Colour Palette Picker

As therapists, we understand the impact of the environment on our clients' emotions. Your website's color palette is no different - it's the digital equivalent of your therapy room's ambiance.

WHY COLORS MATTER IN THERAPY WEBSITES

The 5-Color Framework: Every professional website typically uses 5 key colors:

  1. Lightest (usually white/off-white) - For readability

  2. Light (brand color) - For main sections

  3. Bright (accent) - For calls-to-action

  4. Dark (brand color) - For depth

  5. Darkest (usually black/off-black) - For text

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE THERAPISTS MAKE

Most therapists either:

  • Default to template colors (missing opportunity to connect)

  • Choose personal favorites (forgetting about client appeal)

  • Pick trendy colors (without strategic purpose)

STRATEGIC COLOR SELECTION

Consider Three Factors:

  1. Your Clinical Approach

    • CBT? Consider structured, clear colors

    • Humanistic? Warmer, inviting tones

    • Psychodynamic? Deep, thoughtful shades

  2. Your Ideal Client

    • Professional adults? Sophisticated, clean palettes

    • Anxiety clients? Calming, soft tones

    • Youth? Energetic but not overwhelming colors

    • Perinatal? Gentle, nurturing shades

  3. Your Brand Personality

    • Traditional practice? Classic, professional colors

    • Modern approach? Contemporary, fresh palettes

    • Holistic focus? Natural, organic tones

Real World Examples

Successful Colour Stories:

  1. Products about courage and fearlessness represented in colours: https://brenebrown.com/ 

  2. Professional yet approachable: https://www.drjulie.uk/ 

Strategic Color Communication example:

My website sociallyfearless.com:

My target audience are socially anxious professionals. As anxiety is the main issue, I’ve gone with calming neutral colours. The pop of pink is there as I am generally targeting females as they seek therapy more than males, and I also like the colour pink, however it’s not OTT to the point it alienates males. Pink is aso calming and welcoming so that was also the aim. I wanted to keep it professional as a lot of socially anxious people have fear of public speaking, so I kept the colours professional/smart so that I can attract a professional audience who may have that issue. 

My website fearlesstherapists.com:

My target clients for this are therapists, which is a primarily female workforce (for now - I know things are changing which is wonderful!). However, I don’t want to alienate male therapists so I’ve not gone OTT with it. I’ve gone for feminine colours that are also modern. This represents my own vibe as well, which I would consider to be feminine. I went for modern as I’m looking to attract therapists who want to get out of the traditional 9-5 and build businesses with a kick ass website. Traditional therapists won’t want what I offer, so I’ve not gone with typical professional or NHS colours but something that suggests forward thinking, new, fun, safe, modern, calming etc.

FIND YOUR COLOURS

FIND YOUR COLOURS

My suggestion is you use AI to help get you going.

  1. Open chatgpt or claude.ai

  2. Open this website on a seperate page and have them side by side

  3. Enter the following prompt into the ai:

I'm creating a website for my [THERAPY PRACTICE - EXPLAIN WHAT YOU DO AND WHO YOU TARGET]. I need help deciding the colour scheme, using colour psychology. The colours need to appeal to my client, whilst conveying my values of [MY VALUES]. Every professional website follows this formula: 

The 5-Color Framework:

Every professional website typically uses 5 key colors: Lightest (usually white/off-white)
For readability - Light (brand color)
For main sections - Bright (accent)
For calls-to-action - Dark (brand color)
For depth Darkest (usually black/off-black) - For text.

Please help me decide colours for a website taking into account the below.

My clinicial approach is [ENTER PSYCHOTHERAPY APPROACH]. The colours need to represent [E.G. DEEP, WARM, STRUCTURED, STRONG].

My brand personality is [PERSONALITY E.G. PROFESSIONAL, FUN, HAPPY]. The colours need to represent this.

My ideal client is [YOUR IDEAL CLIENT E.G. ANXIOUS WOMEN IN THEIR 20S].

Please include hex codes.

4. The AI will give you suggestions with HEX codes e.g. light pink = #C23DF7.

5. Enter these colours into the colour palette website to compare the 5 next to each other and see what you think.

Keep playing around and don’t rely on the AI! Use the suggestions as a starting point for inspiration until you find what feels like that “handshake” of colours that represent you and the client.

Send me the colours when you’ve found them!!

Pro tips

— Remember, your website colors should feel like a warm handshake between your professional identity and your client's needs.


— Canva has a pre-selection of colours here that can help inspire you. However try not to use them exactly as all of these are well used already.

Note: if you’re not marketing to a particular client, then you can just pick the colours that suit your own values and theme. However, targeting is the most effective marketing.