We can't tell you whether to leave. That comes down to your finances, your clients, your contracts and what you want your practice to look like. This post covers the practical side of finding clients on your own, so that if you do go, you go with a plan.
1. Own your own front door
On a platform, the platform owns the front door. People find it first, and it decides who they see. Working on your own, you need your own front door: a few places where someone looking for help can find you, get a sense of how you work, and get in touch.
You don't need much to start. Most of it comes down to three things.
A simple website. It can be modest. A good therapy website answers the questions someone has while deciding whether to contact you. Who do you help? How do you work? Where are you, and do you see people by telehealth? What does it cost, and do you take my insurance? How do I get started? If someone can find those answers in a minute or two and see how to reach you, the site is working. Our guide to what a therapist website costs sets out published prices for each route, from a builder you set up yourself to a custom build. (If you'd like help with this part, see our website design for therapists.)
A Google Business Profile. When someone searches "therapist near me" or "anxiety therapist in [your city]," Google often shows business listings next to the regular results. A free Google Business Profile lets you decide what shows up there: your practice name, hours, a link to your site, and how to contact you. A profile needs in-person contact with clients, so a telehealth-only practice doesn't qualify under Google's rules as written. If you see clients at home, read Google's guidelines on address visibility before you set it up, so you can keep your home address private. Our local SEO and Google Business Profile guide covers who can have a profile and how to set one up.
Psychology Today (or a similar directory). Plenty of people still begin their search on a therapist directory. A profile there costs money, but it's another way in, and it's where people go when they want to compare therapists. Write it the way you'd talk to someone on a first call: plainly, and specifically about who you help.
Some people now ask AI tools like ChatGPT to help them find a therapist. Nobody can promise what those tools will say. Still, if your website and listings say the same clear, accurate things about your practice, the tools have something reliable to draw on. There's more on that on our AI visibility page.
All three take time to start bringing in inquiries, so set them up while platform referrals are still coming in.
2. Moving existing clients and referrals, ethically
Before you tell any client you're leaving, or offer to keep seeing them outside the platform, do two things:
- Read your platform agreement closely. Look for anything on non-solicitation, client transitions, notice periods, or what happens to clients you met through the platform. Terms differ and they change, so read the version you actually signed, not a summary someone posted online.
- Check your licensing board's rules and your professional code of ethics. Your duties around continuity of care, termination and abandonment still apply when a business relationship ends.
This isn't legal advice, and we're not lawyers. If something in your agreement is unclear, or a move you're considering might conflict with it, talk to an attorney who works with healthcare providers. Some liability insurers offer risk-management consultations to their policyholders, which can also help.
Whatever your agreement says, a few principles usually hold:
- Put the client's welfare first. Clients should hear about the change in a way that leaves them real options: continuing with you (if your agreement allows it), staying on the platform with another clinician, or a referral somewhere else.
- Be clear about money. If a client would go from in-network billing to private pay or out-of-network, make sure they understand what that means for them before they decide, not when the first bill arrives.
- Give enough notice. Transitions are clinical work too, so leave room to talk about it in session.
- Document what you discussed. Your notes should show how you handled the transition and what the client chose.
As for referral sources like colleagues, physicians and school counselors, a short note telling them how to reach you directly usually goes over well. People who've sent you clients before tend to want to know where you went.
3. Turning inquiries into first sessions
Once people can find you, the next job is answering them well. It's an easy place to lose people without noticing.
Response time. Reaching out to a therapist takes nerve, and some people contact several at once. A quick, warm reply can decide whether you get a first session or hear nothing back. It can be short: "Thanks for reaching out. I have openings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and here's how to book a free 15-minute call." Choose a response window you can actually keep, such as one business day, and put it on your website so people know when to expect a reply.
A clear booking path. Decide what the first step is and make it easy to spot. A free phone consult, a contact form, or booking straight into your scheduling system? Whichever you pick, use the same one on your website, your Google Business Profile and your directory profile.
Fees and insurance info, up front. On a platform, clients may never have had to think about cost. Now they will. Say what you charge, whether you keep sliding-scale spots, and how insurance works with you: whether you're in-network with any plans, or whether you give superbills for out-of-network reimbursement. Also, under the federal No Surprises Act, providers usually have to give clients who aren't using insurance a Good Faith Estimate of costs when they schedule care in advance or ask for one (CMS: Medical bill rights1). Being straightforward about money is kind, and it also spares you consult calls with people who could never have afforded it.
Test your own process. Every few months, go through it as a stranger would. Search for your practice, read your site on your phone, and fill out your own contact form. Then check that the confirmation email went out and that the message landed in an inbox you actually read.
4. The emotional side of a shrinking caseload
A shrinking caseload is a money problem first. It can also turn into a confidence problem.
If part of how you judge your own competence is how full your schedule is, a thinner schedule can start to feel like a verdict on your work. If you catch yourself thinking you're not good enough, or that you should have seen this coming, you'd question that thought if a client said it in session. It deserves the same questions here.
A few things to try:
- Keep the business problem separate from your worth as a clinician. Fewer referrals after a platform change is about where referrals come from, not about the quality of your sessions.
- Make a plan with dates in it. Write down how many months of runway you have, what you'll set up in the first few weeks, and the date you'll review how it's going. Put that date in your calendar.
- Use the open hours deliberately. Spend some of the time building your front door, and some on rest, consultation, training, or a specialty you'd like to focus on.
- Talk to peers. Try a consultation group, old classmates, or a local professional association. Other clinicians who work through the same platforms may be weighing the same decision. Ask what they plan to do about referrals and fees.
- Get support for yourself if you need it. If this is weighing on you, your own therapy is a reasonable place to bring it.
Where to start
If you're not sure how your website holds up (whether it explains who you help, makes the next step obvious, and gives search and AI tools clear information), our free website review is an easy place to begin. It's an automated check that takes about a minute and shows what's in place and what might need work. It doesn't measure search rankings, and it doesn't cover visual design, speed or accessibility.
When you're ready to build or refresh your front door, we can help: websites for therapists and AI visibility.