207. Creating Intensive Therapy Retreats That Prevent Burnout with Charity O’Reilly

What if the thing that actually prevented burnout wasn’t seeing fewer clients, but completely reimagining how you work? In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I sit down with Charity O'Reilly to talk about how she built her practice around intensive therapy retreats and why that model changed everything for her.

Charity shares how she went from running a high-stress nonprofit department to hosting five-day trauma intensives in a beautiful cottage in Pennsylvania, where clients fly in from all over the world. We talk about what intensive therapy retreats really look like, how she structures them every other week to protect her energy, how this model supports deep trauma work, and how it’s given her the freedom to take an extended sabbatical. If you’ve ever felt like the traditional weekly model isn’t sustainable, this conversation will stretch your thinking in the best way.

In This Episode, We Explore…

• How Charity built her intensive therapy retreats model after 17 years in nonprofit work.
• What her five-day IFS-informed EMDR trauma intensives actually look like.
• Why she shifted from weekly intensives to every other week.
• How intensive work allows her to take an extended sabbatical.
• What therapists need to understand about licensure when clients travel to you.

Connect with Charity:
Website: https://charityoreilly.com/
Online training: https://www.teawithatraumatherapist.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teawithatraumatherapist/

Are you ready to take the plunge and become a Traveling Therapist? Whether you want to be a full-time digital nomad or just want the flexibility to bring your practice with you while you travel a couple of times a year, the Portable Practice Method will give you the framework to be protected!
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• www.instagram.com/thetravelingtherapist_kym
• www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
• www.thetravelingtherapist.com

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Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:02

