Rachel Lynch: a fun therapy 'lab'

A mock up of Rachel Lynch's website on a Mac desktop computer. There's several desk decorations near it including a tea pot, lamp, and pencil cup. Her site is colorful and vibrant — Rachel's home page

The pandemic has highlighted a tremendous and ongoing need for trained mental health professionals. We're recoiling from the collective trauma of unprecedented loss, fear, and uncertainty - adding new struggles to an already difficult existence in a society that by and large doesn't value deep emotional growth. Our individual and collective growth often requires the constant unpacking of trauma and socialized behaviors and the development of healthy coping mechanisms.

It can feel daunting and overwhelming to dive into it all. We don't know what to look for nor how to mend what we discover, but fortunately we don't have to do it all on our own.

Rachel Lynch is a therapist in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. She believes that some of this work can be done with grace and playfulness. She works with clients to 'lab' their struggles. It feels more like a collaborative process of experimentation, pulling apart different parts of yourself to see how they tick - like taking apart a watch to understand its parts - so you can reassemble them in more harmonious ways.

But in a field so focused on the heavy, difficult weight of self discovery, it can be hard to brand in a playful way.

Our Goals

We spent several meeting talking about tone, major beats, and how to earnestly convey how she approaches her work. We focused on several key goals:

Accurately conveying her approach and its benefits
Making sure clients could understand her and her fit even before they reach out for a consult
Decreasing moments of confusion and work for clients

Therapist Rachel Lynch, a young, thin, white, blonde person based out of Western MA. She's sitting on a bench with a colorful mural behind her. She's smiling and looking straight at the camera.

Accurately convey her approach

While cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become growingly common to name, other therapy sectors aren't. Rachel's background is in expressive art therapies. We created a page that speaks to her specialties (both in the populations she serves and how she serves them).

We kept the language accessible, leaning away from stuffy clinical language that first time therapy go-ers may not understand, and sprinkled in key words that search engines could cling too.

"I just had my first intake of someone who booked a consultation through my website and it was great because it really felt like they were calling for ME not just because I was one name in a sea of therapists they were reaching out to." - Rachel

A computer mock up of Rachel's website. A young black teen youth is looking at the website to see what she offers — A preview of her specialties as listed on her home page

Making sure clients could understand her and her fit even before they reach out for a consult

Perhaps you saw my other blog post, but we took bright, fun headshots that looked approachable and professional even if they weren't in the traditional, stiff suit way. With playful (and high contrast, ADA compliant) brand colors, small interjections of a playful header font, and very deliberately crafted language, we were able to give that feeling of approachability and warmth, while still conveying that she is skilled and trustworthy when it comes time to dive into the scarier parts of your mind.

"I've been getting so many clients reaching out since I changed my Psychology Today photo. I'm not even gonna be able to take on new clients by the time the website is up!"

(fortunately, the site has still gotten to shine and has added to her incredible client list)

Decreasing moments of confusion and work for clients

Finding a therapist is HARD. We did several things to make the process less difficult for clients.

At the top of the web page is a banner that announces whether or not she is taking on new clients.
We made the site skim friendly, using big, clear titles, short descriptions, and generous negative space.
The homepage works as a gateway to other sections of the site, allowing users to quickly preview other sections before clicking straight through to their desired long form page
Booking is fully integrated and easy to find
FAQs are clear outlining payments, therapy style, and more, really honing in on their biggest questions
A Process page outlines what the steps of booking look like. Many first time clients don't know what their first session will look like, so there's a lot of apprehension. We worked to outline it, road mapping steps so there's no surprises. They have enough on their plate, this doesn't need to be one more thing.

Huge shout out to April Crowley of Editing without Ego who did a lot of heavy lifting in massaging the text so that it was smooth, easy to follow, and impactful.

"I think I was getting fixated on wording of stuff and not seeing the big picture but now that it's up and I'm seeing it as a complete website I'm so in love with it. The more I look at my website the more in love with it I become."