For therapists and counsellors in UK private practice

A complete identity and website for your therapy practice.

I work out what your practice needs to say, design an identity that fits it, and build a website that explains your work clearly and makes it easier for the right people to get in touch. You make the decisions that matter. I handle everything else.

Enquire about a founding place See the work

£495 for the first three practices, then £995. The first year of Practice Care is included either way.

£100 to reserve your place. £395 once you approve your Practice Fundamentals, before the website is built. Why the first three cost less.

More than a website

Your website is the final expression of your practice, not the starting point.

I work out with you what your practice needs to communicate, design its visual identity, and carry it consistently through every part of the website.

You leave with an identity you own: your logo or wordmark, your colours, your typography and the creative direction behind them, written down and handed over as files. Your website, your directory profiles and whatever you make next can all look like the same practice. It is a foundation that can develop as your practice does.

FirstPractice Fundamentals

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.

ThenThe website

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

The identity applied, consistently, to the thing people actually read.

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

The short version

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

You tell me about the practice: who you work with, how you work, what matters to you. I turn that into a clear direction, design the identity, write the words from what you’ve told me and build the site. You approve the direction before anything is built. After that, the work is my responsibility.

A therapist’s website should be accurate, not persuasive. Someone should be able to tell quickly whether you are the right person for them. That is what I build for.

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 profession I design for. One person, not an agency: the person who works through your practice with you is the person who builds the website.

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 therapists across the UK. If you are nearby.

More about me

The collection

Three practices. Three different answers. One method.

Three fictional practices, each worked through with the Practice Clarity method and then given a complete website. They are not designs to choose from. They look nothing alike because the practices behind them are different.

See the work

Where a design comes from

What understanding a practice actually changes.

For a client, the website is the second thing that happens. Here is that order traced through one of the three: a single observation about the people who write to Maya Bennett, and what it went on to settle.

  1. What was understood

    People arrive mid-thought. Most are not in crisis, most have never done this before, and they open by apologising: for not having a proper reason, for taking a place somebody else might need more.

  2. What that decided

    Then the site cannot ask for a prepared account before it will accept contact. Whatever version somebody has now has to be enough to begin with.

  3. What the site says

    “Most people start in the middle of a sentence.”

    The largest type on the first screen. The reader’s state, not a service and not a promise.
  4. What the site does

    The enquiry asks for a name, an email address and a format, with “not sure yet” already selected. The message is optional, and beside it one line: “I’d like to talk to someone” is a complete enquiry. Everything practical (the fee, the availability, the cancellation charge, the two reduced-fee places) is published on the page, so nobody has to make contact in order to ask.

One thing understood about who is reading, and it has settled the headline, the practical section and the enquiry form. None of that is a visual preference. Sofia Marin and Daniel Mercer settle the same three things from different observations about different readers, which is why the three sites read nothing alike.

Every line above is either quoted from the published Maya Bennett document or checkable on the site it describes. Maya Bennett is a fictional practice designed and built by the studio; its document was written after the concept site, in the form a client’s is written before one.

How it works

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

You approve the direction in your Practice Fundamentals before anything is built. 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 about your practice and answer five short questions. I reply personally with my recommendation and the next step.

  2. 02

    Reserve the project

    The scope and price are confirmed in writing, and a £100 deposit reserves your place.

  3. 03

    Complete the intake

    One form, in rough notes or voice notes if you prefer. The practical facts are asked for exactly; nothing is guessed.

  4. 04 · Your decision

    Approve the direction

    Your Practice Fundamentals: your words, your facts, your logo, colours and typography, and a preview of the website’s opening screen.

  5. 05

    Website build

    One complete, carefully designed page, built from the direction you approved.

  6. 06 · Your decision

    Review and launch

    One set of feedback, then corrections, your domain and launch. The first year of Practice Care is included.

Why three, and not one house style

Two of the three, side by side.

Maya Bennett and Daniel Mercer are both one integrative counsellor, working with adults, at the same fee for the same fifty minutes. Both are about the moment before somebody makes contact. Nothing on the two pages agrees about anything, because the practices behind them do not, and the design follows from that.

Concept 02Maya Bennett

The Maya Bennett homepage: a large serif headline reading Most people start in the middle of a sentence, a short introduction and one dark button beneath it, and a row giving who she works with, the fee and the location. To the right, a quoted worry (I'm not sure this counts) with the answer set directly under it.

Concept 03Daniel Mercer

The Daniel Mercer homepage: a very large black grotesque headline on an off-white page reading You don't have to be good at talking to start therapy, a short introduction and one blue button beneath it, and a row giving the fee, location, hours and first step.
  1. PaletteMaya is warm paper and plum, with apricot kept for one thing only: the moment something is met. Daniel is black on off-white with one electric blue that appears only on things you can press. One accent each, doing opposite jobs.
  2. TypographyMaya uses a soft serif for what a visitor brings and a plain grotesque for what is said back, set at the same size as the sentence it answers. Daniel has no serif anywhere: a very large grotesque headline that behaves like a statement in a room, and facts set as facts.
  3. StructureMaya demonstrates rather than asserts: a sentence people say, and the reply to it, already on the first screen. Daniel answers a fear with a fact in every section and puts the first step within reach of each.
  4. WordsDaniel removes an entry requirement: you do not have to be good at talking. Maya argues the requirement was pointing the wrong way: the unprepared account is the more useful place to start. Neither promises an outcome.

Both are fictional practices designed and built by Alexander Watson Studio as portfolio work. Neither is a commissioned client project, and no counselling service is offered by either.

What it costs

One fixed price for the whole job.

The positioning, the identity and the website, delivered as one piece of work. I decide how much of each your practice needs.

Practice Identity & Website£495

£100 to reserve your place. £395 once you approve your Practice Fundamentals, before the website is built.

The first three practices. The first three are £495 rather than £995, for the same work and the same scope. The method, the process and the three concept websites are built. What I want from these three projects is the experience of running the complete process with real therapists, and the price reflects that. Most of it falls due once you have seen and approved your Practice Fundamentals, rather than at the start. The founding three are taking on more uncertainty than a later client will, so the larger part of the fee waits until there is a finished direction to look at. The full explanation.

  • Practice Fundamentals: eleven pages on who the practice is for, how it works, and how it should sound
  • Your visual identity: a logo or wordmark, a colour system, typography and photography direction, with the files
  • Approve the direction: nothing is built until you have approved it
  • One complete page: your words, fees, practical information and an enquiry form, built from what you approved
  • Review and launch: one set of feedback on the built site, launch, and the first year of Practice Care
See everything included

You don’t have to make web design decisions. That’s my job.

You don’t need your positioning worked out or your copy written. Your own words about who you work with and how you work are enough. Turning them into something clear is the job of your Practice Fundamentals, and it is part of the price.

You keep the identity, not just the website. Your Practice Fundamentals, your logo or wordmark, your colour values and your typefaces are handed over as files in your name, so a printer, a future designer or your next directory profile all have something to work from. What you keep.

Need more than this, such as several pages, online booking, a blog or unusual functionality? Tell me what you’re trying to build and I’ll scope and quote it separately.

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. I’ll reply with what I recommend and the next step.

Enquire about a founding place See the work