I'm Kim Tolson and I'm the traveling therapist. It's my passion to teach therapists how to navigate online private practices and multiple income streams so they can travel the world. I'm a digital nomad with a virtual insurance-based private therapy practice and a multi-six-figure coaching business. In this podcast, I will discuss my journey as a digital nomad. I'll chat with other traveling therapists, and help you navigate the complexities of running an online insurance-based practice. I'm so glad to have you with me on this journey. A year from today, what would your dream private practice look like? Would you spend less time chasing claims or only working with clients who value your skill set? What if you had more time for yourself? Alma empowers you to confidently accept insurance backed by an all-in-one EHR that simplifies scheduling, documentation, and day-to-day practice operations. Your dream practice is closer than you think. Learn more about AMA at helloalma.com. A year from today starts now at helloalma.com. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Traveling Therapist Podcast. We have a very interesting guest today. I'm really excited for this conversation. We have Charity O'Reilly here with us. Charity, welcome to the podcast. So excited to have you here. I always start out with that question: how did you go from being your typical therapist to a traveling therapist?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Oh, Kim, thank you so much for having me on. I'm so glad to be here today. I listen to the podcast often, and it really is just so inspiring, I think, for all therapists to hear all the different ways that people can make their dreams come true. So actually, going back a very long way, my dream as a therapist when I was a little baby in undergrad, 18 years old, and went to therapy for the first time and realized that I wanted to become a therapist was that I wanted to offer therapy in some non-traditional ways. And very specifically, I wanted to offer therapy in places where people would feel like their nervous system could just really settle. And I did not know the word nervous system back then, but I could feel I'm I'm a trauma survivor myself, and I was in trauma therapy for the first time. And I could feel the difference that it made to me when I was out in nature or when I was doing yoga or when I was meditating or doing these different things, as opposed to just sitting in a kind of sterile office talking with somebody. And so I actually added on a business minor and I said, you know, one day when I'm a grown-up therapist, I'm going to have a retreat center where people can come and they can do their therapy in ways that are just, you know, really kind to their bodies and to their nervous systems. And then life happened. You know, I got my master's and I started working for a nonprofit and I stayed there for 17 years. And I, this dream, you know, I thought it would be something that wouldn't happen until retirement. And then I think, as happened for many of us, when the pandemic happened and things became different in my day job, which was a very stressful day job, I'd sound called 24 hours a day, running a large therapy department in a in a nonprofit. I finally had some time to think about making this dream a reality. And so I was able to take the leap into building an individual trauma therapy retreats practice. So clients fly from all over the world to meet with me. I see clients every other week. One client comes each, you know, every other week and we do IFS-informed EMDR together and somatic work for five consecutive days. And then they fly home. And, you know, from there I started thinking I could do this in other places in the world as well. Which leads me to I'm gonna be um taking my first ever sabbatical this spring into the summer, where part of that is I'm gonna be exploring some other countries where I might want to start having clients fly into because clients tell me, you know, we'll go anywhere, basically, where you know it's a cool place to go and where we can stay and and do therapy in this way.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Oh my gosh, there's so much there. So like I just want to pick apart all these pieces. So, okay, let's talk about the sabbatical first, and then we could talk about everything you built because before we hit record, we were talking about this. Like you've modeled this life specifically, then now you can go and take a sabbatical. So I want to let's talk about the sabbatical because I this is really me wanting to know about the sabbatical. Yes, like what you're doing. Tell me how you're doing it. Absolutely, yeah. So let's talk about that part first and then dig into all the rest of it if that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Perfect. Absolutely. Ask as many questions as you want. So, you know, when I first started this practice, which was about almost six years ago now, when I started doing intensive retreats only, I thought this is gonna take forever to build this practice. I'm gonna have plenty of time to kind of do it the way that I'd like to, do it the way that my nervous system wants to. That was not true. I had a waiting list overnight. I have always scheduled almost six to eight months in advance, and I just have not had a break. So, you know, I like many of us, I've been in the field for over 20 years. It's been a lot of burnout, a lot of times where I'm like, this is not the way that we're meant to practice. And so eventually I said, you know what, I'm gonna start doing these every other week instead of every week. So that really helped. And then I said, I think I need something more than that. I think I actually need a full sabbatical to just really hit the brakes on clinical practice to come to the point where I can really be with my nervous system in my parts and the ways that I am for my clients. We all know that we can't pour from an empty cup, of course, but I could feel those signs of burnout starting to creep back in. And because of the way that I work, I schedule very far in advance. It's it's actually really easy to say, I'm gonna take six weeks off. I'm just not gonna book in any intensives during this period of time. I've done that before in smaller ways, you know, just for travel. My husband and I love to travel. We travel all the time. So I've done it for two weeks, three weeks, but I've never said I'm gonna take it's actually will be a longer than six weeks, but we'll be traveling for six weeks and I'll be not doing any client intensives for eight weeks. And I can't wait. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Oh, I love it. So I think you said you're going like what, France and just all around us. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

So our base will be in France. We're gonna do a week in Italy, we're gonna do a week in England because I love England. Um, we're gonna do a little bit of time in Brussels because we've never done Brussels, but our base will be France. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

So this is probably this is kind of off topic anyway, but how like how did you set it up? Because you're like, I'm both eight, nine months out. Like, how do you all of a sudden say, okay, I'm gonna take six weeks, or has this been in the works for a while? Oh, yeah. Have you been playing? It's been in the works. Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah, yeah. It's been in the works for a long time. So it's it's almost here. We're um I'll begin my sabbatical technically the last week of April, although actually I'll be traveling that week to present with Wellness Counseling Incorporated, which does therapist training retreats all around the world, and I'm on their training team. So I'll be with them in Panama that last week in April. But then after that, I'll be on my actual sabbatical.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

