Digital Products for Therapists: A Simple Guide to Creating a Self-Care Planner

Digital Products for Therapists

If you're a therapist, coach, or wellness professional, you've probably found yourself repeating the same advice: “Make sure you're taking care of yourself, too.” But you're often working too many hours and compromising your own down time?

What if you could use your expertise to do more than help your clients within a session? What if you could package your knowledge into a digital product, like a self-care planner, journal or e-Book, that helps people between sessions, as well as countless others who come across your products online?

In this post, we'll look at why digital products are a great addition to your business, as well as guide you to create your own simple, thoughtful self-care planner using Canva, even if you're not a designer!

Plus… find out how you can join me as I build a shop dedicated to digital products for therapists and wellbeing professionals.

Plus a bonus available to you for free to help you save even more time…!

*Affiliate Disclosure: Some links in this post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something via the link, I may receive a small commission. This doesn't affect the price you pay.

If you have any questions, reach out for a chat [email protected] or check out my other blogs

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Why Digital Products Are a Great Idea for Wellness Professionals

Working as a therapist, counselor, wellness coach can be exhausting. When you're holding people in a safe space, while supporting them to improve their mental health and wellbeing. This is high energy, and for many it limits how many people they can work with at one time. For those of us who have to manage low energy, it can be even more difficult.

Regardless of whether you have energy or other health issues, working one-to-one will still have its limits due to time. It's why looking for additional sources of income that are less time (and energy) consuming is becoming more popular within the mental health and wellness world.

Digital products for therapists / other wellness professionals provides a great opportunity to support a much wider audience, which is not only a good business decision, but it feels good too as it makes support more accessible.

Creating and selling digital products and tools like planners, journals, and templates will allow you to:

• Support more people without adding more to your daily schedule.
• Offer value between client sessions.
• Provide support to those who aren’t yet ready for 1:1 work.
• Earn passive income that takes less time and energy than 1:1 work.
• Build trust and visibility for yourself and your business.
  

The key thing to remember is that you don’t need to overcomplicate it. Start small with a simple guide, mini journal or self-care planner. These are also great for lead magnets, but you do also deserve to get paid for what you create as well!

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A Step-by-Step Guide: Create a Self-Care Planner

Here’s how to create a simple but beautiful, useful self-care planner or journal that reflects your therapeutic experience, and helps people to focus on their wellbeing.

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1. Choose the Focus of Your Self-Care Planner

Before you make a start, think about the purpose of your self-care planner / journal. Self-care means different things to different people, and for some, the notion of simply allowing yourself to rest or take a walk isn't what springs to mind.

Try to not get too stuck at this point, because you can make changes as your creation comes to life!

To make your planner feel intentional, and something that feels aligned with your focus and the needs of your clients / audience, ask yourself:

• Do you want to focus on emotional wellbeing, stress relief, creating a balanced life, burnout prevention, or something else?
• Who is it for? Is it intended for your clients, other therapists, overwhelmed mums, introverts, people with chronic illness?
• How will it help them? What will make it helpful and appealing to your clients / audience? What problem does it solve or support them with?
  

Example: “A Weekly Calm Planner” for tired women juggling homelife and work, with no time to take care of themselves”

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2. Decide the Length & Format

You don’t need to create a 300-page high-end masterpiece for a digital product, especially when you first start out. Think about how you want to present it, what you know you want to include, and the journey you want to take the person through.

For example, if they are pushed for time, giving them 10 prompts a day to complete isn't realistic and will simply feel like yet another thing they have to do…

Choose a format that feels manageable to you and digestible to your audience. Some things to consider:

• Weekly or daily layouts?
  
• Undated or dated?
  
• PDF download (printable), Google Slides/Docs template, Canva template or printed product?
  

Remember to keep it simple to begin with. For example, a 4-8 week printable PDF product with repeating pages in the middle and prompts to expand thinking.

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3. Map Out the Sections

Here are some popular sections that work well in a self-care planner:

Mood & Energy Tracker
Trackers are a great way to not only build self-awareness as the beginning of the planner, but to also track progress along the way. It can be easy to miss the subtle changes, so keeping a record is great for spotting patterns as well as noticing change.

Daily/Weekly Reflection Prompts
Including daily and weekly reflection prompts are a gentle way to help the reader explore meaning behind thoughts, feelings and reactions. Simple prompts like “What do I need today?” or “One small win this week” are great to include inside planners as it helps to focus on more than what's on your to-do list. Decide on a Sunday / Monday start, and be consistent with this.

Hydration / Nutrition / Movement check-ins
Another good addition depending on the space / focus of your planner. These check-ins Encourages a focus on simple self-care activities.

Mini Mindfulness or Daily Routines
You may want to include some ideas for quick breathing exercises, or grounding techniques, these are great for helping to set the mood and tone for the day ahead, and to remember how to manage emotions in the moment.

Plan Ahead with Intention
You could include space to make notes, or for reminders, intentions, appointments, or time block spaces for planned rest / self-care activities.

