How to write an amazing “OT Potential Bio” (Lessons from a Psychology Today Profile Writer)
One of the cool new tools in the OT community in 2023 is the OT Potential Directory.
It allows occupational therapy practitioners to post a profile online to find clients and find other OTPs online.
In my opinion, this platform is a game-changer in terms of getting occupational therapy practitioners found and connected.
The challenge lies in coming up with the words that describe who you are in that big ‘ol blank text box where the words of your profile go. Bios and profiles are one of the hardest things to write — especially when it comes to writing your own profile or bio.
💭What do you write about?
💭What tense are you supposed to use?
💭What do you need to write to make a profile worth it (aka. Get clients, connections, or job applicants?
Good questions! I wondered the same things!
I’m not about to reinvent the wheel so I looked for a comparable service to get some answers.
This led me to discover a very similar platform that’s widely used by mental health professionals —the Psychology Today Directory.
Let’s learn what works over there! So I hunted down an expert to get some answers.
Meet Ashley Darnell, LCSW!
She’s a licensed clinical social worker who writes copy for mental health professionals. We met inside Write Your Way To Freedom (affiliate link). She helps her clients to create a warm and inviting online presence for thriving private practices. And she’s a whiz at converting professional resumes into Psychology Today Profiles that get clients booking appointments.
Instead of reinventing the wheel when it comes to writing bios for professionals, we’re just going to sneak some answers out of her.
(and by sneak, I mean that I gave her money💸 for her expertise).
We’ll get to Ashley’s tips in a minute.
But before we do…
Did you know that Psychology Today Profiles costs $30/month? That’s not including the fee that Ashley gets paid to write these marketing assets.
Here’s why mental health professionals invest in these profiles:
- They want visibility on Google
- They want to be found for specialty services by referring practice owners.
- One client per month more than covers the ROI on a profile
- It’s not enough to be found, profiles need to be written to connect with the reader.
Summed up, directories like Psychology Today and OT Potential Directory can get people to you. Then it’s up to you to nail the words of that bio to hook people in and tell them how to work with you.
Here’s why most profiles don’t work
They’re boring, not memorable, and don’t highlight the ideas that matter to your future client.
So before you begin, get ready to shake off these writing mistakes
- Remember that your profile is about your client or reader, it’s not about you.
- Don’t write your profile before you know who you want your profile to speak to.
- Keep in conversational so it’s interesting and easy to read.
- For a personal approach consider writing your profile in 1st person rather than 3rd person.
🟢1st person: I am an OT turned copywriter.
❌3rd person: Jenny is an OT turned copywriter.
Coming soon: Interview Part 2 where Ashley goes into how to correct these mistakes. Turns out mental health professionals and occupational therapy practitioners have similar writing challenges when it comes to writing bios and copy.
The Anatomy of a Psychology Today OT Potential Profile
Alright, the moment you’ve been waiting for. Turning it over to Ashley so we can learn her winning formula for writing profile bios.
Let’s hear from her now🎤 …
Step 1: The Hook (Aka. name the problem)
The first two lines are your hook. Think about the presenting problem that your ideal clients are facing. Why are people coming to you? What is the way they would describe their problem?
Let’s say I’m writing for a client who is an anxiety therapist. I like to start the profile with questions to the reader or a specific situation.
For example:
Are restless thoughts keeping you awake? Is your mind racing all night? Are you struggling to concentrate because of the constant flow of thoughts in your brain?
Another option is to start with some sort of descriptive scenario that your client might be going through, and the reason why they’re seeking therapy.
Keep in mind, in order to have a hook that speaks so your reader, you will have to know who your ideal reader is!
For most profiles, this means knowing who you want to work with. So once you’ve figured out who that ideal client is, you want to write straight to them. For the mental health professionals I work with, I encourage them to narrow down the number of specialties they cover in their profiles. This makes it easier to speak more directly to that ideal client.
Step 2: Solve The Problem
So after using the first paragraph to really hit on the presenting problem, the pain points, the issue that they’re coming to therapy for.
The second part is going to describe how working with you is going to solve that problem.
So in a descriptive way, we go back to sleepless nights. Talk say something like… “Can you imagine what a good night of sleep would be?
Start to talk about how working with you would help them. Get the reader to envision what their future could be like. Ultimately, you’re going to start to provide that solution, and how therapy would help them.
Example of what I might write…
“Through individual therapy with me, you will learn how to cope with the day-to-day, stressors in life.”
Here’s another example where I go back to using those descriptive words.
“Through collaborative therapy, you will figure out how to identify your main sources of stress. And then you will learn how to effectively manage them and to improve your have a day to day life where you’re free of racing thoughts and sleep more at night.”
To sum up the goal of this section, it’s to paint a picture of what a possible or ideal outcome will look like
Part 3: Spotlight on You
This brings us to the 3rd section, now it’s the time to bring yourself and your specialties into focus.
Here you’re free to focus on yourself in a way that’s still tailored to your client.
Now before you get too excited, you still do not list out all of your trainings and all of your certifications and all your licensure numbers and things like that.
Instead, go in with a soft approach that still highlights your education and expertise.
Here’s an example:
“As an experienced anxiety therapist, I’ve worked with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. I work with X, Y, and Z
Another option:
“I tailor my therapy to {insert specific name] population.”
For those who want to showcase experience and length of time in the field, I might use a sentence like:
“I have 10 plus years of experience.”
And if you have a specific and special type of approach, this is the place to feature that. For many of my clients who work with couples, there’s a specific training called Gottman. So for them, I might say something like
“As a certified Gottman coach or AS certified Gottman therapist, it is my passion to help couples transform their relationship.
So you’re still talking about yourself and your training and at the same time, you are translating that training into a benefit or outcome for the clients.
Part 4: Call to Action
And here the important part. The last piece of your profile needs to be a call to action.
So in the profiles that I write for Psychology Today, the system does put in a spot for a call to action. A lot of people will put their website in that spot. For many of my clients, I’ve encouraged putting an email or phone number for the call to action. That seems to get more direct action and bookings.
In the end, don’t overcomplicate this. Pick something and make it simple.
Some examples:
Call me today for a free consult
Call to discuss and see if we’ll be a good fit together.
Email me at {insert email} to learn more.
Putting it All Together for Your OT Directory Profile!
Alright, Jenny, here again, 🎤taking the blog microphone back. Thank you to Ashley for sharing all that juicy goodness.
Before you dig into writing your OT Potential Bio, I wanted to make sure that I highlighted a major difference between these two platforms. The Psychology Today Platform is more rigid with formatting and the number of characters. Each profile has 3 distinct sections with specific character limits. We’re lucky because the OT Potential Directory offers a lovely blank slate.
This means:
- Formatting options like bold and italics
- Opportunity to add links to your profile. (Use them and get some great SEO)
- A lot of flexibility on what you want to include and how you want to use your profile.
If you’re like me, you likely want to see some examples.
Psychology Today Profile Examples (from Ashley)
Plus, here’s a link to my OT profile. I gave it a makeover based on the tips Ashley shared!
If you need help writing your bio or OT Potential Profile, reach out to me today!
