What to say in a psychology today video, and more: tips from my practice video
Video has become the most popular format to consume content online. And yet, for therapists it remains a largely unexplored territory. My Practice Video is a tool that guides therapists in creating short videos for Psychology Today and more. Watch the video below of my conversation with the Co-Founder of My Practice Video and a therapist, Anna O'Brien, LPC. Keep reading to get practical tools to start recording videos for your practice right away.
Why should you record videos as a therapist?
If the idea of video marketing is making your palms sweat, you're in a good company. Many therapists experience a sense of unease recording themselves speak into the camera. As an introvert I can also relate to this feeling. When I started recording short videos for marketing my own business, I looked very awkward and uncomfortable. I had to push through the "cringe" but many people would give up and deem video unnecessary for their practice altogether.
That video is unnecessary for marketing your practice could not be farther from the truth. According to recent studies of consumer insights, people prefer video to other types of content. Here are some of the reasons why:
Video allows for a multi-sensory engagement. People like to put a face to the voice or the written word.
Video has a stronger emotional impact on the viewer.
Video allows you to build trust faster.
That's one of the reasons why Psychology Today rolled out its 15-second video capability. With such a saturated space like the PT platform, video allows you to stand out and start building a connection with the people who land on your listing. Writing an optimized Psychology Today profile is important, but adding a 15-second video to it will help you significantly increase your chances of booking new clients.
Additionally, video can be an engaging tool for your website as well. It allows a potential client who may be on the fence about booking an appointment, to connect with you and make their decision process quicker. Anna O'Brien, explains it well in our conversation above.
Why do therapists feel uneasy about video?
Anna did a beautiful job explaining the emotional blocks that therapists may experience when it comes to recording a video. Her research showed that some of the main reasons have to do with:
Past trauma that can get triggered when you get on camera.
Confusion and lack of direction about what to say in the video, even a short 15-second Psychology Today video.
Thinking that you need sophisticated technology to get started.
These are the issues that Anna and her Co-Founder took into account when building the My Practice Video tool. Through intimate understanding of therapists and empathy, they created a tool that guides clinicians in making videos, reducing the anxiety around it.
In addition to developing a step by step process to overcoming shyness and recording the videos, My Practice Video takes care of the technical aspects as well.
Helping you record authentic videos also means presenting you in a good light; taking care of awkward pauses, improving sound, and even correcting eye contact when needed. My Practice Video will even correct your lighting so your face is well illuminated and clear.
How to get started with video recording
If you need guidance and a step-by-step process of recording your first video, My Practice Video generously offered a 20% discount with the code: REDD20 to my readers. You can start here.
But if you'd like to practice on your recording your Psychology Today video first, here are the steps to follow:
Define who you are addressing in your video. Who is your Ideal Client?
Pinpoint what you can help them with exactly.
Create a quick and clear statement about how you're going to help.
Clearly state what action you would like the profile viewer to take next.
Put it together in a a script and test it so you don't go over 15 seconds.
And above all, remember that video is there to make it easier for your future clients to build trust with you. It's connection tool, not a sales pitch.