Tip: Less is more. Leave plenty of white space so that it doesn’t feel cluttered or overwhelming. Creating a planner / journal where self-care is the focus, it's important to give enough space for more reflections, and to feel like a calm space.

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4. Design It (Without Overthinking…)

There are different tools you can use to create your planner. It will largely depend on how you want it to feel and look, what you feel comfortable with and your level of skill with tech.

You can create your planner in:

• Canva – user-friendly, with free templates. This is my all time favourite tool. It is so simple to navigate, and the extras you now get with Canva Pro are unbelievable. As a non-artistic I have created some beautiful products.
• Adobe – If you're comfortable with adobe inDesign, this could be a great way to design your printable. If you're new / a beginner, this may take a lot more time to use rather than Canva / Canva Pro.
• Google Docs or Slides – If you want to go for simplicity, Google docs are getting better and better! They are great for editable planners, which can be popular with people. If your planner is designed for clients you're working with – it has a very simple sharing function which means (if it's a tool within your therapy), you can support clients using their daily / weekly reflections. If you want to make Google Docs look prettier – Gio is a superstar at this.
• Notion or GoodNotes formats – If you’re tech-savvy with these, and experienced with creating digital planners, these can be brilliant. There are lots of templates available online, but if you're a beginner, I would still recommend Canva / Canva Pro.
  

Reflection: If design isn’t your strength, you can also start with a template. Customise the fonts, colours, and layout, adding your own elements as well to make it your own. This can help to reflect your own brand and style. Be mindful of whether you have the right to use it commercially even with the customisations. (Keep reading for an added bonus that can help with this!)

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5. Get Creating!

By now you've chosen the tool you're going to use, you're clear on your ideal client / audience. You understand the purpose of the self-care planner and how it will help.

You know what you want to include, and you're ready to get creating! For the purpose of this I'll refer to Canva as this is my go-to tool.

Canva Design Steps

Canva is a free online tool. It has the option for Pro – which is not only affordable, but it gives you amazing additional tools. If you're looking to create regular products, use it within your business, create your social content etc., I highly recommend upgrading. Canva is popular because you don't need to be a designer.

It's an easy to use platform, which you can access on your computer, or using their app on your phone or tablet.

Since starting my own therapy practice and then growing my coaching and digital product business, I have used Canva Pro pretty much daily! There are a couple of other blogs you can find on my site as well, just pop “Canva” into the search bar. These will give you more instructions on how to use it.

Once you set up an account with Canva (free or paid), you can get started straight away!

1. Open Canva and start with a blank document
Go to Canva and choose a custom size (A4 or US Letter are best for printables). When you open it, it may show you templates to the left. Have a scroll through to see if there are any that you think can help you save some time.

Just to note: If you're using a template from someone else (not one of the ones inside Canva), when you click on it, it will take you straight into the document).

2. Choose your colours and fonts
Now is the fun part! Choose the colour scheme you want to use. I do recommend choosing a scheme that is aligned with your overall brand. This offers consistency, and helps to promote familiarity with your business. Pick 1–3 calm colours (like sage, blush, beige, or light grey).

Use no more than 2 fonts that again reflects your current brand and maintains consistency. Use a more decorative font paired with a clean fonts to help with the overall look. For example:

• Heading: A Playfair or Script font
• Body: Open Sans or Montserrat

*If you're struggling with your brand, or looking to refresh things, I highly recommend working with Rosey. The Timeless Brand Society is a brilliant low cost membership, where you can learn how to create a beautiful brand. The feedback and support provided by Rosie is just amazing.

3. Create a calm, minimal layout
As you're creating a self-care planner / journal, aim for a calm and spacious feeling product that's clear and easy to use. Use boxes, lines or dotted spaces for each section, with plenty of white space.

• Weekly overview with some “week ahead” prompts to ease into the week.
• Daily pages that allows space for a self-care and work-based focus.
• Intention/focus space at the top.
• Priority list (top 3 items).
• Space for notes or reflections / prompt pages.

4. Add soft design elements (optional)
Including pretty borders, patterns, therapy or wellness related elements can enhance the overall look of the pages, but where possible, think about the less-is-more approach. (Unless of course your branding is bright and bold!)

5. Review and adjust
This is where it's easy to get caught and become stuck. Let go of any of those underlying perfectionism urges…

Yes, check it through, edit it to make sure it's how you want it to look, and for any obvious errors. But if you find yourself spending way more time than is needed (yes, 100% talking from personal experience…) set yourself a time limit to let it go.

Take a break then come back to it with fresh eyes a while or couple of days later. That is when you'll see it with a completely fresh perspective – any spelling mistakes will jump out at you, or you may get a feeling that it's a bit too much, or that something's missing. But please only allow a specific time, or it could steal hours (days) from you..!

*If you have Canva Pro – this process can be even quicker. You can use your brand kit to get set up with fonts, colours and images, as well as many more templates, photos and tools to help improve your work even more!

Additional Considerations:

• Create an intro page welcoming the reader, introducing yourself, and setting the tone for the planner / journal.
• Create a “keep in touch” page at the end with details of where they can find you, other offers or products you have,
• Save as a high-quality PDF. If you have Canva Pro select PDF Print in the download section, then choose CMYK. This provides the highest quality. If you have the free Canva your products will still be very good, but CMYK is a professional standard.
  