That's amazing. Okay, so yeah, you guys check in with charity. I'm sure she can help you get prepared for a sabbatical if you want to take one. But it does sound like, I mean, basically you've got to set the intention aside and make sure you block the time and then make sure you've got the money and energy to be able to do that and not have to see clients during that time.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah. And, you know, I know you've interviewed other intensive therapists before and they've said this same thing, which is that intensive are a high-ticket item. You can do one intensive a month and be fine for the year, you know, for most people's budgets at any rate. You know, when I do every other month, you know, you can set a lot aside for savings to do something like take a sabbatical and not work for six to eight weeks. So I really do think intensives set therapists up very well to be able to take a lot of time off, whether they want that time to travel or they need that time at home or whatever it is that they'd like that that time for.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yeah, no, I love that. Something they also talk about a lot is like they send the clients back to their primary therapist. So it's not something you're having to like follow up with and continue to see and yeah, all of that. I think that's an amazing model. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I don't see any ongoing clients. I only do intensives. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

So you said something really interesting though. I've never heard anybody else say this that you've got people flying in from around the world to come work with you. So how's that working with your licensure? And are you doing it like in a coaching capacity or is it you're still doing it under your licensure and all that?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I'm practicing where I am, which happens to be the state of Pennsylvania. So since I'm practicing in my state and they're coming to me, actually what matters is the place that you're practicing. So I know that if you're traveling, you have to see the person where they they have to live where you're licensed. So if I, for instance, when I'm in France, if I were to see someone, which I won't be because I'm on sabbatical, I could only see someone who is in Pennsylvania, which is where my license is. But if the person is going to travel to me, they are physically located in Pennsylvania. So it doesn't actually matter where they're from. It matters if they come here to Pennsylvania to see me.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Perfect. Yes. And I really wanted to clarify that because it's where the client's butt is at the time of the session that matters with this stuff. Yeah. And how will you work it like in France and you find a place to do these retreats there? Like, will you worry about licensure in France? I'm just wondering if you thought through that stuff because I'm sure people are like, how are you gonna do that?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yes. Well, I can't recommend your community enough, actually, because I met somebody in your community on your Facebook community who is not an intensive therapist, but a therapist seeing clients in France. And we she was lovely enough to have a consultation with me and to talk about what the process is like in France. And I'm certainly not here to offer legal advice to anybody, but as probably most places, there are a couple of options. You can either go the route of licensure, but France is one of the countries that would ask you to do a new degree, or you could not call yourself a therapist and you could do wellness retreats or coaching retreats or other kinds of retreats where, you know, you I'm a therapist, I've been a therapist for over 20 years, but where I would not be saying that I was doing therapy. So, you know, I think one of the coolest things about intensive practices is that you can make it as creative as you want. I mean, if you have a hundred intensive therapists in a room, there are a hundred ways that they are doing their intensive practice. And I think it's like that with traveling practices as well. Like as long as we're staying legal and ethical, which is going to vary from place to place, we can be so creative in how we make that happen.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Yeah. I mean, you could still do retreats and not be doing even deep therapy work. I mean, you could be doing yoga or, you know, all these other things and modalities just to help people that maybe have trauma, but be able to calm their nervous system and get past things that they're going through.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yes. And I'm just really curious for myself with this intensive what will come out of it for me. Because, you know, I love trauma therapy. I have always worked with sexual assault. That's been my specialty my entire career. I absolutely love it. And also I've been doing it a long time and have started to wonder, I wonder if there's going to be a change out there for me. And I don't feel like with a busy practice and, you know, I write books and I do training. I don't think I could find that out. And so I'm really excited to take this sabbatical and just sort of see what's next for me. Maybe I want to do I do trauma-sensitive yoga. Maybe I want to do yoga retreats. Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yes, I love that. And that's really a big part of the message of this podcast. It's like, let your nits change, let your population change, let the intensity of what you're doing change if it's gonna suit where you are in your life right now. You know, if you want to listen to France and, you know, working under your license doesn't work, like figure something else out. Figure out a way, another way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Yeah. We're constantly changing. I'm going through perimenopause right now, and I'm sure so many other listeners are as well. And so that's a big change. Yes, exactly. I'm having the constant hot flashes, it's awful. And that I'm changing as a person. So of course my practice is going to change along with it. And I do think travel gives people a place to be with themselves outside of their typical environment. And that really invites thoughts of change. You know, when you're just at home doing your daily things, we we all get stuck in our ruts and our patterns and they support us in really good ways, our systems and our structures. But traveling invites us to think what could be different, what could I dream of differently in my life? Yeah. Love that so much.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

