About Salty Pebbles Creative
Hi, I’m Sarah,
I’m a therapist with a background in marketing and communications, helping other therapists with the bits of private practice that happen outside the therapy room.
From marketing university degrees to marketing myself.
Before becoming a counsellor, I spent years working in marketing and communications in higher education. I was used to thinking about audiences, messaging, websites and what helps people make decisions.
Marketing my own private practice has felt very different.
I’m no longer marketing something at arm’s length – I’m marketing myself and work that feels deeply personal to me. I’ve had to find a way of talking about what I do that feels genuine, while still helping the right people find me. And get to grips with working without the support of a wider marketing team or a university-sized budget, alongside actually seeing clients and running the rest of my practice.
It’s given me a very different perspective on marketing. Knowing what to do doesn’t necessarily make it comfortable to do when it’s you you’re putting out there. So if you find marketing yourself as a counsellor uncomfortable, conflicting or just a bit daunting, I get it. Marketing experience doesn’t magically make that bit disappear.
Salty Pebbles Creative brings these two sides of my working life together: my background in marketing and communications, and my experience of being the therapist on the other side of it.
Why Salty Pebbles Creative?
I could tell you it’s because Budleigh Salterton is my local beach and it’s covered in pebbles. Which is true. But the real answer is a bit more whimsical and sentimental than that.
I love the weight and smoothness of the pebbles in my hand and how reassuringly solid they feel. I love how dramatically their colours change as they dry – deep purples, blues, blacks and bright whites fading into softer, dusky versions of themselves. And I can lose ridiculous amounts of time spotting patterns and shapes without even realising I’m doing it, from love hearts to the slightly alarming shark head in the photo.
Over the last few years, I’ve found myself sitting amongst those pebbles through some of the toughest and most painful times in my life, as well as some of the happiest and most wonderfully ordinary ones.
As a counsellor, when I finish working with a long-term or particularly meaningful client, I go to the beach and find a pebble that reminds me of the work we’ve done. I sit with it for a few minutes, reflect on our time together, and then throw it into the sea to carry on without me.
Somewhere along the way, without really noticing, the pebbles wove themselves into the fabric of my life. So when I needed a name for something that brought together two important parts of it, Salty Pebbles felt right.
And they are, in fact, very salty. Apparently I touch my mouth a lot more than I realised!
HOW I WORK
A few things that matter to me
I want working together to feel straightforward, collaborative and genuinely useful. A few things shape how I approach every project:
Collaborative & Supportive
It’s your practice, not mine. I’ll bring ideas, experience and recommendations, but I won’t take over or try to squeeze you into my idea of what a therapist’s website or marketing should look like.
Honest & Transparent
If I don’t think you need something, I’ll tell you. I’ll be clear about what I can do, what it will cost and where I think your time or money is better spent.
Clear & Straightforward
You don’t need to understand SEO, analytics or how your website works before asking for help. I’ll explain what matters in normal language, so you can understand what I’m doing and why.
Creative & Practical
I like things to look good, but they also need to work. I’m interested in finding solutions that fit you, your practice and the resources you actually have – not making things complicated for the sake of it.
Think we might work well together?
If you’ve got something you’d like a hand with, tell me a little about what you’re working on and what would make things easier. We can take it from there.