Can a Therapist Have an Instagram Account? | Ethical Guidelines & Best Practices
In our modern digital world, social media has undeniably become a powerful tool for connection in our personal and professional lives. For mental health professionals, the boundaries between these spheres are a bit more blurry, so the question often arises: “Can a therapist have an Instagram account?”
The short answer? Sure! But not without some considerations. In this blog post, I’ll be exploring some of the benefits, ethical guidelines, and best practices for therapists who are considering building up their professional presence on this social platform.
Let’s dive in!
The Benefits of a Professional Instagram Presence
Instagram offers many valuable opportunities for therapists. When used thoughtfully, it can increase visibility, provide psychoeducation to a broad audience, and foster connections within your professional community.
Increased Visibility and Accessibility
A thoughtful Instagram presence offers significant professional advantages:
Helps potential clients find and learn about your practice.
Allows you to showcase your unique therapeutic approach.
Can reach populations who might not otherwise seek therapy.
Builds a loyal audience that extends beyond your geographical location.
Enables you to scale your impact and potentially your income beyond the constraints of hourly one-on-one sessions through the promotion of your primary therapy services and any additional online products, courses, or groups you might offer.
Establishes you as an authority in your niche, opening doors to speaking engagements, podcast appearances, and other visibility opportunities.
Psychoeducation and Outreach
Instagram offers powerful tools for public mental health education that can serve both your current clients and the broader community:
Provides a platform to share accurate mental health information.
Helps to destigmatize mental health and makes therapy seem more approachable.
Offers accessible explanations of complex psychological concepts.
Building a Professional Community
Beyond client connections, Instagram facilitates professional networking to enhance your practice and professional development:
Connects you with colleagues, potential collaborators, and potential referral relationships with complementary providers.
Provides opportunities to promote workshops, groups, or presentations.
Creates opportunities for mentorship and continued learning.
Ethical Considerations
Therapists certainly have the freedom to create and manage their own Instagram accounts, but this freedom comes with responsibility. First and foremost, practitioners must abide by their profession’s ethical codes, such as those established by the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), or other relevant governing bodies.
While it is important to note that these longstanding guidelines were not necessarily created with social media in mind, their main principles—confidentiality, professional boundaries, informed consent, and client welfare—should be directly applied when using Instagram.
Confidentiality
Never post identifiable client information, even with the personal details changed. Any general case examples must also be thoroughly anonymized, or simply presented as composite cases.
Avoid posting anecdotes from specific sessions or interactions with clients.
Recognize that even seemingly innocuous details in well-intentioned posts could potentially identify a client. Some examples of accidental disclosures might include:
Background elements in photos that could show client information.
Discussing your day in a way that might inadvertently reference sessions.
Venting about difficult professional situations.
Professional Boundaries
Be mindful of how your online presence can affect how clients perceive you; inconsistency between online personas and your in-session presence can create confusion and erode trust.
If you choose to share personal disclosures, make sure they serve a therapeutic/educational purpose, as they can have the potential to upset power dynamics within a therapeutic relationship.
Take time to consider how to interact with followers or other accounts carefully (commenting, liking posts, etc.) as these exchanges are visible to everyone.
Note that clients can follow your public account, but as a therapist, you should still not follow clients' accounts or respond to their comments, as this could potentially make clients feel observed outside the therapeutic relationship and violate confidentiality.
Informed Consent
Include your social media guidelines in your written practice policies (clearly explaining how you handle client interactions on social media, considerations for how your social media presence might impact the therapeutic relationship, etc.).
Licensing and Regulations
Familiarize yourself with your state licensing board’s specific regulations regarding social media, including the following:
Any restrictions on how you can present your credentials and services.
Requirements for disclaimers or disclosures on professional accounts.
HIPAA Compliance
Familiarize yourself with the HIPAA implications for therapists who choose to use social media. Here are a few of the most significant items to be aware of:
Protected Health Information (PHI) must never be shared, even inadvertently.