So let's talk a little bit about the other stuff that you do. Because you call it a therapy retreat center, right? So it's not like it doesn't, I mean, I don't know, it doesn't sound like it's like your office that somebody's coming to, right? Can you tell us what this is? Because I wonder if other people would wonder too.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Absolutely. So I am fortunate enough to own a cottage. It's a beautiful cottage. It's 300 years old, set in a beautiful nature center. It's right along the Delaware River here in Pennsylvania. There's a creek running through the backyard, it's in the woods. And I was able to design the cottage. We did a big remodel of it when I first started this practice to be just perfect for healing. So there's an amazing claw foot bathtub. There's a hot tub out by the creek, there's a yoga room, there's a massage room. It's just a really beautiful space. And I'm the only therapist, and that was a commitment to myself, actually, because I supervised therapists for so long. And I still love doing consultation with therapists, but I always say now I only like to do clinical consultation. I don't like to assign people timesheets and, you know, make sure that they get paid. I don't like to do that anymore. And so I'm the only therapist, but I have a wonderful team of body workers who come and work with clients. So I do therapy with the client all day, six hours. We meet usually from nine to four each day. And then in the evening, there are massage therapists and Reiki practitioners and sound therapists and an art therapist, a variety of different people who will come in as the client wants. Each retreat is totally customizable to what the person wants to kind of just keep integrating that work afterwards. And there are people who actually come and they're like, I don't want anything. I just want to sit in the tub all night, and that's wonderful too. But there's the capacity, the space has the setup to be able to provide that if people want it.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

That's awesome. So they come and stay, like it's an Arabic comedy. But it's like a fancy, like with the built-out for therapeutic modalities and that sort of thing. Wow. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yep. So they don't have to worry about anything except coming, literally everything anyone could need, every therapeutic comfort object in the world, luxury bath products, all of the things are there in the space. They just need to show up with their clothes. And I tell them, you know, if you have a special face moisturizer you use, you should bring that. I have lots of face moisturizer in the space, but it might not be the one you use. And everything else is provided for them for the week. So they can just really settle into the healing experience. And the work is hard. I mean, we do six hours a day of IFS-informed EMDR. We break it up with bodies. Typically, we do that for five consecutive days. So the work is incredibly hard for them. And having the space be so supportive, I think is what makes it easy. Because actually, everybody says at the end, this is so much easier than I thought it would be. And I think this space is what supports that.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

That is amazing. And now, how many of these will you do as a therapist? Because I'm hearing you say five days, six hours. I'm like, oh my God. How many are you doing? This sounds interesting. Every other week is a therapist. Okay. Every other week.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

So for three years, I've done every other week. Before that, I did every week and I burnt out very badly. And I realized, as I think we all do when we go into private practice, I realized, oh, I was the bad boss all along. I thought it was management that was making me overworked. But no, it turns out I will do that to myself in my own practice. So thank God three years ago, I was like, I'm not doing that anymore. It did take a while. I had to, you know, because I schedule pretty far out, I had to get to the point where I could start saying, okay, starting next year, I will only schedule every other week. And then I thank goodness got to that point. And so I I've done every other week for the past three years, which for me is a great schedule. On the off weeks, I'm not off. I just still do intake appointments. I do new client consults. I do things like this, you know, meet with with colleagues. I run a few groups, I do a lot of consultation with other intensive therapists, but I'm not doing clinical work, which is really lovely.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. I love that. That's really cool. And then you're gonna be able to take a six-week sabbatical. That's even more awesome. It's amazing. I can't wait. So, okay, so let's talk about you've written a book. You have a book, you've co-authored a book, and you're working on a second book. Can we talk about your first book and tell everybody what it is? And I just like to talk about the process a little bit because I know a lot of therapists out there want to scale and be able to do other things like that. So I'd love to hear about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

