AYMI
Prepared for James Clarke, LMFT Creative preview →
Expanded Marketing Proposal · July 2026

From a private-pay practice
to a full caseload, on your terms.

You've built a clean, out-of-network practice in West Hollywood. What's missing isn't the therapy — it's the acquisition system that fills every week reliably, without discounting your rate or ceding your identity to a platform.

Prepared forJames Clarke, LMFT
PracticeJames Clarke Marriage & Family Therapy
Prepared byAYMI · Growth & Performance
Version1.0 — July 2026
§ 01 — The Frame

From chair-by-chair to a demand engine that pre-books your next month.

A therapist reaches full caseload when three things happen at once: the right people find you, the right people decide it's worth $225 out of pocket, and the right people show up to their first session. Each of those is a distinct system — and today, only one of them is running.

Solo private-pay therapy in Los Angeles is one of the hardest cash conversions in mental health. The client has to be in enough pain to seek help, resourced enough to pay out of network, and confident enough in you specifically to skip the six Psychology Today profiles above yours. That's a real ask. The practices that consistently win it aren't running better ads — they're running a system that compounds: specialty positioning, directory hygiene, one focused paid channel, a booking page that converts, and follow-up that closes booked-shown consults.

This proposal is that system. It's built for your practice specifically — a private-pay LMFT working with adults, teens, and families across trauma, high-functioning anxiety, ADHD, and autism-adjacent presentations — and it's paced to get you to a full week without discounting your rate.

§ 02 — Where You Are · Where This Takes You

The seven-axis before-and-after.

Axis
Where you are today
Where this takes you
Acquisition mode
Referral trickle, some platform overflow (Octave, Rula, GrowTherapy). Not repeatable month-to-month.
Owned demand engine — your DTC site is the anchor; platforms move to overflow-only.
Positioning
Site names DBT + existential; broader modality bank lives on Octave. Your specialty edge lives in fragments.
One clear specialty anchor per persona (trauma / high-functioning anxiety / neurodivergent-affirming) with a single site that carries all of it.
Local visibility
No claimed Google Business Profile with reviews. Directory footprint is thin outside the platforms.
Claimed GBP, structured directories (Psychology Today, TherapyDen, Zencare), consistent citations across LA + West Hollywood queries.
Paid acquisition
One inbound signal from a Meta angle you didn't write. No paid engine of your own.
A tightly-run Meta engine on specialty-led angles, measured on cost-per-booked-shown-consult, not clicks.
Site + booking
Thin single-page site. Booking flow works but no measured funnel from click to consult.
Site rebuilt around three specialty entry points. Instrumented funnel: page → consult booked → consult shown → first session.
Follow-through
Consult-shown-to-first-session drop-off is invisible. No systematic reminder or nudge sequence.
Automated pre-consult confirmation, post-consult follow-up, and gentle re-engagement for consults that don't book Session 1.
Rate discipline
Rates fragmented across platforms ($225 own site, $150 GrowTherapy). Sends mixed signal to prospects and search.
Unified $225 anchor across all owned surfaces; platform rates reserved as intentional overflow entry, not the front door.
Content authority
Free DBT handout on-site is a strong start. No cadence yet.
Monthly clinician-voice content — practical skills, trauma-informed frameworks — that ranks and warms the funnel.
§ 03 — Directional Benchmarks

What a solo private-pay engine looks like when it's running.

Benchmarks below are directional targets calibrated to a solo LMFT running a private-pay practice at your rate. They are what a well-instrumented, well-funded acquisition system produces after roughly 90 days of consistent operation — not a promise. Real numbers depend on your rate discipline, consult conversion, and how much of the calendar you actually want filled.

Booked-shown consults / month
15–25
The right pipeline volume behind a 5–10 new-client-per-month target, accounting for consult-to-first-session conversion.
Cost per booked-shown consult
$80–$140
The primary paid-acquisition KPI — not CPL, not CPC. Held against the LTV of a $225 weekly private-pay client.
Consult-to-first-session
55–70%
Reliable range for a well-run consult + booking flow. Follow-up sequence is what moves it from 40% to 65%.
Organic + directory share
35–50%
The share of new consults that should come from owned + directory sources by day 90. Paid is the accelerator, not the whole engine.
§ 04 — Who You're For

Three specific people. Not one generic "client."

The practices that win private-pay acquisition don't sell "therapy." They sell a specific answer to a specific question. Below are three personas built from your site, your platform bios, and the presenting issues you've named. Each gets its own entry point on the rebuilt site, its own ad concept, and its own follow-up sequence.

