A woman in your city woke up with back pain for the third week in a row. She's tried stretching. She's tried ibuprofen. She's ready to see someone about it.
She opens Perplexity and types: "Best chiropractor near me for chronic back pain."
Perplexity gives her three names. One is a chiropractor across town who has a detailed blog post about chronic back pain causes, five-star reviews mentioning back pain specifically, and a clear specialty listed on their website.
You're the better practitioner. You've been helping back pain patients for 15 years. But you weren't in the answer, and she's already booking an appointment with someone else.
This isn't hypothetical. People are asking AI for health and wellness recommendations every day, and the practitioners who show up in those answers are filling their schedules while others wait for the phone to ring.
The trust problem (and why AI solves it)
Choosing a health or wellness professional is deeply personal. You're trusting someone with your body, your mental health, your recovery. People don't take that lightly.
That's why referrals have always driven wellness practices. Your friend sees a great therapist, you want to see the same one. Your coworker's nutritionist helped them lose weight, you want that person's number.
AI recommendations work on the same trust dynamic. When someone asks ChatGPT "Who's a good therapist in Portland for anxiety?", the answer feels like a recommendation from a knowledgeable friend. Not an ad. Not a directory listing. A considered suggestion based on what the person needs.
For wellness professionals, where trust is the currency, this kind of recommendation is incredibly valuable. The person reaching out has already been told you're a good fit. They're not cold-calling from a Google listing. They're approaching you with confidence.
Why most wellness practitioners are invisible
You're great at your job. Your clients love you. Some of them have been coming to you for years.
But online? Your presence probably looks something like this: a website with a headshot, your credentials, office hours, and a paragraph about your philosophy. Maybe a Psychology Today profile or a listing on a health directory.
That's what almost every practitioner in your field has. And when AI tries to answer "best [your specialty] in [your city]," it can't tell you apart from the dozen other practitioners with the same generic profile.
You don't have content that demonstrates your specific approach. You don't have reviews that mention specific conditions or outcomes. Your specialty isn't stated clearly enough for AI to match you to specific queries.
The practitioners who get AI recommendations have made their expertise visible in ways that go beyond a simple profile.
The prompts bringing clients to wellness practices
People asking AI about wellness are specific about their needs. That's actually good news, because specificity is what lets you stand out.
"Best therapist for postpartum depression in [city]." "Recommended nutritionist for PCOS." "Good yoga instructor for beginners with back problems." "Chiropractor who specializes in sports injuries near me." "Holistic health coach for autoimmune conditions."
Every one of these prompts describes a specific need. And every one has a right answer. The practitioner whose online presence clearly matches that specific need wins the recommendation.
Generic positioning like "holistic wellness practitioner" doesn't match any of these well. But "nutritionist specializing in hormonal health and PCOS management" matches the PCOS prompt directly. That's the difference.
What makes AI recommend wellness professionals
Content that educates, not just markets.
A blog post titled "5 Things You Should Know About Managing Anxiety" written with genuine insight from your clinical experience does more for AI visibility than a polished marketing page about your services.
AI recommends professionals it perceives as knowledgeable. Publishing content about the conditions you treat, the approaches you use, and the questions your clients commonly ask builds a body of evidence that tells AI you're an expert in your area.
You don't need to publish every week. A handful of genuinely useful, in-depth articles about your specialty carries more weight than frequent, shallow posts.
Reviews and testimonials that mention conditions and outcomes.
"Great therapist, highly recommend!" is nice but useless for AI visibility. "I started seeing Dr. Chen for anxiety after my first child was born. After six months of working together, I feel like myself again. She specializes in postpartum mental health and it shows."
That second review tells AI exactly who this practitioner helps and how. When someone asks about postpartum anxiety therapists, AI has a clear signal.
Ask satisfied clients if they'd be willing to mention their specific situation (at whatever level of detail they're comfortable with) in their review. Specifics are what AI uses to match practitioners to queries.
Niche specialization stated clearly and consistently.
Your website should lead with your specialty, not bury it. If you specialize in sports nutrition for endurance athletes, that should be in your headline, your bio, your page titles, and your directory listings.
AI looks across multiple sources to build a picture of your expertise. If your website says "sports nutrition" but your Psychology Today profile says "general wellness coaching," the signal is muddled. Consistency across platforms tells AI exactly what you're about.
Credentials and affiliations that AI can verify.
Professional certifications, association memberships, institutional affiliations, and published research all serve as credibility signals. Make sure these are listed on your website and professional profiles in a way that's clear and crawlable.
If you're a licensed clinical psychologist with a specialization in trauma, make sure that's stated explicitly, not just implied by your credentials.
Building visibility for your practice
Define your niche tightly. What specific conditions, populations, or approaches are you known for? Make that the centerpiece of your online presence.
Create three to five cornerstone content pieces. Write about the topics your clients ask you about most. "What to expect from your first therapy session for anxiety." "How a sports nutritionist approaches race-day fueling." "When to see a chiropractor vs a physical therapist for knee pain." These pieces demonstrate expertise and give AI something to reference.
Improve your review presence. Gently guide clients to leave specific reviews. Not just star ratings, but descriptions of what they came to you for and how you helped. Google reviews, Yelp, health-specific directories, all count.
Align all your profiles. Your website, directory listings, Google Business profile, social media bios. Everything should tell the same story about your specialty.
Start tracking. Sign up for Mentionable. See whether AI recommends you for the prompts that matter for your practice. See who AI recommends instead of you. Use that information to focus your efforts.
Your expertise deserves to be found
You've invested years in your training and your practice. Your clients' lives are better because of the work you do. But if someone who needs exactly what you offer asks AI for help, and AI doesn't know you exist... that's a missed connection on both sides.
Building AI visibility for a wellness practice isn't about marketing tricks. It's about making sure the expertise you already have is visible to the tools people are using to find help.
Try Mentionable. Enter your practice website. See where you stand. The results might surprise you, and either way, you'll know exactly what to do next.