Trends in Therapy: What You Need to Know to Excel in 2023
Are you up-to-date with the current trends in therapy in 2023?
As with all professions, staying abreast of changes in your area of expertise is essential. The world is changing fast. The delivery of counseling services has transformed in recent years. And the need for your expertise is desperate. This is set to continue.
Strategies for business success have also advanced and morphed. Technology, societal preferences, and needs will continue to drive change whether you’re ready (or not). Keep up, or you’ll get left behind.
That’s why staying abreast of the trends in therapy is important. It enables you to understand and manage potential impacts on your clients and your practice — for better or worse. This knowledge can provide virtual business wings to navigate bumpy terrain and soar while avoiding the potholes and pitfalls that other therapists fall into.
In this article, we’ve gathered key statistics to keep in mind for 2023. Consider this a call to action, an opportunity to embrace what the future likely holds to meet your clients where they’re at, offer the best care, and propel your practice’s success.
Trends in Therapy 2023
Everything has changed in the past few years, and what has been spurred into action is set to persist. We believe the current trends in therapy in 2023 will continue to gain ground. For several reasons.
Firstly, psychological stress, including mental illness, is common. The Pew Research Center published research conducted between March 2020 and September 2022. The study found that a staggering 41% of American adults have experienced at least one episode of high psychological distress since the pandemic struck. In people aged 18 to 29, this stat soared to 58%.
With the COVID-19 threat ever-present and the American economy faltering, and more, we believe continuing high levels of distress are inevitable. People are — and will continue to — struggle. They need your professional support and expertise.
Secondly, even though demand is intense, it can be difficult for people to access care. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), 46% of therapists reported being unable to meet the demand for care. The APA noted that psychologists are contacted, on average, by 15 new patients looking for therapy each month. Many they cannot serve.
So, if you have practice space, the demand is there. You just need to know how to attract and convert potential clients. This is where quality marketing comes in. While many of your colleagues languish in old-school marketing (if they market at all), we can show you how to succeed. More on this later. For now, let’s dive into what we believe will be the specific trends in therapy for this year.
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Tele-Therapy Will Continue to Gain in Popularity
COVID-19 has had one silver lining: the wider acceptance of Tele-therapy and Telehealth. As a therapist, you should equip yourself for digital care delivery because it’s here to stay. The benefits for you as a therapist and your clients are broad.
Embracing this method of therapy delivery could transform your practice. Many of our customers have wildly exceeded their projections by adopting this trend!
Before the pandemic, most therapists delivered only face-to-face care. The status quo had remained rather static; wrestling therapy into the cyber world was a slow process. Telehealth was used but was not part of standard care, even though clients liked the “improved outcomes and preferred modality over face-to-face visits, ease of use, low cost, improved communication, and elimination of travel time.”
Once we tasted the experience, face-to-face consultations dropped by a staggering 37%. Tele-consultations exploded by 766% in the first few months of COVID-19. Telehealth use soared from a meager 0.3% in 2019 to 23.6% in 2020. But the best was yet to come. A 2021 study found that 98% of therapists delivered telepsychology amidst the pandemic.
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Now that we’ve had a chance to experience the benefits, it’s impossible to put this genie back in the bottle. Barring catastrophe, Telehealth is one of the trends in therapy that’s here for good.
Tip: In our article, 5 Tips to Harness the Power of Telehealth to Propel Your Practice Growth, you’ll learn how Telehealth enables you to serve clients better and supercharge practice growth. Plus, we share five ways to embrace digital.
Therapy Stigma Will Continue to Decline
With the uptick in therapy uptake, many of our customers have told us that the stigma around mental health and its treatment continues to decline. Thankfully!
As the number of people reaching out for care increases, as people gain lived experience with distress and mental illness and can talk openly about it, this stigma should continue to diminish. The less judgment that exists and the less confronting treatment appears, the more people will be drawn to therapy.
We see this as a welcome and much-needed trend.
Child Therapy Will Be in High Demand
Distress isn’t confined to the adult population. Sadly, our young ones are affected en masse. The pandemic, with its disruptions, has been particularly hard on children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report, Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, uncovered shocking statistics. For example, during the pandemic:
- more than one-third of high school students suffered from poor mental health
- nearly half felt a sense of ongoing sadness or hopelessness
- 12% of female students and over one-quarter of LGB students had attempted suicide during the previous year
But these challenges don’t just disappear along with reversed COVID restrictions.
In addition, the nation is short on child therapists. This situation is set to worsen.
The National Projections of Supply and Demand for Selected Behavioral Health Practitioners: 2013-2025 reported an expectation that by 2025 America will have shortages in clinical, counseling, and school psychologists. Each of these provider types is expected to fall more than 10,000 providers short. That’s a woeful statistic!
As you can see, the need for child therapy is high, and this trend in therapy is set to continue throughout 2023 and beyond.
Stress Management Therapy Will Remain in High Demand
You’ve undoubtedly noticed the prevalence of stress in your office and outside. It’s rampant, unrelenting.
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The Stress in America Survey 2022 concluded, “More than a quarter of U.S. adults say they’re so stressed they can’t function.”
The survey results revealed that:
- 76% of adults said the nation’s future was a source of stress
- 64% felt their fundamental rights were at risk
- 38% said things were so bad that they’d thought about leaving America
Other sources of worry for the majority of adults included inflation, crime, violence, the political landscape, the racial climate, and the war in Ukraine.
These monumental issues have no easy fix. They’re not going to disappear overnight. Most, if not all, will not diminish throughout the year. We are living through strange times indeed. Your ability to deliver stress management therapy is essential; this year, more so than ever.
Current Trends in Therapy 2023: The Takeaway
Americans are struggling. Life has become harder — even unbearable — for many adults and children. Between individual, nationwide, and global stressors, distress is high and set to continue. Sadly, there is no answer on the near horizon.
But there is some good news. Tele-therapy continues to gain popularity. The stigma associated with therapy continues to decline. Stress management therapy offers people real hope and help.
That makes your expertise essential, more now than ever. If you have space in your books, it’s time to shine! You must ensure people can find you.
At BrighterVision, that’s what we do. We help therapists — just like you — attract and magnetize the people they can help. We create beautiful, effective websites that convert. We offer a powerful tool to make posting to social media a cinch.
We also provide the information and insights you need to succeed. As the saying goes, “Knowledge is Power!”
For example…
- Find out how to set goals that move the needle in our article, How To Set Goals To Supercharge Your Practice Success.
- Learn how to craft a winning, modern website. We explain how in our article, New Year, New Website!
- Discover how to market ethically and effectively. That’s what our blog is designed to help you do. You’ll find the free resources and advice you need here.
In 2023, we are on a mission: to help you make a difference! Reach out now, and let’s begin.
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