transcript
00:05
hi I think we are live I am here with h Anna o' Brian um I'm so happy to see you again in person we met we met like what a year and a half ago at the mental health marketing conference so shout out to Steve for introducing us so it's great to see you today I'm glad that we connected yeah wonderful to see you again I still remember that dinner we got yeah that's right um so the reason I wanted to chat with you today is because you came up with a really cool product for therapists and I just wanted
00:45
everybody to know about it so if you don't mind just give us a quick introduction of like what it is you're working on how and and the background a little bit Yeah well thank you so we're working on a or and have built a a tool to support therapists in making a powerful online video that can be used in online directories or your website or social media and um the reason that this like kind of came to be was my own experience as a therapist um learning from the experience of getting consultation calls of how people really
01:24
wanted a sense of my voice and to kind of see me or like get a sense of will I connect with this person um and realizing that video is just so important I mean the research is showing especially for trust-based services like therapy um there is an it increases trust by like 89% compared to written profile alone so we know that it really meets a need and of course we can look at it from marketing but we can also look at it from the lens of like good patient care and how do we reduce the anxiety and give people a sense of like
01:58
kind of what they're getting into um and then from the side of a clinician kind of knowing that this is not fun to do like we may be used to getting on tele health and having conversations and you know aware of our our presence you know in session but something kind of shifts within us when we talk about or think about making a video so I use my training as a therapist to look at like how do we kind of use a little bit of uh exposure and response prevention tools to build up the confidence and help
02:27
therapists be able to really use this tool for um both their marketing and also just like clinical Excellence of of really supporting uh the person who is seeking care and helping them get through that door and over the hump of anxiety and and confusion right um so interesting that you're mentioning marketing um and and trust and you're talking about them separately but trust is such a huge part of actually an effective marketing and I um when I work with clients I always recommend to at least have this 15c
03:05
Psychology today video because it's so important exactly for those reasons um so did you encounter like in your research did you encounter any challenges that you observed with the therapists and creat absolutely yeah so I mean we know it right we keep hearing that like I think Psychology today even says something around like they get you get two times as many views or calls if you have a video so like all the data is there that yes of course this works yet so many therapists aren't doing it right
03:38
so then we have to go back and you know same that we would do as therapist and session like okay like if there's a lot of motivation in a way like you know the outcome would be good and something but you're not doing the behaviors to get there like there is something happening internally for you so let's slow up and look at that and see how we can support you around it um so it's really not about like oh the technology and having the right Tex because most of us have a good enough camera in our phone and
04:04
mostly Now laptops as well um it's more about the actual act of showing up and that what it brings up for us when we get on camera because I mean we all have Trauma from you know I don't think there's a person on this planet who doesn't have Trauma from performing in some way like whether it's in school and G giving a book report and getting teased or someone making fun of your looks as you were you know going through a stage in your life um we all all kind of have that and it getss triggered when
04:32
we get on camera um so you know I was really looking at it from that lens and at first though I kind of like glossed over that and I think part of it was that I had started to have exposure from this I had been put in positions where I had to get on video and it kind of just naturally made me more comfortable so by the time I started building this tool I was like all right let's help therapists create an interactive video for their website or you know a carousel of videos um and I realized uh that like people
05:03
though are were I had had exposure that other people hadn't had at that point and so really the need is like just the 15-second video alone is anxiety provoking so how do we just like meet therapists where they are and care providers where they are and provide support at the very beginning and then later you know if as you get used to it you may want to build on those skills and add video marketing and more but like let's just focus on on the the bare minimum um and get people acquainted with that so how do you make therapists
05:34
as where they are like what's your approach yeah well I mean I think one of it one of the things is like lived experience and empathy and kind of getting it and understanding I mean I started my own practice um about five years ago and I remember so much comes up for us right when we start marketing ourselves and marketing and I know you've experienced this probably in conversations of EV like where people just feel like marketing feels inauthentic or you know this like thing like I didn't get into this business to
06:06
Market um and so I I feel honestly that way as well um but my my uh my opinion has shifted a little bit as I've tried to like build some tools out we also run co-working facilities for therapist in the Philadelphia region and I've just realized like if I want to do good and bring good into the world I have to let people know and so I have control over how I let people know and it doesn't have to feel slimy it can feel very authentic but I have to get out of my head of like what do I see people doing
06:41