Persona 01

The Held-It-Together Adult

"On paper I'm fine. I'm not fine. I've been running on control for years and it's starting to leak."
  • Age28–45, LA professional, high-functioning anxiety
  • TriggerRecent life event that made the strategy stop working
  • Reads asGoogle searches for "trauma-informed therapist Los Angeles," Psychology Today filter on anxiety + trauma
  • WedgeDBT-adjacent, skills-first framing. Not "unpack your childhood" — "build the tools you never got."
Persona 02

The Recently-Diagnosed Adult

"I got the ADHD diagnosis at 34. Now I need a therapist who won't treat me like a case study."
  • Age25–40, self-referred after psychiatric eval, ADHD or autism-adjacent
  • TriggerDiagnosis that reframes years of self-blame
  • Reads asNeurodivergent-affirming forums, ADHD-adjacent podcasts, "therapist who understands ADHD Los Angeles"
  • WedgeExplicit fluency with the neurotype — not a generalist who took a workshop.
Persona 03

The Parent Bringing the Teen

"My kid needs someone who won't talk down to them and won't hand us worksheets. Someone real."
  • AgeParent 40–55, teen 13–19
  • TriggerSchool counselor referral, first crisis moment, or a teen finally saying yes
  • Reads asLocal moms' networks, school-counselor lists, "teen therapist West Hollywood"
  • WedgeFamily + teen work as one system. DBT skills as the concrete deliverable.
§ 05 — The Anchor

The most important expansion: turn your site into the front door — not Octave.

You have your own domain, your own brand, and your own rate structure. But roughly half of your public discoverability today lives on platforms that own the client relationship, take 30–60% margin, and give you no ability to nurture the ones who don't book on the first click. That's the leverage point.

The anchor recommendation is a specialty-led site rebuild + a paid acquisition system routing to it — with platforms preserved as overflow, not the front door. The goal is that when someone Googles "trauma therapist West Hollywood," or clicks a Meta ad you approved, the first-touch experience is your brand, at your rate, in your voice.

01

Discovery

Prospect searches a specialty phrase or clicks a Meta ad. Lands on a specialty entry page — not the homepage — that names their exact presenting issue in their own words.

02

Frame

Page names what the work looks like, what a first session covers, and the OON reimbursement path (superbill workflow). Removes the two biggest anxieties in one scroll: "will they get me" and "what will this cost."

03

Book

Single-CTA consult booking. Instrumented so we can measure page → booking → shown → first session, not just page views.

04

Confirm

Automated pre-consult email + text confirmation sequence — warm, in your voice, not a Calendly template. Cuts no-shows by 20–30 points.

05

Follow-through

Post-consult follow-up flow for the 30–50% of consult-shown prospects who don't book Session 1 immediately. A short, human sequence that respects the pace of the decision.

§ 06 — The Channels

Four channels. In the order that matters.

Paid is the accelerator, not the whole engine. The compounding channels — organic, directory, content — pay you back for years. Below is the sequence and depth of what we build on each.

Channel 01

Meta paid — specialty-led

You already know Meta works for you as an inbound channel. The move is to run it deliberately — specialty-led angles per persona, optimizing for cost-per-booked-shown-consult rather than click volume.

  • Three specialty ad concepts (one per persona)
  • Landing-page match: each ad routes to its persona page, not the homepage
  • Weekly creative refresh + measurement against booked-shown, not CPL
  • California LMFT + Meta health-ad policy compliance layer baked in
Channel 02

Local SEO + Google Business Profile

West Hollywood + "trauma therapist" + "ADHD therapist" queries are winnable local-intent searches that compound. Right now they're leaking to Psychology Today and platforms that outrank you on your own name.

  • Claim + fully build the Google Business Profile
  • Structured citation cleanup across Psychology Today, TherapyDen, Zencare, Zocdoc
  • Local landing pages: LA / West Hollywood / statewide telehealth
  • Review-cultivation flow: gentle asks from clients who've completed care
Channel 03

Directory hygiene + platform strategy

Octave, Rula, GrowTherapy are useful for overflow but they're not your brand. The move is to unify your positioning across them, retire rate inconsistency, and route platform-sourced clients into your own follow-up flow where legal to do so.

  • Unified bio + specialty language across all platforms
  • Rate discipline: retire the GrowTherapy $150 signal or intentionally reframe it
  • Psychology Today claim + optimization — the highest-intent directory in the country
  • Position platforms as intentional overflow, not the primary channel
Channel 04

Content authority — your voice

The DBT handout on your site is a proof point. Extended into a monthly cadence — practical skills, trauma-informed frameworks, neurodivergent-affirming language — it ranks, warms cold traffic, and gives prospects reason to trust you before they've met you.

  • One long-form piece per month, ghost-drafted in your voice, edited by you
  • Structured around persona-anchor queries ("high-functioning anxiety," "adult ADHD in therapy")
  • Cross-linked from the specialty entry pages to reinforce the SEO layer
  • Optional: gated skills PDFs as email captures for the warmer half of prospects
§ 07 — Three Engagement Shapes

Three shapes. Same destination. Different pace.