You know, I do think writing a book for a lot of therapists, for a lot of people is another dream that I was really fortunate to have that dream come true. And I absolutely love to let therapists know how possible it is for that dream to come true. The way it came true for me is that actually a colleague, a psychologist friend, reached out one day, maybe four years ago now, and said, I have an idea for a book, and I'd like you and this other psychologist friend to collaborate on it. And so we did. We sat down and we wrote this book. Really, her idea for it was to give people very brief information that they need when they're seeking therapy. But it was at a time which, you know, isn't happening as much now, but was a lot then when there were such long waiting lists for therapy, nobody could get into therapy. It was so prohibitive for people. And so she said, you know, I really want people to have a resource that with while they're waiting for therapy, it's not a replacement for therapy, but it's kind of the basic information they need to know. So we picked 25 of the most common things that we saw in our practices. We talked about anxiety, depression, grief, eating disorders, of course, PTSD, since that's my specialty. Each chapter has just a section about if you were to go to therapy, what would happen in therapy, what to look for in a therapist, what are coping skills you can try at home, what are some of the common barriers to this kind of treatment. And we were just fortunate enough to find a publisher who was excited to publish it for us. So I think it's it's been out for maybe about two and a half years now. It's called You Will Get Through This. And the subtitle is a mental health toolkit. And actually, the library journal, which reviews books, named it one of the best resource guides of 2025, which is when they reviewed it. So that was really wonderful to see. So it's just a great resource. It's not for therapists, it is absolutely for clients. And it's also for really, we also wrote it in mind with our family members who would never in a million years go to therapy, but that we would want to have that kind of basic information. So if you have people in your life who are just not going to go to therapy, but they need some basic coping information, some basic information about how to get support. Every chapter has a section of resources, podcasts, books, apps, websites that can be used for whatever the condition is. So that was really exciting. And then this year, well, I guess actually technically last year now, 2025, our publisher reached out to me and asked if I would write another book for them about ADHD because I had written that chapter. And so then I had to tell them, actually, my husband really wrote that chapter. He just was not credited in the book. My husband has ADHD and is an ADHD coach. So I was like, can my husband actually write the book? And they were like, well, we want to work with you because we've worked with you before, but you can co-write the book. So my husband and I just finished, it's in the editing process of published this August, a book called How to Understand and Deal with ADHD. And that was completely at their request. The entire book is formatted really exactly how they wanted it to be. And we each, my husband and I are now working on our own kind of more passion projects because both of these books weren't actually our ideas. We're so happy to write them. We're so happy for them to be out there in the world. But now we're writing our own books and having published one and a half times already. It's it's a little easier, I think. But again, a great thing to do, whether you're you have an intensive practice or whether you're traveling, there's so much room to be able to do things like this.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Oh my gosh, I love it. I think you even said earlier that you were going to be trying to get some writing in during your sabbatical that you're gonna be on, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yeah. Yes, I am planning. Although that that book is fiction, so that's fun. I'm not gonna do any clinical work on my sabbatical. Um although it's a fiction book, but the there is a therapist character, of course. There has to be.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

