For counsellors, therapists and other helping professionals in UK private practice

You may not need another website. You may need a professional identity that feels like you.

I help counsellors and therapists bring their professional identity together: how the practice is described, how it looks and how it sounds, the same wherever someone finds you. Your profile, your card, your posts and your paperwork look like one practice, and like you. A website, if you want one, is built from it.

Tell me about your practice See three identities

£695 for your Professional Practice Identity. A website built from it can be quoted.

£350 to begin. £345 once you approve the direction in your Practice Identity Guide, before your applications are made and your files are handed over. What it covers.

Three identities

The same process. Three practices that could not be mistaken for each other.

A professional identity is what your practice looks and sounds like wherever it appears. These three were made for fictional practices, with the process a client goes through, and each was then taken all the way to a website.

See the work

01Sofia Marin · integrative therapy

The Sofia Marin identity: her wordmark held between two corner brackets, on parchment, beside a portrait of a fictional practitioner by a window.

Portrait-led. A frame that is never closed, in aubergine and plum.

02Maya Bennett · relational counselling

The Maya Bennett identity: her mark in its two states, a circle and a rounded square apart and then overlapping in apricot, on plum, with her wordmark.

Mark-led. Two forms, apart and then met, on plum.

03Daniel Mercer · counselling for adults

The Daniel Mercer identity: his business card, front and back, set in a plain grotesque with a blue rule under the name and a monospaced fee table.

Type-led. A name and a rule, and plain words set as facts.

All three are fictional practices designed by Alexander Watson Studio as portfolio concepts, not commissioned client work: Studio Practice — fictional brief

The short version

You’re good at your work. You shouldn’t have to become good at presenting it as well.

Most of the practitioners I work with built a practice through referrals, directories and word of mouth. The practice is clear to them; it is the profile, the card, the posts and the website that never quite caught up, and never quite agreed with each other. You tell me about the practice. I work out what it needs to say, design an identity that fits it, and make the things you actually use. You approve the direction before anything is designed.

You leave with an identity you own: one Practice Identity Guide with the practice written down, your wordmark, colours, type and photography direction, and two applications chosen for how your practice is found, as files anybody can work from. It should be accurate rather than persuasive: someone should be able to tell quickly whether you are the right person for them.

FirstThe practice, written down

Two pages from a practice identity document. One sets out the practice described at four different lengths; the other sets out the habits of its writing voice.

What the practice is, who it is for, and the words that fit it.

ThenVisual identity

Two further pages. One shows four configurations of the same wordmark; the other shows five colours as swatches, each with its hex value and the one job it does.

A logo or wordmark, a colour system, typography and photography direction.

Then, if you want itThe website

The finished Sofia Marin website, using the same wordmark, colours and typefaces as the identity pages beside it.

The identity applied to the website, for practices that want one.

Sofia Marin is a fictional practice designed and built by Alexander Watson Studio as portfolio work. Her identity was taken further than a standard project’s scope, which is set out in full on the cost page.

Alexander Watson, seated in a consulting room

Who makes it

Fifteen years in marketing and online business. Now training as a counsellor.

More than fifteen years across marketing, e-commerce and personal branding: building my own businesses, growing social channels for businesses in different markets, and working with individuals on how they present themselves publicly. I know from the inside what it takes to be visible in public without performing or selling.

I am now training as a counsellor, with supervised client work on placement, which gives me a working understanding of the helping professions I design for, and of why presenting yourself is harder in this work than in most: the ethics, the professional-body rules, and the instinct not to sell. One person, not an agency: the person who works through your practice with you is the person who makes the identity.

Prices
Published in full, before you speak to me.
Process
Written first. Calls when they help.
Scope
Agreed in writing. If something falls outside it, I say so before doing it.
Where
Stockport, Greater Manchester, working with practitioners across the UK. If you are nearby.

More about me

How it works

Six steps. The fourth is the one that matters most.

You approve the direction in your Practice Identity Guide before anything is made. After that, the design decisions are mine, and they follow from what you approved, not from my idea of a good therapist website.

  1. 01

    Enquire

    Tell me a little about your practice and what you need. I reply personally with my recommendation.

  2. 02

    Reserve the project

    The scope and price are confirmed in writing, and a deposit of £350 reserves your place.

  3. 03

    Complete the discovery

    One form, in rough notes or voice notes if you prefer.

  4. 04 · Your decision

    Approve the direction

    The direction issue of your Practice Identity Guide: your words, your facts and your visual identity. One consolidated round of feedback, and corrections never count.

  5. 05

    The making

    Your wordmark and files, and the two applications you chose, built from the direction you approved.

  6. 06 · Your decision

    Handover

    The final issue of your Practice Identity Guide and one folder with everything in it. You check it is complete; anything within scope that is missing or wrong is put right.

What it costs

One fixed price for your identity.

Published in full, before you speak to me. Nothing is quoted on a call, and nothing renews.

Professional Practice Identity£695

£350 to begin. £345 once you approve the direction in your Practice Identity Guide, before your applications are made and your files are handed over.

  • Your practice, written down: who it is for, how it works, how it should sound and the words that describe it. You check it and approve it before anything is made
  • Your visual identity: your wordmark, colours, typography and photography direction, developed for this practice from what you told me; a symbol only where your practice needs one
  • Two applications, chosen for how your practice is actually found: a directory profile image, a business card, a Word letterhead, an email signature, an Instagram profile image or an editable post template
  • One Practice Identity Guide holding all of it, so a printer, a developer or another designer can carry it on without you having to explain it
See everything included

A website, if you want one

A website can also be developed from your identity, so it looks like you from the first screen. It is scoped and quoted in writing for your practice. How that works.

Need something smaller? Directory profile refinement, website fixes and other focused help.

When you are ready

Tell me about your practice.

You don’t need a brief, a moodboard or a finished plan. A few lines about who you work with and where you’re up to is enough, and so is “I want my practice to look professional and I don’t know how to bring it all together.” I’ll reply with what I recommend and the next step.

Tell me about your practice See the work