Counseling Website Redesign for Authentic Engagement

When Ilona came to me, she wasn’t confident that her website truly reflected who she was or what she stood for. She felt unsure about her tone of voice and whether her existing content was connecting with potential clients in the right way.

She wanted a site that felt authentic — one that would help visitors get a real sense of her personality and approach. As she put it, “clients need to have a great relationship with their counsellor to get the best out of their sessions.” That became our guiding principle throughout the project. ‍

Together, we completely reworked the website copy. We clarified her messaging, dug deeper into her background and experience, and brought forward what makes her unique as a counsellor. The goal was to highlight both her professional expertise and her human side.

We also restructured some of her existing content. For example, the popular “I help with” section — something her past clients had found particularly useful — now lives under the Resources page, where it’s easier to find. ‍

Ilona didn’t have a logo before, so I created one as part of the project. Through our onboarding and feedback sessions, it became clear that connection to nature — along with the colours green and red — was important to her.

After exploring several iterations, we landed on a simple wordmark: more wellbeing in dark green, paired with an icon of two leaves. The logo scales beautifully, with the leaves alone working well as a standalone mark.

This leaf motif also inspired the subtle patterns throughout the website — leaf shapes within squares. The squares represent balance and stability, the feelings Ilona wants her clients to experience after working with her. ‍

When I asked Ilona which colours resonated with her, she said, “Red and green — although you don’t see red on counsellor websites very often.”

My response? “Why not? I like a challenge.”

While red is used sparingly — mainly for buttons and accents — it creates a lovely contrast against the dark green, making key elements stand out. The combination feels grounded and confident, while still warm and inviting. I didn’t want Ilona’s website to look like every other therapist’s site. It needed to feel unique, just like her. ‍

At first, Ilona wanted to keep her site on Wix because she’d already invested in it. But as we worked through wireframes, she began to see that Wix would limit what we wanted to achieve — things like custom animations, unique layouts, and interactions (for example, the hover-over pattern on the About page — go check it out!).

With that in mind, Ilona decided to make the move to Webflow. Now, she has much more control over her website and the freedom to expand it easily in the future.

Discovery & Wireframes

Ilona and I started with two in-depth meetings to clarify the website’s goals and direction. We talked about her ideal clients, what information the site needed to include, and how she wanted to come across to visitors.

These conversations formed the foundation for the wireframes. They helped us map out a clear user journey — one that would feel welcoming, supportive, and reflective of Ilona’s personality and professional approach.

Website Development

Because we had a limited number of images to work with, I leaned into creating custom animations to bring the site to life. The movement of the shapes across the pages was designed to feel organic — almost like they were moving with the user.

This subtle motion added warmth and depth to the site, creating an experience that feels both calm and engaging. It also reinforced the sense of flow and connection that Ilona wanted her clients to feel when visiting her website.

Working with Mel was an absolute delight! Mel built me a brand-new website and I still cannot get over it – I’m utterly pleased. She built it from scratch based on the answers I provided. Mel, unlike many other web designers, although she follows a template, listens to her client and employs her empathy, intelligence and creativity to provide the best results. Because of my not-so-great previous experience, it was important for me to be heard and understood – I still don’t know how exactly she does it, but her brain wires in a beautiful and efficient ways – I’m deeply grateful.I’m the most pleased for an increase of potential client queries and seeing them converting into clients I’m regularly helping was my dream come true. Without Mel it’s been and uphill battle, whereas now it’s a way smoother and pleasant journey to more fulfilment in my and my clients’ lives.