and how do I do that and I have to look at like how do I align getting my message out and like bringing people on board with like who I authentically show up as in the room so um we do a lot of work around that and I think a lot of my training as a therapist comes into that of just kind of helping therapists get out of their own head and getting in the mindset of like well what does this person across from you need or across the screen just as you would in a therapy session like so when they come
07:10
and they're in a looking through a sea of online profiles they're often reading words that they don't understand you know approaches that seem um you know very like jargony you know and like just like foreign um it's scary it it feels vulnerable like oh great I'm going to pick a stranger on the internet and then I'm going to share my my feelings and like spill my guts to this person like gosh how will I know if that person will accept me will they judge me right and therapists are very good at understanding like and reading emotions
07:46
when they're in the room and like you know shifting how they show up to provide that that safety net and so sometimes it's really more of a a matter of like slowing down and kind of envisioning your ideal Cent and what they may be going through in that moment of searching the directory and how it may be that you can use body language and your messaging to show up for them so we do a lot of like script writing support and kind of exercises of helping you like understand visuals um lighting is so important like you know you saw me
08:20
a VB like going around the room puttering because like you know I had to turn my camera so that the light from the window didn't show because if it does it's very distracting right your eyes will go to the brightest part of the room even this light I had to turn off and I ended up taking a lamp and then so I have two lamps behind me now right so some of these things are like real easy to do at home but if you haven't thought it through um you can end up with a video that like maybe it just has a lot going on and when you
08:47
only have 15 to 20 seconds on psychology today to make an impression you really want it to be like simple and like let the person focus on you and not something distracting happening in your background um because you know int tell Health that's okay you have an hour they can their eyes can wander the room and they still have time to like take you in and they also aren't quick to make judgments or if they are like they have time to you can have time to reverse that but in 15 seconds you almost want
09:17
like if I was doing a 15-second video I might even make it more simple than this you know where really like they're not kind of looking at the art or whatever and I I I am able to retain their Focus right and you know it's like ology today specifically right we'll we'll just stay on this uh on this topic for a minute Psychology today specifically there's so many therapists on that uh platform that standing out is so important like catching somebody's attention uh that's one like when when I work with clients on rewriting their
09:50
profiles like that first sentence is so important but then adding the video somebody actually connecting to the tber of your voice to the way you present yourself it just it can be so so important so invaluable so it's so good that you are providing those you know scripts and you providing like the the tools for people to record and feel comfortable and also the guidance of how to position themselves in front of the camera but you know that's really really important yeah I mean it is it's I mean
10:21
there's a reason why people are like scared about it and it's not just like our own internal things like we do realize you have a very short opportunity to make a lasting impression um you know I think like it's 100 milliseconds is usually like when people have made most of their you know impression or first understanding of who someone is so like video can go sideways right you do you do want to really you don't want to just create a video and be like I did it you know you really do want to be mindful and be like okay how
10:51
am I showing up and what is my body language and what is this you know what am I saying but more importantly like how am I showing up um so it it's really important to just really focus on like okay this doesn't have to be painful this is easy to do it's just like I do need to set aside time to be thoughtful about it so that my thoughtfulness shows online yeah and you know like before before we met I went um on the website and I looked at the tool and I kind of looked around I played with it a little
11:23
bit and I saw the examples that you have the people who use their tool on their website and it's so cool because you have those um you know you you basically have a video for each page it's like an FAQ in in video form and I thought it was so helpful for somebody to to you know that lands on your website like you know after they saw you on psychology today they lands of on your website and they get to experience what it is to interact with you as a therapist and on the other hand hand for therapists um
12:01
I'm imagining that it will reduce the you know the the amounts of like the the level of turnaround with clients and the amount of the like the wrong fit because it's so important to have the right fit and all of that yeah have you found it in the research too when you were doing that uh when you were looking at that yeah well you know in marketing as well like I believe it's Rapture and expectation is a phrase I think something similar to that at least that like when you are marketing something
12:30
and then it when someone actually experiences the product or whatever it is and it's different than their expectation there is like a rupture kind of in trust or in expectation and that can be really upsetting um you know I think I experienced this as well starting my own practice where I would take on clients that like I wasn't sure like I was like this is not exactly totally my level of comfort but technically I have the training right and nothing good happens from that right often times therapist burn out because
13:00
