Binge watching Emily in Paris is not something I would willingly admit, except to highlight the topic of today's email:

Business is personal.

In the last episode, Emily the protagonist in the show, is being offered a job by someone who's supposed to dislike her, with the words "it's not personal, it's business" all the while the audience (wink, wink) knows it's not true.

Business being personal is especially true for private practitioners in the mental health industry. Working with clients is a very personal experience, even though you're providing an objective opinion.

Your business is personal in which trust is its highest currency.

Therapists like Amber Dee, who understand the importance of the "personal" aspect in her business, has created a new platform specifically for Black Female Therapists to reach the demographic that has been historically underserved. Here's what the writer Ashayla Blakely says about her journey looking for a provider:

As a client myself, I found that sharing my experiences was easier with someone who came from my background as well.

Opportunity to Help

That said, I don't think that a shared background is the only criteria for evoking trust in a client. What's truly underneath all this is the feeling that your experiences will be understood and accepted.

While it's easier to speak about a collective experience like Covid, there're other unifying crises and challenges that we can look at as well. The impacts of climate change on different communities in the US are creating a new mental health crisis. Disaster event like wildfires in California and Colorado can create long lasting PTSD symptoms, depression and substance abuse. Connecting to people through these experiences can be more effective as well.

But even though anxiety and depression don't discriminate and can affect people from different backgrounds, everyone's experiences, thoughts and feelings are different. For example, highschoolers and construction workers are not having the same thoughts while depressed and shouldn't be talked to in the same language.

The Takeaway

Creating a marketing message and talking to people's specific experiences can help you evoke trust long before they become your clients.

This Week's Good News

The government is addressing the national mental health crisis. A bi-partisan effort is underway to roll out a new mental health package by this summer. The details are still unclear, but here is what we know at this point.

Florida is on its way to become one of the PSYPACT states. It will make it easier for the practitioners to keep seeing clients who move out of state.

Michigan sports its first Mental Health Gym. And it's helping people for whom therapy remains inaccessible.

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That's it for this week's brief.

Keep growing,

Avivit