Nadene van der Linden

29/10/2025

If you’re a therapist who struggles with the idea of showing vulnerability online because you don’t like to share anything personal due to your role or because you’re a private person - this post is for you.

Authenticity is important for a personal brand but it doesn’t require you to share anything personal or private.

There are many ways you can show you're genuine without compromising private information.

Sometimes vulnerability gets confused with common online behaviours like oversharing to get engagement or seeking validation during times of distress.

As a coach, I recommend you avoid sharing anything online that you’re not comfortable with or that could create personal or professional problems for you.

Vulnerability in personal branding is more about showing up as yourself through sharing opinions and values.

This could look like sharing stories of past professional missteps and lessons learned is another example.

Or giving us a “hot take” from your experience.

As the wise saying goes, I recommend that you “share from the scar, not the wound.” It’s good to have some distance between you and any events you share online.

If you’re still uncertain about vulnerability, I find the term radical candour to be a better fit for personal branding for most therapists than vulnerability.

Radical candour, a concept widely embraced in leadership, refers to the practice of speaking truthfully and directly while maintaining genuine care and respect.

It’s about addressing what matters -clearly and compassionately - without sidestepping discomfort or diluting the message in the name of politeness.

Next time you want to post something to promote your business try the concept of radical candour.

What do you think? Would this work for you?

27/10/2025

I'm sharing a pivotal shift I've made in my content strategy in this episode of Thriving Therapist Talk: Business and Marketing Tips for Therapists, and how it's impacted my coaching business.

Listen in wherever you get your podcasts or via my website - link below.

27/10/2025

“A psychologist said at a lecture: “What ANNOYS A WOMAN ISN’T THE SOCK ON THE FLOOR — it’s the indifference lying in it” (the audience applauded):” ⬇️

This is the start of a post I was fed on Threads.

My reaction was this.

Isn’t it kind of funny, but mostly sad, that psychologists like me spend many years of studying cognitive science, developmental psychology and fascinating research only to spend a lot of time talking to people about how they’re not mad about a sock, they’re mad about what the sock represents.

We live in a society that undermines people’s reality by suggesting they shouldn’t “make a big deal” about a sock, the dishes, a comment
or some other mundane thing that represents their oppression instead of honoring their responses.

So the work of the 1:1 therapist is about validating those responses, allowing clients to explore the meaning of those responses, sometimes naming those experience as sexism, racism or coercive control because our client has been trapped in a system of abuse for so long they don’t recognise it as abuse.

The reality of our work is often quite far from
“the scientist-practitioner” model we trained in.

How have you adapted to this? I would love to hear from you.

25/10/2025

You can be annoyed that some coaches get paid more than the average therapist or you can learn from them.

It’s not that people are willing to pay a coach more than a therapist.

The truth is that most coaches earn less than therapists.

For those who do earn plentifully these have worked out these two things that therapists should pay attention to. ⬇️

1. How to get in front of potential clients who can pay that kind of $

2. How to create the kind of personal brand that allows them to become “the one” those people with the $ want to work with.

It’s that simple.

This is what I help therapists with all the time in coaching. Start with my instant access training Marketing Magic for the fundamentals of becoming the therapists people want to work with.

23/10/2025

This is what a career as a therapist can look like:

1999 first job therapist in an NGO

2001 therapist community mental health

2003 therapist NGO

2005 clin psych in a hospital

2009 private practice contractor on Saturday

2010 contractor private practice

2013 opened my own practice

2019 started coaching therapists

2021 started selling live & on demand training

2022 became EMDR Consultant

2024 became ISST supervisor

2025: coach, EMDR consultant and ISST supervisor, sales, 5 therapy clients

When I began my psychology studies I had no idea I’d end up where I am today.

Has your career as a therapist surprised you?

22/10/2025

I write every single word I publish on social media, my blogs, my emails.
Every single podcast episode is me, my words.