Business Associate Agreements may be needed with third-party applications.
Security measures should be in place to protect any client communications.
Regular risk assessments of your social media practices are advisable.
Best Practices for Therapists Getting Started on Instagram
How you set up your Instagram profile, what you choose to post, and how you engage with other users define your professional presence online. Therefore, it’s important to take the following appropriate steps to ensure that your social media accurately not only reflects you as a practitioner, but also communicates your value to your followers.
Step 1: Creating your Professional Profile
When getting started, ensure that your profile settings are set to a professional account (as opposed to personal) to access Instagram insights and analytics.
Use a professional, high-quality headshot that conveys warmth and approachability.
Write a clear, concise bio (150 characters or less) that highlights your credentials, specialties, and your location (if offering in-person services) while strictly adhering to any disclaimers/disclosures required by your state-specific licensing board.
Be sure to include a clear call-to-action in your bio (schedule a consultation, download a resource, etc.).
Use a link-in-bio tool (like Linktree or Later) to direct followers to multiple resources, including your website, booking page, and opt-in offers.
Step 2: Developing a Content Strategy
Content Topic Ideas:
Focus on evidence-based psychoeducational content that showcases your expertise.
Share general mental health tips and resources that provide immediate value.
Highlight awareness days/months relevant to your niches.
Share behind-the-scenes content that humanizes your practice while maintaining professional boundaries.
Repurpose your existing content (blog posts, newsletters, podcast interviews) into Instagram-friendly formats.
Content Design:
Consider posting a variety of content forms–carousel posts, infographics, short Reels, and Stories.
Leverage trending audio in Instagram Reels to increase discoverability (while maintaining professional integrity).
Instagram Stories in particular can be useful for sharing time-sensitive information and to humanize your brand.
Create a cohesive visual identity throughout your posts and graphics with consistent colors and fonts that reflect your therapeutic approach.
Tools like Canva provide a wide variety of options when designing graphics to meet your desired style. For example, trauma therapists might consider using calming blues with clean sans-serif fonts; child psychologists could incorporate more playful, rounded fonts with warm yellows; mindfulness therapists might use earthy tones with flowing script accents.
In the captions of posts, consider using strategic hashtags (10-15 per post) that combine popular, niche-specific, and location-based terms.
Content Scheduling:
Post consistently, aiming for 3-5 quality posts per week.
Hootsuite recommends "at minimum, three posts per week on Instagram," ideally mixing carousels, reels, and static posts. Regular posting increases your chances of discovery and helps you test what resonates with your audience. That said, don't stress too much; maintain a schedule that feels sustainable.
Be sure to focus on quality over quantity. As Hootsuite's Trish Riswick says: “Three quality posts are worth more than five low-quality posts.”
Use Instagram Stories more frequently — Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, suggests 2 Stories per day to boost visibility.
Some therapists may find that using a content calendar to schedule out content helps to maintain consistency and to plan posts around seasonal mental health topics. This can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet, or something more formal like a content calendar tool such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Tailwind, and more.
Step 3: Managing your Engagement Strategy
Use engagement tools like polls, questions, and quizzes in Stories to increase follower interaction.
Monitor analytics and insights using instagram’s professional account dashboard (or another external social media management tool) to understand which content resonates best with your audience.
Respond to comments in a professional, supportive manner within 24-48 hours. Be sure to avoid providing personalized advice that could be construed as therapy.
Create clear guidelines for when to move conversations offline.
Know when to direct people in crisis to appropriate emergency resources.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, a thoughtfully and ethically managed Instagram presence can be a powerful tool for therapists looking to grow their practice, both in terms of reaching new clients and enhancing professional reputations.
While social media is a great tool in an overall marketing strategy, to take a more well-rounded approach, you may want to consider teaming up with a specialized agency. Here at TherapieSEO, we have years of experience helping mental health professionals reach more clients, more effectively. Reach out today to chat more about how we can support your practice's growth!
