How To Find Good Photos For Your Private Practice Website
A great way to increase the client-attracting ability of your private practice website is through photography. However, the photos you use can either elevate your design or they can cheapen it. Even the best-designed website can be undermined by bad photos.
Before I walk you through the process of finding website photos that align with and amplify your work, let’s think about your potential client’s experience for a second. They’re likely in a very vulnerable place, emotionally, and most of all, they want to find a therapist that can hold their unique pain. They want to feel seen.
Regardless of the type of therapist they’re looking for, it’s safe to say they don’t want to feel like there’s something wrong with them. Yet, so many therapy websites they come across look like doctor websites - they feel sterile. Clinical. Impersonal.
Is your practice sterile, clinical, and impersonal? If so, feel free to ignore my advice! But if you’re like most therapists I talk to, you try to cultivate an atmosphere that’s the opposite of that.
You need to make sure your website communicates the atmosphere that you cultivate - the space you hold - so that your website visitors feel seen and heard, and more people can get the support and healing they need.
Identify your brand style
In order to find photos for your website that align with you and your work, you have to start by identifying your brand style. Your brand is your underlying mission, values, and the way you hold space, communicated through visual and written language.
If you haven’t established your private practice’s brand yet, start with this simple question: how do your clients feel as a result of working with you?
If you have an office that you decorated, you’ve already done some of this important “brand style” work. Think about the items you chose for your office - the furniture, the pictures, the diffuser scents, everything - and ask yourself, “How do these things make people feel?” “What kind of environment do these things create?”
Then, put some language around the style of your office; the space as well as the items you chose to decorate it.
Is it open, airy, and bright?
Is it warm, cozy, and nurturing?
Is it colorful, inspiring, and inviting?
Whatever combination of words most accurately describes your office is your brand style. When it comes to finding imagery for your website, choose photos that embody this same style.
“Your brand is your underlying mission, values, and the way you hold space, communicated through visual and written language.”
Finding good photos for your private practice website
Option 1: Hire a photographer (recommended)
Once you know the atmosphere you want to create, hire a photographer who’s style captures that atmosphere. For instance, if your brand style is open, airy, and bright, you’ll want to find a photographer who’s portfolio of work is open, airy, and bright.
Don’t ask a photographer to change their style for your pictures. Find a photographer who naturally matches the style you’re going for. This is why it’s essential to identify your brand style before finding a photographer.
When it comes time to book a photoshoot, make sure your photographer knows you’re looking for images to use on your website. In addition to headshots, consider getting photos taken of the following:
Your office
If you want more people on your couch, you have to show them what your couch looks like!
You doing things
You’re human. Chances are, you want potential clients to know that, right? Get some shots of doing something besides smiling directly at the camera. Think: typing on your laptop, writing in your journal, drinking coffee/tea, making art, etc. Whatever activities communicate your brand, get photos of you doing those things!
Inanimate objects
Your brand is more than just you! Think about items that communicate the way you hold space (plants, crystals, art materials, etc.) and get lots of photos of them.
Other people
If you can recruit a couple of friends to stage a therapy session with you, do it! If website visitors see what it’s actually like sitting across from you, they’ll be more likely to pick up the phone or fill out that contact form.
The variety of photos that you’ll get from this type of photoshoot will be more than enough to design a website that connects and communicates your unique style, not to mention you’ll have plenty of photos to use on social media!
If you do plan on hiring a photographer to get shots of any or all of the above, make sure to discuss it with them first. Make sure they’re aware that you’re looking for website photos and give them as much detail as possible regarding the types of photos you’re looking for.
Looking for a photographer? Here are some brand photographers that my clients or I have used and loved:
Amanda Yassay - Kalamazoo, Michigan (Amanda took all of the beautiful brand photos you see on my website!)
Abbey Moore - Grand Rapids, Michigan
Tina Rae - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Amanda Shaffer - Lansing, Michigan
Shelby Dubin - Detroit, Michigan
Natalie Moser - Los Angeles, California
Sarah Schmidt - Virgina, DC, & Maryland
Lucia Doynel - Los Angeles, California
Amber Ellis - Ontario, Canada
Zahrah - Melbourne & Sydney, Australia
Option 2: Use stock photography
I hesitate to recommend using free stock photography for your website because legal nightmares exist, but sometimes it can feel like the only option. I’d say if you’re going to use free stock photography, make sure you read the licensing agreement thoroughly.
Also, never use photos that you find on Google unless you have written consent to use them.
All of that being said, mainstream stock photography usually looks like, well, mainstream stock photography. It can look cheesy and generic if you don’t put some time and intention into the search.
A couple of my favorite free stock photography websites are pexels.com and unsplash.com; their libraries of photos are, overall, much more artful and emotive than most stock photo directories. Whether I’m working on a client project or searching for an image for my Instagram, I’ve spent lots of time digging through Unsplash and Pexels and have found some great photos.
Stock Photography Subscriptions
A better way to ensure that you’re in the clear, legally speaking, is to pay for your stock photos. Here are a few subscription-based directories to check out:
CreateHerStock.com - A much-needed answer to the lack of diversity in stock photography, CreateHER Stock features a curated collection of photos of people of color.
StyledStockSociety.com - A stock photo subscription service for female entrepreneurs.
WellnessStockShop.com - Health/wellness based photographs.
As with free stock photography, make sure to read licensing agreements thoroughly, and make sure you understand before using the images.
Bottom line: don’t let your website photos cheapen or undermine the powerful work that you do. Whether you hire a photographer to take custom photos or use stock photography, get intentional with your photo choices and visually communicate the way you hold space so that website visitors can instantly feel seen and heard.
Have more website photo questions? Know of any great photography resources for therapists that I didn’t mention here? Leave a comment and let me know!
