Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, Curran Otis on Differentiating Intangible Services, with Curran Otis, owner of Tranquil Waters Counseling in Arlington, Washington.
Why does differentiation matter so much for a service like therapy, where there’s nothing physical to compare?
Someone searching Psychology Today for a therapist might pull up 25 profiles that all say some version of the same thing: years in practice, credentials, location. None of that tells a prospective client whether the fit is actually right.
Curran Otis put “why choose me” near the top of his website, right after the emergency disclaimer. He learned that answering it directly, up front, is often the only thing separating one profile from the other 24.
What is Curran’s actual point of differentiation?
He built his practice around what’s sometimes called modern therapy — a shift away from the therapist as the expert diagnosing what’s wrong, toward the therapist as a mentor helping a client use tools they already have.
He describes it this way: a client walks in already using a screwdriver to pound in a nail. It works, but it’s exhausting. His role is to hand them a hammer and show them how to use it, not to take the job over himself.
How is that different from the traditional therapy model?
He’s careful not to frame the traditional model as worse. It’s the foundation the whole field is built on, and plenty of clients want and need it. Some come in and say directly, “I don’t want a mentor, tell me what to do.”
The difference is orientation. The traditional model tends to center the therapist’s expertise. His model centers on the client’s lived experience, with the therapist filling in gaps as a guide rather than handing down direction as an authority.
How did he land on “mentor” as the one word that describes his difference?
He got there by putting himself in a prospective client’s shoes. The pattern he kept hearing from clients was the same complaint: “I’ve been to five other therapists and never felt like I connected.” He needed a way to answer, immediately, why this time might be different.
“Mentor” is compact enough that a stranger reading his website for ten seconds understands it right away, and specific enough that they can self-select. Someone who wants to be guided reads it and thinks that’s me. Someone who wants direct instruction knows to keep looking.
How did he know the difference was real and not just a phrase on a website?
The signal came from clients, not marketing. During his clinical internship, he worked with a student for ten months and was eventually able to fully discharge him, because they no longer needed the support he was providing.
Outcomes like that, repeated with clients who describe feeling understood for the first time, are what confirmed the difference was authentic rather than a positioning exercise.
What should someone with a fully intangible service do first, if they’re competing on a page full of near-identical profiles?
Lead with the problem, not with yourself. Someone scanning a directory doesn’t care yet how many years you’ve practiced or where you went to school. They care whether you understand what they’re dealing with, and that has to come through in the first few seconds.
State your difference early and plainly, even before it’s fully polished. People aren’t hunting for you. They’re hunting for a solution to their problem, and they only keep reading once they believe you understand it.
What’s the first step for someone who knows their service is different but can’t put it into words yet?
Find your core moment, which is the concrete proof you can point to when the difference stops feeling like a hunch. For Curran, that was his first full discharge as an intern. Whatever that moment is for you, start there.
Then work at compressing it into a word or short phrase a stranger could recognize in ten seconds. It needs to be authentic to how you actually work, valued by the people you’re trying to reach, and simple enough for someone to say “that’s me” or “that’s not me” on first read.
A final note
Differentiating an intangible service feels harder because there’s no product to hold up and compare. But the challenge is the same one every private practice faces: say clearly, and early, what makes this version of the service different, and say it in a way the right person recognizes instantly. Curran’s answer happened to be one word. Yours might take a sentence. Either way, the person hunting for help doesn’t care about you yet. They care whether you understand their problem. Lead with that.
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