And most of the time it shows. Because it’s not perfect. It’s not slick or super impressive.

I’m not anti AI- I use AI in various parts of production in my business. I love to automate.

Why not- when everyone else is doing it? When it would save time?

I don’t want to sound like everyone else.

I don’t want to lose my critical thinking & spontaneous creativity skills.

22/10/2025

A therapist emailed me saying "I want to sell a webinar but I'm not a big name therapist. Which options of your's would be the most cost effective way to reach that goal because I spend a lot on CPD?" Here's what I recommended.

I've achieved this goal many times over and I've helped therapists to achieve the same.

If I had a budget under $1000 (AUD) I would go with:

A one-off coaching session and pair it with Marketing Magic and Launch Magic. The coaching session will allow me to provide personalise advice. Marketing Magic supports the development of personal branding and marketing messaging you need to sell your webinar to the right people, sales page development and more. Launch Magic gives you a strategy that will help you sell your webinar to it's maximum potential.

But also, here is something to keep in mind.

If you're an expert level therapist who has the potential to train other therapists, it's time to stop sinking all of your budget into skills training and instead dedicate some of your CPD budget to developing this new income stream in your business.

Ready to take the next step and create additional income streams to 1:1 therapy? Reach out to me.

20/10/2025

“It’s like a tsunami of words coming at me.”

“They just don’t stop talking…at all… all session”

“They say they get upset when other people interrupt them.”

“They say they don’t mind if the therapy goes slow as long as they can say what they want.”

“I thought after a few sessions it would change if I let them keep talking but I’m 12 months in and they don’t let me get a word in edgewise”

“I’ve let it go on for so long, I don’t know what to do and I don’t feel effective at all.”

These are just some of the things I hear from therapists on the regular in supervision.

These kinds of clients are challenging.

There are good reasons why they behave in this way.

And yet it doesn’t serve these clients if we don’t use our expert skills to intervene.

It leaves us feeling disempowered in our therapy rooms, dreading their sessions and wondering how we can move them on without hurting their feelings or feeling guilty about the therapist we refer them over to.

If you’re wanting to approach this differently so that you have a roadmap for working with these kinds of clients in the future or to get back to being an agent of change with exisiting clients, I have something for you.

The Private Practice Empowerment Bundle features three of my therapists skills trainings to help you master these kinds of challenging interactions whilst saving 40%. It’s also around the same price as one supervision session.

What’s included:
1. Mastering Tricky Conversations for Therapists
2. Empowered Endings
3. Confidently Charging & Collecting Cancellation Fees.
All for just $294

Offer ends soon.

Link in comments.

Send a message to learn more

20/10/2025

Therapist, if you don't support your mindset when you sell products as part of your additional income streams this is what happens (and it's not good).

Less sales.

Less profit.

Assuming no one wants your product.

Blaming the wrong things for the poor sales.

Avoidance of selling in the future.

Assuming that making profit is too hard.

Giving up on additional income streams.

In this week's podcast episode, I walk you through common mindset pitfalls when therapists sell their offers and how to overcome them.

Listen in wherever you get your podcasts or via my webiste. Link below.

17/10/2025

Dear therapist
Your extensive CBT based training in your post-grad training is not something to feel ashamed of.

It’s not something to add to your “I’m not good enough narrative.”

It’s normal to explore beyond that training as you mature as a therapist.

What’s important is that you received a comprehensive foundational training in an evidenced based model that equipped you to begin your journey as a therapist.

Your coach for therapists
Nadene

09/10/2025

You’ll probably ignore this advice therapist but I’m giving it anyway.

If you’re going through something, you might be tempted to become an expert in it so you can share what you’ve learned with your clients.

If you’re going to do this- avoid jumping into it.

Give yourself a couple of years to process it yourself, before you make it your niche.

You deserve the time.

Just for you.

To heal.

To make sense of it.

Focus on you before you turn your focus outwards to help others.