“Typically we average 160-170 inquiries a month.”

The past couple of months? Way down according to the mental health therapist and performance coach I spoke with recently.

It wasn’t the only struggle they mentioned. They shared that “soooo many therapists and practices are really really struggling right now. Many are on the verge of closing their doors and individual therapists are having challenges with insurance companies and getting clients."

Even with a well-established practice, they’re feeling the squeeze. They’re not even sure how to handle some of these changes.

In their words: “It’s a giant mess in the industry right now.”

That made me pause. And think about how essential mental health and mental performance services truly are. How can something so critical be so overlooked?

Part of what’s driving that is something coaches rarely talk about openly: explaining what you do is genuinely hard. And if you can’t explain it clearly, getting clients stays an uphill battle regardless of how good your work is.

Here’s why mental performance can be so hard to explain:

It’s Hard to Make Tangible

Things like resilience, confidence, and composure are hard to grasp.

They’re not things you can hold. They’re things you can feel. It’s difficult to explain what something feels like to someone who’s never experienced it before.

Experiences are subjective and grounding your language in a way people can grip is complex.

Compare how these land differently:

Instead of:

• “Struggling with confidence”
• “Emotional regulation”
• “Managing stress”

Try:

• “Second guessing your shot before it leaves your hands”
• “Snapping at your co-worker and not knowing why”
• “Carrying last week’s loss into Monday’s practice”

Since mental health lives in our thoughts, emotions, and patterns of behavior—they don’t always show up as ‘something real.’ This can make it less likely for people to take it 'for real'.

Adding clear examples can take that guesswork away.

It ‘Seems’ Easy to Do on Your Own

Here’s a couple of interesting statistics:

What do all these stats point to?

You’re not only battling tangibility, but challenging assumptions too.

Most don’t recognize they’ve been skating by or that they could be operating at a completely different level. Mainly because they’ve already gotten so far the way they’ve been, so why change anything?

This and the idea “I don’t need any help” stem from unidentified beliefs about mental performance in the first place.

People delay issues without realizing they can scale into larger problems down the road.

It’s like thinking nothing about paying off your bills. At some point, the late fees are going to hurt.

It’s Hard to Measure

There’s a scene in Cape Fear (2026) where Tom Bowden fires his son’s therapist.

He claims, “isn’t the goal of therapy for him to be normal?” If you’ve watched the show, this question is wrapped up in a host of issues he’s dealing with. But it doesn’t make it any less common among your prospects.

Unlike physical training, there’s no visible changes, so people often wonder:

How do I know this stuff is working?

The scale can show you you’ve lost weight. Strava can show you you’ve run farther. But for your mind? That’s a little bit harder to gauge.

A large part of mental health and performance depends on self-report and self-measurement, which makes comparison difficult.

And that’s the thread connecting all three of these challenges: people don’t understand what mental performance actually is or does.

If you’re feeling that friction right now, you’re not alone. Most coaches are. Content won’t solve everything, but it’s one of the more reliable ways to keep the conversation going when you’re not available.

So the question I have for you:

What’s feeling hardest right now when it comes to explaining what you do?

Reply and let me know. I read every response, and love hearing from you.

As always, thanks for reading.
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Until next time,
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- Marcus W.