Google Reviews for Therapists: How to Get Them Without Breaking Your Ethics Code

Every local marketing guide says the same thing: get reviews. Google's map pack ranks largely on review count and rating, and a practice with 4 reviews will sit under one with 60 for "therapist near me" more or less forever. Then the guide gets to therapists and goes quiet, because therapists are the one profession that is, by its own ethics codes, not supposed to ask.

This post is about what the rules actually say, what you can and cannot do in response to reviews, and what private practices do within those constraints to build a review presence anyway. Nothing here is legal or ethics advice; read your own code and, if in doubt, call your board.

What the codes say

The rules differ by profession, and the difference matters.

Psychologists (APA). Standard 5.05 of the APA ethics code says psychologists do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients or from other people who, because of their circumstances, are vulnerable to undue influence. The key words are "solicit" and "current." The code does not prohibit a former client from leaving a review on their own, and it does not prohibit reviews from people who were never clients (a colleague, a workshop attendee).

Counselors (ACA). The ACA code advises against soliciting testimonials from current clients, former clients, or anyone else who may be vulnerable to undue influence. It does say that if a client offers unprompted, the counselor should discuss the risks and benefits first. This is stricter than APA on former clients.

Social workers (NASW). The NASW code does not have a testimonial standard in the same form, but its confidentiality standards and its guidance on not posting identifying client information on professional sites make review solicitation risky in the same way.

Marriage and family therapists, and state boards. AAMFT's code and many state licensing rules have their own language. Several state boards have disciplined clinicians over solicited reviews. Check yours.

The common ground: do not ask current clients. Do not offer anything in exchange for a review. Do not filter who you ask based on who is likely to be positive. That last one is now also federal law for everyone: the FTC's 2024 rule on consumer reviews bans suppressing negative reviews and bans incentives tied to a review's sentiment, with civil penalties for knowing violations.

What you can do in response to reviews

This is where most therapists get hurt, and it is a HIPAA issue rather than an ethics one. A review is public. A response is public. If a response confirms that the reviewer was a client, or references anything about their care, that is a disclosure of protected health information, and there have been federal enforcement actions against practices for exactly this.

The rule for responding: never confirm the person was a client, never reference their treatment, never argue the facts. A response to a negative review that says "We take all feedback seriously and invite anyone with concerns about our practice to contact us directly at [phone]" is safe. "You missed three appointments and were discharged for non-payment" is a HIPAA violation, however true.

For positive reviews, the same rule applies. "Thank you for the kind words" is fine. "So glad the EMDR helped with your trauma" is not.

Many practices decide not to respond at all, which is also fine. If you do respond, use one templated sentence and never deviate.

What actually builds a review presence

Given all that, here is what therapy practices do.

Let clients know reviews exist, without asking. A line on the website's "about" page or in the intake paperwork that says "some clients choose to share their experience publicly; we neither request nor expect this, and your privacy is always protected" is not solicitation. It is disclosure. It also handles the ACA requirement to discuss risks, because the intake materials can note that a public review is the client's own choice to disclose that they are in therapy.

Reviews from people who are not clients. Colleagues who have referred to you, supervisees, workshop attendees, and other professionals can leave reviews about their experience of working with you. These are legitimate, common, and often what a new practice's first reviews are. They should describe what the reviewer actually experienced ("I have referred several clients to this practice and heard consistently good things") rather than pretend to be client reviews.

Group practices: ask about the practice, not the clinician. Some group practices take the position that a request from the front office about the intake experience, scheduling and billing (not about clinical care) is not the clinician soliciting a testimonial. This is a gray area and opinions differ; if you go this route, keep the request explicitly about the administrative experience and get your board's view.

Make it easy for the ones who want to. Have a Google Business Profile that is complete and findable. If a client asks how to leave a review, you may tell them where. Do not send links unprompted to current clients.

Do everything else that ranks. Review count is one input to the map pack. Category, services listed, a complete profile, photos, hours, a website that links to the profile and is linked from it, and local citations matter too. A therapy practice with 10 reviews and a complete profile will frequently outrank one with 25 reviews and a bare listing. Our Google Business Profile guide for therapists covers the rest of the profile.

Build the site so it does not depend on reviews. A practice with strong specialty pages ranking organically for "EMDR therapist [city]" and "couples counseling [city]" is far less exposed to the map pack than one relying on it. The pages are entirely within your control; the reviews are not. See how to get more therapy clients for the page-first approach.

Things that get practices in trouble

• Asking every client at the end of a session, even sweetly.
• A tablet at the front desk that says "Rate your visit."
• "Review us and get $10 off your next session."
• Only sending the link to clients who seem happy.
• Responding to a negative review with any detail of the person's care.
• Buying reviews or having staff and family post as clients.

Every one of these is either an ethics-code violation, a HIPAA violation, or a violation of the FTC rule, and often more than one.

The short version

Do not solicit clients. Make reviews possible for people who want to leave them. Respond only with a template that says nothing about the person. Put your energy into the parts of local ranking you can control: the profile, the site and the specialty pages. And, if you want the practice to grow on more than reviews, build the pages.

Run a free scan to see how your site and profile look to Google, or see what a managed website for a therapy practice includes.