For therapists and counsellors

Your clients are not the ones you hand it to.

Counselling work does not arrive from marketing at clients. It arrives from GPs, supervisors, other therapists and the two directories you are listed in. Cardr is built for that side of the room: a card for colleagues, a list of who actually refers, and nothing automated pointed at anybody vulnerable.

For a private practice the marketing surface is other professionals, not clients. Handing a business card to somebody in session is inappropriate, and chasing an enquiry from a distressed person is worse. What actually fills a practice is being the person a GP, a supervisor, an EAP coordinator or another therapist remembers when they have someone they cannot take. Cardr is a card for that network, plus a record of who refers and who only said they would.

The real scene

A CPD day, a supervision group, a directory listing.

Three places the work actually comes from, and none of them is a client.

Where it happens

The peer network

Three places the work actually comes from, and none of them is a client.

  • Not the client The referral comes from a GP, a supervisor or another practitioner. Marketing at clients is neither effective nor appropriate.
  • Months later A colleague passes on a referral they cannot take, and that happens long after the day you met.
  • Nothing automated No sequences and no timed chasing. In this work an automatic message is a failure, not a feature.

Every constraint above is what decides the format. A card that fails any one of the three does not get used a second time, however good it looks.

Private practice fills through the peer network. A supervision group, a CPD day, a local network of practitioners, the GP surgery that has your details somewhere. Those are ordinary professional handovers, and they are the only place a business card belongs in this work at all.

What matters about them is memory. A therapist who cannot take a referral passes it to whoever they can bring to mind, and that is decided months after you met. Being on their phone rather than in a pile of CPD-day paper is a real advantage, and it costs nothing to have.

The second half is knowing who actually sends people. Most practitioners have a rough sense and it is usually wrong. A list with a note against each name turns that into something you can see, which changes who you make the effort to stay in touch with.

The card itself

What it looks like on the phone.

Not a mock-up. The artwork below is drawn by the same function that draws the inside of the signed .pkpass file, in the same colours the real pass carries, so this is what Wallet shows.

Cardr UpdatedToday
RuthEllery
WorksIntegrative, EMDR
SpaceTwo openings

cardr.co/ruth-ellery

Scan or tap to savei
An example card in the sage design. The holder is invented; the rendering is not. All eight designs are on Pro, three on the free plan.
What you get

Deliberately not a marketing automation tool.

  • Nothing sends by itself. Cardr drafts and reminds. It does not run sequences, and there is no version of this product that emails a distressed person on a timer.
  • Modality and availability on the card. Integrative, CBT, EMDR, in-person or online, and whether you have space. The last one changes constantly and is the whole reason a colleague does or does not refer to you this month.
  • Who actually refers. Notes and tags against each contact, so the difference between the supervisor who sends two a year and the one who has never sent any is visible rather than assumed.
  • Their details captured too. A CPD day full of colleagues is a genuine referral network if you leave with their contacts rather than with a lanyard.
  • One card, and it corrects itself. New room, new fee, new registration number, closed books. Edit once and every colleague holding your card sees it.
  • No client-facing app. Nothing to install and no account for anyone to create. Apple Wallet is already on the phone.
Questions

Therapists, answered.

Should I give this to clients?

That is your clinical judgement and your professional body’s guidance, not ours. What we would say is that the product is designed for the colleague side of the work, and the follow-up drafting exists for a professional contact you met at a CPD day, not for somebody in distress. Nothing in Cardr sends anything automatically, which is deliberate.

Can I show whether I have space?

Yes, and it is probably the single most useful thing you can put on it. Availability is what decides whether a colleague refers to you this month, and it is the thing most out of date on every printed card and directory listing. Edit it once and every copy already saved updates itself.

Is this a client management system?

No, and it must not be used as one. It holds a contact and a short note so you can remember a professional relationship. Nothing clinical, identifiable or session-related belongs in it. Our privacy page sets out what is stored, and Pro exports everything to CSV or vCard so nothing is trapped here.

Does it replace my directory listing?

No. Counselling Directory, BACP and Psychology Today are where clients search, and you should stay on them. This is for the professional handovers those directories do not cover, and for keeping the network that refers to you in a form you can actually see.

What does it cost?

The card, the Apple Wallet pass and the two-way exchange are free forever, with no card details taken. Pro is £12 a month, or £9 billed annually, and adds the contact memory, notes and tags, the drafted messages and the reminders. Sixty-day money back guarantee.

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