However, we do a lot of work to work with the right experts (which include clinicians, psychiatrists, etc.) to ensure what we do it safe, follows best practice, is science-backed, and is effective. And we definitely want to highlight this work that has been done and the importance of it.
We will update the language to better reflect this immediately.
In which case I personally find the phrase "All of our Shimmer ADHD Coaches are licensed or certified mental health professionals" to be quite deceptive.
What decides who gets what coach? Is it a triage based on symptom severity or first-come-first-serve?
Original wording: All of our Shimmer ADHD Coaches are licensed or certified mental health professionals* or have extensive experience with ADHD & undergo our Shimmer Coach Training program
> Overall though, we use PhDs/psychiatrists/master-level coaches to supervise, create protocols, trainings, etc. and use coaches to deliver. (Not AI). Our coaches are either credentialed by ICF (International Coaching Federation) like BetterUp or Ginger or Lyra's coaches, NB-HWC (National Board - Health & Wellness Coaching), or have masters-level psych degree and go through our training.
If the licensed or certified mental health professionals aren't actually hands-on with your clients, it's awfully misleading to say that all of your coaches are licensed or certified mental health professionals or blah blah blah. If you were being honest, you'd skip the nonsense about using mental health professionals as coaches and just say that your coaches go through your training program and are supported by mental health professionals--you know, the actual truth.
Leveraging anyone’s association with the medical profession, whilst NOT rendering a medical service is the rub here. The service is trying to associate itself with the (protected) reputation of practitioners of (protected) services that it explicitly tries to distance itself from (because of the very reason: they’re protected) to save its own ass, whilst still trying to benefit from the association.
If you are not providing medical services for ADHD (especially when ADHD is something for which medical services are often provided), then the medical credentials of your staff should be completely off-limits and irrelevant. Otherwise you’re saying “we aren’t providing medical services for legal reasons but all of our staff are highly-qualified medical professionals, wink wink lol”.
In my opinion, as a prospective customer, you should either make it a medical service, or drop any attempt at associations with the medical profession, otherwise it’s going to look like this, and it’s not a very trustworthy look.
You are not providing licensed medical services. Just come out and say it, since it's true. Yes, saying that will cause people to distrust you, and well it should. You are right about there being a shortage, but there is no substitute for a real doctor.
That said, being upfront about it instead of trying to beat around the bush or make excuses doesn't help you. It only serves to make you even more untrustworthy. Your attempts to obscure the fact that you aren't providing real medical service only suggests that you know in your heart that what you are providing is not the same. If you believed your "coaches" were good enough, you wouldn't have to do anything at all to hide the fact that they were not real doctors. You could just come out and say it.