Therapist marketing · Updated 2026-10-19

Therapist Instagram highlight covers: ideas & best practices

When someone finds your therapy profile on Instagram, they rarely scroll your whole feed. They read your bio, glance at the row of circles underneath it, and tap the one that answers the question they actually have: How much does it cost? How do I book? Is this person safe to talk to? Those circles are your story highlights, and the little images on them are highlight covers.

This guide covers what to put in your highlights, what to call them, how to design covers that stay readable at thumbnail size, and the ethical points that matter for therapists and counsellors. It finishes with a starter set of titles and simple steps for making covers in PowerPoint or Google Slides. If you're building your profile from scratch, it pairs well with our guides to writing a therapist Instagram bio, ethical captions and 40 post ideas.

Why highlights matter more for a therapy practice

For a clothing brand, highlights are a nice extra. For a private practice, they do real work, because the people looking at your profile are often anxious, tired, or unsure whether therapy is for them. A clear row of highlights helps in four ways.

• They answer practical questions before anyone has to ask. Many people find it hard to send a first message. If your fees, availability and booking steps are one tap away, they don't have to.
• They stay put. Feed posts get buried in a week. A highlight sits under your bio until you remove it, so it's the right home for information that doesn't change often.
• They cut repetitive DMs. "Do you take insurance?" and "Do you work online?" can be answered once, properly, instead of fifty times in your inbox.
• They show care. A visible Crisis highlight and a calm, consistent look tell a stranger something about how you work, before they've read a word of your approach.

Think of your highlights as the leaflet rack in a waiting room: a few clearly labelled answers, kept up to date.

Naming your highlights: short, plain and predictable

The title under each circle matters more than the picture on it. Instagram cuts off long titles on the profile, so stick to one word or a very short phrase. Aim for about 10 to 12 characters at most. Use the words your clients use, not internal jargon. "Fees" beats "Investment". "Book" beats "Work with me". "FAQ" is understood almost everywhere.

Here are the names therapists use most, and what belongs in each:

• About: who you are, your registration or licence, where you practise, and one line on your approach. Add a short "Hello, I'm…" story with a friendly photo of you or your room.
• Services: individual, couples, family, groups, workshops, supervision. One story per service, each saying who it's for.
• Fees: session length and price, consultation calls, concession or sliding-scale places, insurance or superbills, and your cancellation policy. Clear fees are one of the kindest things you can publish.
• Book: the actual steps. "1. Tap the link in my bio. 2. Choose a free 15-minute call. 3. I'll email you within two working days." Use a link sticker where you can.
• FAQ: the questions you answer in every consultation. Do I need a GP referral? What if I cry? How many sessions will I need? (Answer that one honestly: it varies.)
• Online or Location: what online sessions look like, which platform you use, where the practice is, parking, step-free access, and which regions you're licensed to work in.
• Resources: grounding exercises, reputable reading, your favourite NHS, NIMH or Head to Health pages. Keep it general and cite your sources.
• Crisis: what to do in an emergency, and a clear statement that your account and DMs are not monitored for emergencies. More on this below.
• Boundaries or Policies: how you use social media. For example, that you won't follow clients back, won't reply to clinical questions in DMs, and how quickly you answer enquiries.
• CPD or Training: courses you've finished and what you took from them. (US therapists might prefer "CE" or "Training".) It quietly shows you keep learning.
• Contact: email, enquiry form, and when you're usually able to reply.

Design tips: calm, readable and consistent

Design for the smallest size first

On a phone, a highlight circle is about the size of a fingertip. Anything fine and detailed will turn to mush. Before you finalise a design, shrink it down to roughly 100 pixels wide on your screen and look at it from arm's length. If you can't read it, simplify it.

• One word or one simple shape per cover. Not both a word and a detailed illustration.
• Keep everything inside the central circle. Instagram crops a circle from the middle of your image, so leave a generous margin. Anything near the corners will be cut off.
• Use a clean serif or sans-serif at a heavy enough weight. Thin script fonts disappear at this size.

Choose a calm, limited palette

Two or three colours are plenty: a background colour, a text colour, and perhaps one accent. Muted sage, dusky blue, warm stone and soft charcoal suit most practices because they feel steady without looking clinical. Match them to your feed posts and website so the whole profile reads as one place.

Make the set consistent

The row works as a group. Use the same font, the same size, the same layout and the same border on every cover. Only the word or icon should change. If one cover is a photo, one is a cartoon and one is a gradient, the row looks noisy, and noise is the opposite of what you want to convey.

Words or icons?

Icons look tidy, but people have to decode them. Is a leaf "About" or "Resources"? In a therapy practice, clarity is part of the service, so words on the cover usually work better. If you do use icons, check the licence and keep them all from one set.

Order the row on purpose

Put the most-needed highlights at the front: usually About, Fees, Book and Crisis. Be aware that, at the time of writing, Instagram moves a highlight to the front of the row whenever you add a new story to it. So if you update Fees, it jumps to first place. Plan your updates with that in mind, or re-add a story to the highlight you want at the front.

The ethical side

Highlights are public, permanent and easy to screenshot, so they deserve the same care as anything else you publish. Our ethics checklist for therapist social media covers this in depth. These are the points that apply to highlights in particular.

