What a therapist or counsellor's website needs

A website for therapists and counsellors in the UK needs to make the first step feel easy and safe: say clearly who you work with and how, show the register you belong to so people can check it, make booking simple, and handle what people send you with care. Just as important is what it leaves out, which is any promise about results, because the advertising rules apply to your own website and are strict about health claims.

Someone reading your site may have taken a long time to get this far. Everything below is about making the next step a small one.

Say who you work with and how

Describe how you work in plain words: the kind of therapy, how long a session is, what it costs, whether you see people in a room, online or both, and what happens in a first session. Put your fees where people can find them without asking.

Write about what you do, not what it will do for them. A calm description of your approach and your training does more to build trust than any promise could, and it keeps you on the right side of the rules below.

Show your register, and let people check it

The Professional Standards Authority says counsellors and hypnotherapists, among others, are not legally required to be on a register, and runs an Accredited Registers programme to make sure the voluntary registers meet its standards (Professional Standards Authority, checked October 2026). Practitioners on an accredited register can use its Quality Mark, and the Authority says they should show it when they advertise.

BACP, UKCP and NCPS all say their registers are accredited by the Authority, and each has a public search: BACP, UKCP and NCPS (checked October 2026). Link to the register, or to your own entry where the register gives you one, so someone can check your membership.

Some titles are protected by law. The HCPC lists titles such as counselling psychologist, clinical psychologist and art psychotherapist, and only people on its register can use them (HCPC, checked October 2026). It also says counsellor, psychotherapist and therapist are not protected titles (HCPC, checked October 2026). Use only the titles you are entitled to, and keep your memberships accurate and current, which the advertising regulator’s guidance also asks for (ASA, checked October 2026).

Make the first contact easy

Give people more than one way in. A booking link, if you use an online booking tool, lets someone book a first session at midnight without having to speak to anyone. A short contact form, a phone number and an email address cover everyone else. Say how quickly you reply, and keep to it.

Privacy: ask for less

Information about someone’s health, including their mental health, is special category data under UK data protection law, which the ICO says needs extra protection (ICO, checked October 2026). A message through your contact form can easily contain it.

So keep the form short: a name, a way to reply, and a box for anything they want to say. Do not ask people to describe what they are struggling with before they have spoken to you. Say in your privacy notice where messages go and who can see them. The ICO has a privacy notice generator for sole traders and small businesses, with a version for health and social care (ICO, checked October 2026).

The ICO’s page for health and care also says that if you provide a counselling service and hold personal information electronically, you need to pay its data protection fee. That page is marked as under review, so use the ICO’s fee self assessment to check your own position (both checked October 2026).

Keep client notes out of your website and your email altogether. They belong in software made for keeping them.

What the advertising rules say about claims

The UK advertising code covers what a sole trader says on their own website when it is about selling their services (ASA, checked October 2026). The ASA’s guidance adds that having a web developer look after the site makes no difference to that (ASA, checked October 2026).

Section 12 of the code covers health claims (CAP Code, section 12, checked October 2026). In plain words:

• Rule 12.1 says objective claims must be backed by evidence, which for health can mean trials on people.
• Rule 12.2 says you must not discourage essential treatment for conditions that need medical supervision, or offer specific advice, diagnosis or treatment for them unless a suitably qualified health professional is supervising.

The ASA’s guidance on therapies says a claim that a therapy can diagnose, treat, help with or cure a medical condition is unlikely to be acceptable unless the advertiser is suitably qualified and holds robust evidence (ASA, checked October 2026). It also lists conditions serious enough that a claim to treat them can only be made if the treatment is supervised by a suitably qualified medical professional (ASA, checked October 2026). And it says testimonials on their own do not count as evidence for a claim (ASA, checked October 2026).

The ASA has advice pages for particular therapies, such as hypnotherapy (ASA, checked October 2026). If you are unsure about a sentence, its Copy Advice team will look at your wording before you publish, free for a standard reply, with a paid option if you need it faster (ASA, checked October 2026). The simplest way to stay clear of all this is the one above: describe what you do and how you work, and leave results out.

How it works on Stephen’s site

Stephen runs a hypnotherapy and careers advice practice in Stockport. His site has an editor behind a login, so he changes his fees, reviews, free guides and contact details himself. His case study has the rest of the story.

What it costs with me

Business, at £1,500 for four to eight pages, includes booking links and the editor. Starter, at £500 for up to three pages, suits someone just starting out who is happy to send me changes. Both include a contact form that lands in your inbox and a privacy notice written from what your site actually does. Websites for therapists and counsellors sets out how each package covers a practice, and the prices page has everything side by side.