How Therapists Can Get Recommended by ChatGPT

At some point, someone will ask ChatGPT: "Can you recommend a good psychotherapist in Frankfurt who specializes in anxiety disorders?" And ChatGPT will answer. With a name, address, maybe even a brief assessment.

The question isn't whether this happens — it's already happening, daily, millions of times. The question is: does your practice appear in that answer?

What's changing right now

Just two years ago, people searched for therapists almost exclusively via Google. That's changing faster than most realize. According to a recent BrightLocal study, 45% of consumers already use AI tools for local recommendations — two years ago it was 6%. In Germany, according to a 2025 TÜV study, 48% of AI users already employ these tools as an alternative to traditional internet search.

Seven out of ten of these queries come outside of practice hours — exactly when someone can't sleep at night, has finally worked up the courage, and is taking the first step.

How ChatGPT and other AI systems compile their recommendations

The biggest misconception is thinking ChatGPT works like Google. It doesn't — and this difference explains why many practices that rank well on Google are still invisible on ChatGPT.

This means: a strategy that only targets Google covers at best one third of the AI ecosystem. Those who understand how patients search online quickly realize that the channels are multiplying.

What AI systems actually evaluate

Researchers at Princeton University measured for the first time in 2024 which factors determine whether a website appears in AI responses. What increased visibility by up to 115%: including concrete numbers and source citations. What hurt: classic keyword stuffing — which reduced visibility by 10%.

Mentions on third-party sites also play a role: listings in professional directories, mentions in professional publications, listicles like "Recommended therapists for..." signal authority. The more often your name appears in reputable sources, the more likely you are to be cited.

What this means in practice — and what you can do

Where the website comes into play

AI systems read websites — they extract information about the practice, qualifications, specializations, and language. A website that says too little gives AI systems too little to work with. A website that is clearly structured, contains complete practice data, and answers concrete questions is preferentially cited.

This also means: the technical foundation must be solid.

Websites that load in under 0.4 seconds are cited three times more often by ChatGPT. Add mobile optimization, HTTPS encryption — and no blocked AI crawlers in the robots.txt file. Those who build their own website should pay attention to these fundamentals from the start.

When you create a practice website with Therapendo, it comes with these fundamentals built in: clean structure, fast hosting in Frankfurt, a solid local SEO foundation. What comes after — Foursquare listing, reviews, FAQ content — is your job. But you don't start on the wrong foot.

A final thought

AI visibility isn't a technical specialty project. It's the logical continuation of what good online presence has always meant: clear information, real qualifications, current data, satisfied patients who spread the word — now also in digital form, to millions of AI queries daily.

The window for easy wins is still open. Hardly any practice is specifically optimizing for AI systems yet. Those who start now build an advantage that grows over time — because AI systems tend to continue favoring sources they've previously cited.

The first step is a website that gives ChatGPT something to read in the first place.