they feel like overwhelmed or like they're practicing a little outside of their scope um clients take longer to get better we don't have a good feeling of like I'm seeing the impact of like my my my work and you know I'm watching as this person gets better so like there is no shortage of providers and we certainly know this from like friendships people like different people for different reasons right and so some people might think I'm too smiley and they may not like how I show up in the room and that's okay like I'm probably
13:29
not the therap therapist for them I have to remind myself you know when I'm on video and when I'm in session that like being authentically me and with my style is going to attract and repel and that's okay right but like the most important thing is that I'm clear on where I am centered in my practice and who I am and when where I do my best work and and show up in that way um and the other thing is yeah it saves so much time on unnecessary consultation calls right because you don't worry about like
14:00
people calling and then finding out like oh yeah she's way too sweety for me I need you know a harder hitter Hardy harder hitting therapist and I mean I certainly am sure people have felt that way before about me and that's just fine but that's not my personality type so um I'm G to stick stay true to who I am and and Trust the process that like everybody will find their person so that's yeah that the fact that you it's it's humbling that that the realizing that you're not for everyone obviously and I actually wanted to touch
14:34
on because you said about incorporating the Erp principles um into how you created the tools can you can you talk a little bit about that because that's very interesting topic yeah sure well you know I'm am not an Erp therapist disclaimer but I've done some training around it and I find that I use some of these strategies just generally in my practice when I understand that a client has a goal but something is holding them back is um like how do we warm up to that like how do we start to build our
15:05
confidence and comfort in that and certainly all humans and you don't have to have a anxiety disorder to experience this like when you are flooded with anxiety about something right when you have a negative association with it and it's not a um life or death situation right that you have to do it you will find a way to avoid it right like it's like why we we seek pleasure and we avoid discomfort this is just kind of the nature of humans so um how do we help people build confidence and how do we like help them if they have a little
15:39
bit of motivation they recognize they need a video but they don't feel comfortable so what we do is our process really breaks it down step by step so we'll first just start talking about like and normalizing the fears um but then also like looking at like okay but what are the clients experiencing let's shift gears into like not being so focused on our own internal experience and what they're experiencing and then like building that motivation and then looking at like well how do we look at um what you need right now in
16:05
terms of like support around understanding lighting like let's start with some of the more like the less emotional stuff right and just like because everyone can figure out how to place a lamp um right and like let's build your confidence up with that and then maybe like let's just work on your body language while you like say the Pledge of Allegiance or the ABCs or something from rot memory you know just really breaking it down into just the little parts and then we can kind of build those skills but obviously
16:33
like if you don't want to do it you also don't want to take three hours to do it so it's a nice process that um you know most people can finish within their lunch break or you know at most if they're really anxious like just an hour of kind of sitting down and focusing on it yeah that's very helpful that's that's [Music] um yeah I find it I find it very helpful and I was really excited to talk to you because I didn't see this tool for therapists um before um but you know beyond the the marketing
17:11
be beyond the marketing um I don't so benefits of that tool how does this um help cre help therapists in general in their practices and so on go because there's a lot of work that goes into it behind the scenes of creating um the video so the video is a product but maybe this work uh itself helps therapists um as well absolutely it's totally a transferable skill like a lot of the lessons learned so it's not like how I got really good at Candy Crush over the pandemic and then I was never able to use that skill again area of my
17:47
life right um so one of the things I usually leave out sometimes when I'm in in meetings or like signing my name because I don't like the long alphabet suit sometimes it makes me feel a little like like you know too like I'm trying to be too prestigious but I'm a board-certified art therapist as well and so that's where my training comes from and so with that is a lot of awareness about like the impact of visuals and like how visuals um really play into our mood uh so the act of like working on this and being aware of body
18:22
language being aware of your environment being aware of kind of slowing down and what is your message and what are you really trying to get across um that shows up for T Health skills as well right because we don't have them in the room with us right so we rely on a smaller set of or they rely on a smaller set of data um so that's helpful and just generally too like you know um sometimes I'll I'll see therapists that might have like something like they're reporing from their bedroom or they have
18:57
like a personal item out that like I and I'm not making a statement that we're not allowed to show who we are um certainly sometimes that's a really conscious choice and and and an important part of therapy like to to show um certain parts of ourselves and and like encourage you know um clients as well to open up um but I think when it comes to video or when it comes to First Impressions we want to be mindful to not flood them with information that they can only take in over a short period of time um so it's usually just
19:30
