AI Is Taking Therapist referrals and what to do about it

I was mid-run in New York City when I noticed the ads.

A company called Dawn AI — owned by a larger company called Sword Health — had bought out bus sides and subway cars across the city. Their pitch was simple and pointed: 24/7 mental health support. Always available. Not just once a week.

They weren’t being subtle about who they were coming after.

I’m not writing this to generate panic. Private practice isn’t going anywhere, and real human therapists provide something AI can’t replicate. But here’s the honest reality: companies with serious advertising budgets are now actively marketing to the same people who might otherwise book with you. And the therapists who don’t adjust their marketing are going to feel it.

This post walks through three moves that actually matter.

What the Dawn AI Ads Are Really Saying

Before getting to the marketing moves, it’s worth taking the ads at face value — because they’re revealing.

If you pull up Dawn AI’s website, the messaging is built entirely around the gap between therapy sessions (i.e. “99% of your life happens between therapy sessions.”) Every headline is a direct implication that therapy — real therapy, with a real person — isn’t enough.

That’s the positioning they’ve chosen. And whether you agree with it or not, it’s effective messaging because it names a real pain point that potential clients feel.

The lesson here isn’t about AI. It’s about clarity. Dawn AI knows exactly who their target audience is and exactly what problem they’re claiming to solve. Their ads communicate both things instantly. That’s the bar your marketing needs to meet.

Move 1: Get Your Messaging Specific Enough to Cut Through

Most therapy websites fail at the most basic marketing task: telling a first-time visitor who you help and what problem you solve — clearly, quickly, and without requiring them to dig.

This isn’t a criticism. It’s a product of training. Therapists are taught to be broadly inclusive, to avoid stigmatizing language, to not reduce clients to their diagnosis. All of that is clinically appropriate. On a website, it produces messaging that’s so careful it says almost nothing.

The headline on your homepage is doing more work than anything else on your site. If someone lands there and can’t tell within five seconds whether you’re the right therapist for them, most of them are leaving.

Here’s a useful exercise. While filming this episode, I was on the NYC subway and came across a completely different ad campaign — StreetEasy, a platform that helps people buy and rent apartments in New York City. Their headline across the cars was: Make your NYC era last a lifetime. Sub-headline: Be a forever New Yorker — buy with StreetEasy.

Who are they talking to? New Yorkers. What problem do they solve? The fear of having to leave. What do they want you to do? Buy an apartment through them. Three things. No ambiguity. Done with just a few words.

That’s the exercise for your practice. Who do you help, specifically? What problem do you help them solve, specifically? Write ten versions of a headline that answers both questions. Then hand them to someone with no connection to therapy — a friend, a family member, a neighbor — and ask: can you tell who this therapist helps and how? If yes, you’re on the right track.

Clarity comes before creative. Get clear first.

Move 2: Create Free Content That Only You Can Make

Once your messaging is clear, the next job is building trust before someone ever books.

This is the move most therapists skip — and the one that creates the most separation from generic AI competitors.

Here’s the logic. If someone sees your ad or stumbles on your website, they know nothing about you. They haven’t been referred by a friend. They have no reason to trust you yet. If you ask them to book a session directly from that first touch, most won’t. That’s not a failing — that’s just how trust works.

The free content strategy closes that gap. Not generic tips. Not blog posts rehashing what’s already on every mental health website. Something specific and substantive, grounded in your actual clinical experience with the type of client you’re trying to attract.

An example: if you work with people who have anxiety and live in a big city, you might create a ten-minute video on five concrete strategies for managing anxiety in an environment that’s relentlessly overstimulating. The specificity is the point. That’s something a potential client can watch and think: this person understands exactly what I’m dealing with. That’s not what ChatGPT sounds like. That’s not what a well-funded AI therapy app can replicate. That’s you.

The content does two things at once. It provides real value — the person watching it leaves better off, regardless of whether they ever book. And it builds trust. By the time they finish watching, they have a sense of who you are, how you think, and whether you’re the right fit. That trust turns into consults. Consults turn into clients.

The video doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t have to be perfectly produced. It has to be specific and useful. That’s the bar.

Move 3: Think About the Free Consultation Differently

Most therapists treat the free consultation purely as a clinical screening call. Is this person a good fit for my services? Do I have the bandwidth? Is this within my scope of practice?

That’s part of what it is. But if you want it to actually convert — if you want the person on the other end to book a first session — you have to think about it differently too.

The consultation is also, at least partly, a chance to speak confidently about what you do and how you can help this specific person. That’s not manipulation. It’s not “selling” in any crass sense. It’s what happens when a good clinician talks to someone about their work honestly and without unnecessary hedging.

Most therapists undersell themselves on these calls. They keep it clinical, stay neutral, and send the person off with information. Nothing about that call made the person more likely to choose them over the next therapist on the list. If you believe you can actually help someone — and you wouldn’t be on the call if you didn’t — that should come through. Confidence in your own expertise is appropriate.

Treat the consultation as clinical and human. Be present. Be honest about whether you think you can help. Let your actual personality come through. That combination is genuinely irreplaceable by an AI. Use it.

The Case for Paid Ads (Even If You’ve Tried and Quit)

One more thing worth addressing: paid advertising.

I know a lot of therapists have tried Google or Meta ads once, gotten nothing, and filed the whole category away as “doesn’t work for therapy.” Usually what happened is they ran an ad with weak messaging and no real offer — and predictably, it didn’t convert. The conclusion was wrong.

Paid ads work. The AI companies we’re talking about use them. StreetEasy uses them. Every successful marketing effort uses some form of paid visibility. The question isn’t whether to use them — it’s whether you have the foundation in place to make them work.

That foundation is what this post has been building toward. Clear messaging that speaks directly to your ideal client. A free piece of content that provides real value and builds trust. An obvious next step — book a free consult — that makes it easy for someone to take action.

With those three things in place, a paid ad becomes a straightforward investment. You put money in, the right people see your clear headline, they engage with your free content, they book a call. Without those things, it’s just money going somewhere.

If a full paid ad campaign feels too far right now, start smaller. Flyers in your neighborhood. A well-placed post in a local Facebook group. Anything that gets your specific, clear message in front of the people who need what you offer. The methodology is the same at any budget level.

The Honest Bottom Line

Companies like Dawn AI are spending significant money to reach the same people you’re trying to reach. You can’t out-budget them. But you can out-specific them. You can be the human therapist with deep expertise in exactly what your ideal client is struggling with, who speaks to that person like a person, and who makes it easy to take the next step.

That advantage is real. But only if your marketing reflects it.

Start with your headline. Make it specific. Then build the content, the consultation, and the visibility on top of that.

If you want help building any part of this for your practice, that’s exactly what a free strategy call is for.