Include a Crisis highlight

If you only make one highlight, make this one. It should say clearly that your account and DMs are not monitored for emergencies, and list what to do instead. Adapt it to where your clients live, for example:

• UK: 999 in an emergency, Samaritans 116 123 (free, 24/7), NHS 111
• US: 911 in an emergency, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text)
• Australia: 000 in an emergency, Lifeline 13 11 14
• Elsewhere: your national emergency number and a local crisis line

Check the numbers at least once a year.

No client faces, stories or screenshots

Never use a client's photo, words, artwork or messages on a cover or in a highlight, even with permission and even if they're anonymised. That includes "thank you" messages and screenshots of DMs. Recognition risk is real, and consent given during therapy is complicated by the relationship itself.

Be careful with a "Reviews" highlight

Many template packs include a Reviews or Testimonials cover. Before you use one, check your rules. The APA Ethics Code (5.05) says psychologists don't solicit testimonials from current clients. In Australia, AHPRA restricts testimonials in advertising regulated health services. Many US state boards and UK advertising rules are also strict about them. For many therapists, the safer choice is to give that space to something else, such as "Approach" or "Training".

Keep claims accurate

Your About and Services highlights should only list credentials you hold and services you're trained and insured to offer. Avoid outcome promises like "anxiety-free in 8 weeks". Add "general information only, not therapy" to Resources stories.

Keep them up to date

An out-of-date fee, a waitlist that closed months ago, or a crisis number that's changed is a small breach of trust. Put a reminder in your calendar to review every highlight each quarter.

Accessibility

• Put the meaning in the title. The highlight title is real text, while the cover is just an image. If your cover shows only an icon, the title has to do the explaining.
• Use strong contrast. Aim for at least 4.5:1 contrast between text and background (the WCAG guideline for normal text). Pale sage text on a pale cream background looks lovely and is hard to read. A free contrast checker will tell you in seconds.
• Don't rely on colour alone. "The green one is Fees" doesn't work for everyone.
• Keep the stories inside readable too. Use large text, short lines and enough time per slide. Put essential information, such as crisis numbers and fees, as real text on your website or link-in-bio page as well, where screen readers can read it.

A starter set: 14 highlight titles

You don't need all of these. Most practices are well served by six to eight. Pick the ones your enquiries actually ask about.

1. Start here: a two-story welcome that explains how to use your profile
2. About: you, your credentials and your approach
3. Services: what you offer and who each service is for
4. Fees: prices, concessions, insurance, cancellation policy
5. Book: three clear steps and a link sticker
6. FAQ: the ten questions you hear most
7. First session: what happens, step by step
8. Online: platform, privacy, what you need at home
9. Location: address, access, parking, public transport
10. Resources: grounding skills and reputable links, with sources
11. Crisis: emergency numbers and "not monitored" wording
12. Boundaries: your social media and messaging policy
13. CPD: recent training and one takeaway each
14. Contact: how to reach you and when you reply

A good default row for a solo practice: About · Fees · Book · FAQ · Online · Resources · Crisis.

How to make covers in PowerPoint or Google Slides (no Canva needed)

You don't need a design subscription to make good covers, and keeping the source files in a format you own means you're not locked into one app. Here's a simple method.

In Google Slides

1. Create a new presentation and go to File → Page setup → Custom. Set it to 1080 × 1080 pixels.
2. Fill the background with your main colour (Background in the toolbar).
3. Insert a circle (Insert → Shape), hold Shift to keep it round, and centre it with a thin outline in your text colour. This marks the safe area.
4. Add a text box in the middle with your word, at a heavy enough weight to read at a small size (around 120-160 pt works well at this canvas size).
5. Duplicate the slide for each highlight and change only the word.
6. Download each slide with File → Download → PNG image, which saves the current slide.

In PowerPoint

1. Go to Design → Slide Size → Custom Slide Size and set the width and height to 11.25 in (28.575 cm). On Windows, the standard export resolution turns that into a 1080 × 1080 image. On a Mac, you can type 1080 into the export width.
2. Add your background colour, a centred circle and your text, as above.
3. Set up your colours as theme colours (Design → Variants → Colors → Customize Colors). Then you can re-colour the whole set at once if you rebrand.
4. Export with File → Export → PNG and choose All slides to get one image per cover.

Adding the cover on Instagram

1. Save the PNGs to your phone.
2. Open your profile, press and hold a highlight, and choose Edit highlight.
3. Tap Edit cover, then the gallery icon, and choose your image. Pinch to centre it inside the circle.
4. Check the title, tap Done, and look at your profile on a phone (not just a laptop) to make sure everything reads well.

You can set a cover from your camera roll this way without posting it to your story.

A quick check before you publish the row

1. Can a stranger tell what each highlight contains from its title alone?
2. Is every cover readable at fingertip size, on a phone?
3. Is there a Crisis highlight, with numbers checked this year?
4. Is there any client material, testimonial or outcome claim anywhere? Remove it.
5. Do fees, availability and booking steps match your website?
6. Does the row look like one calm set that matches your feed?

Want to see finished posts and captions before you buy anything? Peek at the free Calm Practice sample (3 posts + 5 captions, no email).

This article is general marketing information for therapists and counsellors, not legal, ethical or clinical advice. Follow your licensing board, professional body and local advertising rules. Instagram changes its features often, so menu names may differ slightly on your app. Related reading: free Calm Practice sample · pinned posts · Instagram Stories · bio guide · link-in-bio page · captions · post ideas · ethics checklist · The Calm Practice on Etsy.