good to start with like let's just focus on the most important thing which is you getting a sense of trust and like who I am and understanding how I show up in the room and then you know as it goes like we can and I understand you more you know we can kind of um I can kind of um customize how I self-disclose visually um based on your needs as a as a um a CL yeah yeah I mean you're right there's so much more that goes into this than than just than just showing up on camera um so many details I I gotta say that it
20:13
took me like I've been doing video for for for years and it takes time to get used to it it takes time and when you're doing it without guidance when when you kind of trying to figure it out on your own it takes longer and a lot of people give up I'm assuming uh throughout this process where maybe some people like hear us and and think you you know I don't know if I'm up for it I don't know if I can do it would you what would you tell a therapist that's hesitant to try video what what would you tell them to
20:48
convince them well I would say like you can always redo it right I mean this is the thing it's it's just ex an exercise it's doesn't have to go out on the internet if you don't want but give yourself a fight and chance right like if you're going to sit down give yourself the tools to make a successful video and the knowledge as opposed to like I opened my laptop one time and I just like white knuckled the way through it and I looked awful and I didn't know what I was saying and I'm never doing that again right because of course
21:15
you're just going to reinforce that belief so give yourself a fighting chance and that's what we're here for um we do the editing for you and we also provide script writing support and give you a questionnaire of kind of before that like of what is your practice what are your values how do you what's important to you in this so that we can provide you with script examples and they're customized based on you and your answers um that fit within the time frame because it's tight I think it's 15 to 20 seconds on psychology today um so
21:46
you really have to be succinct and therapists tend to use a lot of like flowery language when we're anxious or like words that you know like they they actually can sometimes come across as a little bit meaningless or like oh gosh it just flows into a sea of other words I've heard associated with you know um therapy so you really do want to be mindful about that so you know we'll do this stuff and then we will also edit so if you have an awkward pause or you are stumbling to find the stop button at the
22:17
end of the video you know that will be taken out we also have the option of like branding right and that can be nice because if you have a website and you want an association with your website it really gives you a very polished and professional um you know presence and and leads people on to like kind of attach you to your brand in your website yeah yeah that's really comforting to know that that that you're kind of holding people up by the hand along the way I mean I know I when I started I would have loved to have somebody to
22:51
like really be there for me so you know and and it's probably not only you know this conversation is helpful not only for therapists I think that there's plenty of people out there who haven't tried video find it very insightful uh and interesting but but um you know if if people want to find you if people want to connect with you and and find more about you too because I really think that it's a very helpful tool um for many reasons but marketing especially so how how can they find you uh how can they connect with you yeah so
23:26
feel free to follow me on LinkedIn I'll be posting stuff um my I'm Anna O'Brien um I my practice video is this tool and it's um a a my practi video.com and um we are giving a 20% discount to people uh who want to give this a shot um and also like even if you're not quite sure and ready you can sign up for our free kind of lunch break master class that really fits into about you know your lunch break and just learning some Basics um but you know our goal is to provide like the maximum amount of value
24:02
for you um and and help you get comfortable with that skill because video is not going anywhere and in fact like we're just seeing especially with the rise of AI and writing um this is your way to stand out and be authentic and I'm just not I mean I know that there is going to be AI videos soon but when it comes to therapy and trust-based services like I don't think that's going to replace video I don't think that's going to replace your authenticity um so like is a skill that is going to be needed as we go forward
24:32
and and we're we're honored to kind of hopefully play a role in people's journey of of uh dusting off uh their camera lens and and not feeling so anxious about it right humanity is our competitive advantage and video is definitely very helpful with that I'm yeah this it's it's actually very it's it's a great way for me to look at it as well because I'm I'm thinking about AI a lot so I'm so glad that we had this conversation it was really um it was really interesting and I'm I'm so glad that I learned more about the tool um
25:11
that you built the product that you built and um therapists need more products build by therapists so absolutely that's the thing I think when you said this is the first thing you know time you've heard of it like I am not aware of a tool that's doing this right now like most of it is um Tech tools right that's like oh look at this filter that makes you look like you have 15inch long eyelashes or whatever you know that's not really the business we're in right like people are not coming to like look to to meet with a
25:42
Instagram model and if they are then they have the wrong idea about what th the mission of therapy is right so um let's just be authentic and use uh the the tool for the power of of connection and Humanity yeah so so so I think that people should follow you definitely and um connect with you I'm going to tag you um as well and I'm definitely gonna g to share this um with my subscribers over on therapy business brief um and share uh the links to your website and the the you know the discount that you mentioned
26:20
and everything so um it was great connecting with you and I think that uh yeah I think we talked about everything that wanted thank you you're wonderful host and thanks for the opportunity for sharing oh my pleasure I
