Since my website went live I've already had new clients get in touch — the website is so much more professional than I ever expected.
Room to be found: how a Penzance counsellor built her own website and opened her practice to new clients
Jacqui Chandler has been a counsellor for many years, and she is good at her work. Referrals come in steadily, from other therapists and from past clients who pass her name on. But until recently, anyone who received that referral and tried to find out more about her had nowhere to look. There was no website, no online presence, no way for a potential client to understand her approach before picking up the phone. “Potential clients have no way of seeing who I am and how I work before taking the step of contacting me,” she explains. For a counsellor, where the initial fit matters enormously, that gap was a real obstacle.
Jacqui had tried to address it once before, paying to have a website built for her. The result left her dissatisfied and, crucially, unable to make changes herself. The quotes she received to try again were steep, and as a sole practitioner working within constraints on her time and income, spending anything from £350 to £700 or more on web design was not a sustainable option. When she learned about the Content Creation and Website Development Skills Bootcamp through Digital Peninsula Network, whose work she had followed for years, it offered a way through. She could learn to build and manage the site herself, and because the bootcamp was funded, the barrier of cost was removed entirely.
The website she built during the course is now live and she is, in her own words, really happy with it. It feels authentic to her and accurately represents what she offers. She updates it herself, keeping it current in a way that a third-party-built site never allowed. The practical results have already arrived: the website has helped attract three new clients. Business cards now direct people to the site before they make contact, which means those who do reach out already have a sense of who she is and what she does. “Because I have decades of experience but limited availability, it’s important that the people who reach out already understand my offer.”
The course was not without its challenges. Jacqui’s life involves complex caring responsibilities, and managing those alongside client work and other commitments meant the bootcamp required real commitment. The online format and the flexibility built into the course made it possible, as did the quality of the individual support on offer. “The teaching itself was excellent,” she says. “Website and technical work had always felt like a mental block for me, but everything was explained in such a logical, step-by-step way that I was able to keep up confidently.” She can now edit and manage her website independently.
For anyone who might assume this kind of course is not for them, Jacqui’s advice is direct: “Definitely don’t assume you can’t do it.” The tutors, she says, were committed to helping every learner succeed regardless of starting point, and the support available went well beyond the scheduled sessions. The overall attitude, as she describes it, was very much about getting everyone over the finish line. For Jacqui, that finish line has meant something genuinely significant: a counselling practice that is now visible, findable, and growing.