Personal Branding. It isn’t a new concept but it invades so much of life. We all can feel the pressure to define ourselves, have a niche, an audience: a capital “B” Brand. I have felt that pressure more and more over the years in my work. Now that private equity and AI have entered the therapy space it feels like marketing, branding, and standing-out are a huge part of my work life. And enshitification comes for everything in the end. Corporate therapy conglomerates, the tools we use to file insurance or take notes, even simple things like calendars are getting harder to use and provide less and less value.
What does this mean for me as a therapist and you as a client? I just want to be myself and meet my client’s authentic selves too. I don’t want to have a personal brand. I just want to do what feels fun, meaningful, and life-giving. I don’t want to feel like I have to be perfect or elevator pitch myself. Whether that’s with work or with art. I want freedom and liberation. I want to be in community. I think this is also a way we can push back against fascism.
When thinking about writing this blog today, I realized that my blog is my favorite part of my website. It is my writing and my art. My random thoughts and ideas. It isn’t something I monetize or something that has to fit a brand. It’s just me. I want to bring that energy to the rest of my work. My favorite part of my job is talking to clients, that’s the important part. The rest I can play with like an art project.
It’s like being anti-diet. I don’t have to diet, I can feed myself in my own way. I don’t have to have an exercise routine, I can engage in joyful movement. I don’t have to have a side hustle, I can just make art. I don’t have to take GLP-1’s, I can just love my body as is. And I don’t have to have a personal brand, I can just be a person.
I hope that you as a client get a great experience in therapy, whoever you choose to work with. Someone who is embodied and authentic and kind. And I hope you choose to make some more space between yourself and the pressure to brand, if you feel it. Reject it as much as possible and do something fun and freeing today!
In Solidarity,
Alicia