You don't need to include any of these ideas, , but it can be a great way to enhance the quality and make the planner feel more personal.

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6. Next Steps

Once your planner is ready, you can:

• Upload it to your own website, Etsy, Gumroad, Payhip, Etsy. Use your socials and email list to help advertise it. You may opt to use paid ads to help you reach a wider audience. Make sure you have funnels set up so that it's easy for people to find you and make the purchase.
  
• Offer it as a freebie to grow your email list, as above have your funnel in place that leads to other offers you want to promote.
  
• Include it as part of your client onboarding pack or other related courses.
  

Tip: Make sure your audience knows that this planner isn’t about creating perfection. It’s about taking small steps toward better care and creating lifelong healthy habits.

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Final Round-up

Creating a digital product like this self-care planner doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or become too time-consuming. Think about the tools you would like to use with your clients. How could you create something that enhances their experience with you?

What is a message you'd love to get out there, something that you'd love more people to know about and embrace?

Use AI to help you map out ideas for your new digital products. It's a great way to throw ideas back and forth and help you come up with ideas for products that will enhance your business, while staying true to yourself and your beliefs and expertise.

Your personal and professional experience and therapeutic tools are invaluable. Creating digital products is a brilliant way to expand your business whilst giving yourself the opportunity to support even more people – without the time commitment that comes with 1:1 work.

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Bonus: Ready for a Shortcut?

Before we move to the next step – if you're not already a Canva user, follow this link to create an account, then come back here to download the template link. Join Canva Now!

I'm very excited to share this self-care planner template with you, and the best part is, you can use this to create your own customised planner and sell / use as a freebie / with existing clients.

The only limitation is that you do not have resell rights to this. What this means is that you cannot sell it as a template.

I encourage you to make it your own, use the template as the basic structure, and then improve and customise it. Add in your own little spark and creativity!

Tools, Resources & Support

Below are some of my favourite tools and resources:

Canva Pro – Upgrade your content design with Canva Pro. Explore the enhanced features available in Pro. Grab your free trial here.

Etsy – Are you ready to create your own online store? Etsy is a brilliant shopping platform that's used by millions. Setting up your store is simple, and when you sign up with this link we both get 40 free listings!

Grow With Evelyn – Evelyn Weiss is an extraordinary coach. GWE is the best membership I've been in. The level of support, the courses, challenges & community are exceptional. Highly recommend if you're a coach, digital creator or small business owner.

Therapy and Supervision Notes – I love this pack of therapy, supervision and client notes. Easy to use, detailed record keeping for you, as well as reflection pages for clients to complete between sessions.

Impact Stationery – Have you ever dreamed of creating your own high-end stationery products? Laura has an amazing course & community designed to help you created printed products that you can market on Amazon, or your own website. It's different to KDP in that they're not print on demand, and the quality of products are incredible.

My Thoughts on Digital Products for Therapists

Digital products have been a great support for me within my business. As a non-designer I never felt qualified to create and sell these things. But the more resources and tools I created within my work, the more confident I became.

When you have tools like Canva – it matters much less, and for those who struggle to draw a straight line – it's been amazing. While the ideas and vision have been there – getting it out of my head and into a product wasn't often possible, and Canva changed that!

I have exciting things ahead for digital products for therapists and wellbeing professionals, so be sure to opt in to emails (usually sent out monthly), to keep up to date on what's coming into the store!

Remember: Your knowledge, training and personal / professional experience deserves to be out there helping others.

I cannot wait to see what you create, and I wish you the best of luck with your new venture!

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I would love to hear from you! What would you love to create and share with the world? Share below ⬇️

Coming Soon in Digital Products for Therapists: PLR templates will be available, aimed at those within the wellness industry. Make sure you sign up to the newsletter so that you don't miss out, but in the meantime I hope you love this template, and please pop me an email with your creations – I would LOVE to see them!

Also Coming Soon: I’m working on a KDP Journal Starter Kit that will give you templates, prompts, and guidance to create and publish your own journal or planner on Amazon.

If this post helped or you enjoyed reading it, please share one of the images below as it really helps my blog – Thank You!

Meet Lynsey

Hey there! I'm Lynsey, a coach, counsellor, and mentor for low energy, introverted or low confident female coaches & small business owners. With over 5 years’ experience of running businesses, and over a decade as a tutor and trainer, I've learned the value of effective time management that energises you through working with your energy.

I've lived with chronic illness – ME/CFS since 2011 and since then I re-trained as a counsellor, and achieved a distinction for my MA in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice; all while running 4 businesses! I want that for you as well & it is possible with the right support and pathway to success.

Improving your mindset, finding acceptance and developing a solution-focused approach to achieving your goals is my passion. Blending mental health support where needed, as well as a supportive space and methods to manage your work more effectively.

If you'd like to know more about working with me, you can email [email protected] or find me on socials (links in the menu)

Have you seen my online store Shop.QuietlyConquer? Find DFY templates, downloads & more!