building across. Everything a potential client needs to feel confident reaching out rests on that one page.
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Should I mention my fees or insurance on my About page?
Generally, no. Fees and insurance belong on a dedicated Fees or FAQ page where people who are specifically looking for that information can find it easily. Putting them on your About page shifts the focus away from connection and toward transaction too early in the relationship. The exception is if your fee structure is a meaningful part of your practice identity … for example, if you are a sliding-scale-only practice or explicitly out-of-network, that may be worth a brief mention.
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What is the difference between an About page and a bio?
A bio is a third-person summary of your credentials and background, typically written for directories, conference programs, or guest posts. An About page is a first-person introduction written directly to your potential client. A bio answers “who is this person?” An About page answers “is this the right person for me?” They serve different purposes and should be written differently, even if they pull from the same facts.
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Can I have more than one About page if I serve different populations?
You can, but it requires careful thought. If you genuinely serve two very different populations … say, adolescents and adults, or individual therapy clients and corporate wellness clients … separate pages can let you speak directly to each group without the compromise of a one-size-fits-all introduction. The risk is diluting your authority by appearing unfocused. A cleaner approach for most solo practitioners is one strong About page that names your primary populations explicitly, with links to population-specific service pages where each group can find more detail.
The About page is the page that a nervous potential client reads at 11pm before deciding whether to send an inquiry. It is what a referring physician skims before recommending you to a patient. And in it is increasingly what AI search tools pull from when someone searches for a clinician with your specialty in your area.
You have worked hard to build expertise worth communicating. Your About page should reflect that … not in the form of a credential list, but in the form of a clear, honest, human introduction to who you are and who you help.