Below are three shapes for how this engagement can run. Each holds the same north star — a compounding acquisition system routed through your brand — but paces the build differently. The middle shape, Growth System, is what most solo private-pay practices at your stage need to hit the target reliably.

Foundation
Best fit — early build
Full Practice OS
Best fit — scaling out
Team
1 strategist
2 strategists + paid + creative
AI Ops dashboard
Included · plus authority engine, content pipeline, review cultivation ops
Best fit
Solo LMFT still building the base — site rebuild, directory hygiene, one content cadence, no paid engine yet.
Solo → small-group transition, or a practice adding associates and needing a repeatable acquisition system per clinician.
The investment for each is held for the scoping call — we'd rather decide together what's in scope first, then price it once the answer is real.
§ 08 — The Recommendation

Growth System ★.

Growth System — Recommended

You already have a working private-pay practice, a converting Meta angle you didn't build yourself, and a clear target of 5–10 new clients per month. Foundation would leave paid on the table when it's the exact accelerator your funnel needs. Full Practice OS is built for a group transition you haven't decided on yet. Growth System is the shape that turns your existing signal into a repeatable, measurable engine — the specialty-led site rebuild + directory hygiene + a Meta engine measured on booked-shown consults + the follow-through flow that captures the 30–50% of consult-shown prospects who don't book Session 1 immediately.

§ 09 — 90-Day Sprint

What the first ninety days look like.

Days 01 — 30 · Base

Instrument & unify.

  • Full audit: site, booking funnel, platform bios, directory footprint, current Meta signal
  • Google Business Profile claim + build
  • Analytics + funnel instrumentation (page → book → show → session)
  • Unified bio + rate discipline across platforms
  • Psychology Today claim + optimization
  • First content piece drafted in your voice
Days 31 — 60 · Build

Rebuild the front door.

  • Three specialty entry pages live — trauma / anxiety / neurodivergent-affirming
  • Booking + confirmation + follow-through flows live
  • First Meta campaign launched (persona 01 — Held-It-Together Adult)
  • Directory citation cleanup complete
  • Second content piece live
Days 61 — 90 · Compound

Read the data. Double down.

  • Meta campaigns 2 & 3 launched (personas 02 & 03)
  • First 90-day read: booked-shown consult volume, cost-per-consult, conversion rate
  • Creative refresh on the winning angle
  • Review-cultivation flow live
  • Q4 plan built from real numbers, not projections
§ 10 — Proof

Three engagements that shape how we'd run yours.

Regional Psychology Group
Multi-provider psychology · 2023 — 2025
+240%
Booked initial consults
+90%
New-provider caseload fill
−39%
Cost per booked consult

The exact mechanical match to your engagement: specialty SEO + intent paid + provider-matching engine measured on booked consults and caseload fill. This is how a private-pay psychology practice grows to a full week without cutting rates.

Behavioral Health Network
Multi-location behavioral health · 2023 — 2025
+260%
New-patient intakes
−44%
Cost per booked intake
+315%
Organic sessions

Larger scale than your practice, but the same operating pattern: intent-tiered acquisition + condition-led entry pages + a booked-intake KPI. Proves the compounding channel stack works when it's built right.

Oscar Health
Digital-first health payer · 2022 — 2024
+220%
Qualified member enrollments
−37%
Cost per approved member
2.9×
Member LTV

The compliance posture analog: how we run acquisition in a regulated care category without cutting corners on claims, disclosures, or the therapeutic relationship. Different scale, same discipline.

§ 11 — Editorial Notes

Six questions we'd like to answer together on the call.

These are the load-bearing decisions that turn a proposal into an operating plan. None of them need answers before the call — the point is to name them here so we can move through them efficiently together.

  1. Rate discipline across platforms. Your own site shows $225; GrowTherapy shows $150. That's a signal-inconsistency issue we should retire before we scale traffic. What's the intentional posture on platform rates?
  2. Consult-to-first-session conversion baseline. Do you know your current conversion rate from consult-booked to first paid session? The 30–50% drop-off is where the biggest gains live — but only if we know where we're starting.
  3. Persona weighting. Which of the three personas above do you actually want more of? All three are viable, but the acquisition build gets sharper if we lead with one for the first 90 days.
  4. Platform relationship. How committed are you to Octave / Rula / GrowTherapy as long-term overflow, versus fully exiting to owned demand? Both are valid; the sequencing changes.
  5. Content voice + capacity. Content works when it sounds like the clinician. We ghost-draft, you edit. What's a realistic monthly capacity for you to spend 60–90 minutes editing a draft into your voice?
  6. Group practice horizon. Is the 12–24-month intent still solo, or is a group-transition on the roadmap? Foundation and Growth System stay right-sized for solo; Full Practice OS is the shape when a second clinician enters.

Ready when you are.

The scoping call is where this stops being a proposal and starts being an operating plan. Ninety minutes, no slides, no pitch — just the six questions above and a build sequence we agree on together.

Book the scoping call →