I love that. But who's better to write about that than an actual therapist? So that's really good. How exciting. Yeah. I love everything you're doing. So, how do people find you, like connect with you? They want to learn more about what you're doing, or like how do you do you help therapists? I don't even know if you do coaching for it. Sounds like you do consultations on EMDR intensives and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Okay. I do. I've consulted with lots of therapists who want to start an intensive practice. It's definitely a passion of mine. There are a lot of wonderful therapists out there in the world now doing intensives that their first conversation was with me. And I'm so glad about that. When I first started, no one was doing intensives. Nobody had ever heard of it. Everybody was like, this is the weirdest thing I've ever heard of. And now there's so many therapists doing it, which is wonderful. So I do love consulting with therapists, and people can always reach out if they want to do a consult. I don't typically do ongoing consultation. My role I really see with people is to just get them started in their practice with building intensives. But the best way for people to connect with me is just on Instagram because I have a great time on Instagram. I love my community over there. My whole brand is Tea with a Trauma Therapist. And so my Instagram is Tea with the Trauma Therapist. People can find me there. I also have an online course called Tea with the Trauma Therapist that people can find at teawithaumatherapist.com. And I have a newsletter, which is a great way to connect. I share about the trainings that I have upcoming. So we have some wonderful with wellness counseling, some wonderful international trainings coming up. The only one with openings in 2026 is actually in Sedona, so it's not international, but we still have openings in 2027 for some very exciting international destinations if people are looking for CEs and things like that. Although I'll say the training in 2026 in Sedona is actually about building an intensive practice. So if people are interested in that, they should definitely check that out. That's not my website, but if people look at Wellness Counseling Incorporated, or people can reach out to me directly through my Tea with a Trauma Therapist Instagram or through my website, which is just charityorilly.com. The teawith trauma therapist.com is just the online training. So people can reach out to me and I can give them links to trainings or other upcoming events. But if they sign up for my newsletter, which is at the bottom of my website, charityorilly.com, I keep everybody posted about all the upcoming trainings that are happening all around the world.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

That's awesome. So is that because I know people listening are gonna be like, well, wait, did they hire you? Do you work for them? Like, how does that work? Because I know a lot of therapists want to do that kind of thing. This is a little free-playing.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

So let me give a shout out to um Arilda Surridge. She runs wellness counseling Inc. right now. You know Arilda, yeah, she'd be a great podcast guest. Oh, has she? I didn't hear hers. Okay. So they're actually right now in Bali on a retreat. I'm so jealous of seeing all the posts. Yeah. So I just connected with her by going on a retreat, actually. And then, you know, we connected about my intensive practice, and she said she'd like to have me join the team to help train therapists on building intensive practices and on trauma therapy. And so yeah, I was just really fortunate to connect with her that way. But I I can't recommend her organization enough. Her her trainings are really excellent. And she picks the most wonderful places and we stay at really kind of luxury resorts while we're there. So it's it's like a vacation, but that you're also getting CEUs for.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

That's awesome. Yeah, I love that episode. She's so interesting. She has a Facebook group too, right? I think that she documotes her, I can't remember the name of it.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

So she's got a couple. I think the one that she is on the most is called like continuing education for therapists. But certainly wellness counseling inc is the easiest sort of thing to remember. And if you go to her Facebook group that is called Wellness Counseling Inc., you'll see links to her other Facebook groups as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

I see posts about people in Bali right now. I'm like, that is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

I've been the best of they are, and you know, you've probably seen these pictures from this current retreat in Bali. The other thing she does such an amazing job of is these cultural immersive experiences. I have never done as many very, very cool immersive experiences, and you're also getting cultural competency CEUs at the same time. So it's really, really cool. Yeah, I'll be with her in Panama and Morocco this year, as well as Sedona. Can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

So cool. I love it. I love everything you're doing. Oh my gosh. Thanks for coming and being a guest today.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

So interesting. Thank you for having me, Kim. I love everything you're doing too, and I just really appreciate you building this community again. I think just for people to dream about what is possible and to know that it is possible, whether people want to write a book or travel or host retreats or whatever it is that they want to do.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah, and then to have a guest like you that's doing a lot of amazing things. I mean, it's so cool, so inspirational. So thank you for taking the time. Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to the Traveling Therapist Podcast. For show notes, links, and downloads, head over to the Traveling Therapist.com, where you'll be able to learn more about my journey, the courses I've created for you, and other exciting resources to make your dreams become a reality. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share with your traveling therapist friends. Subscribe to the podcast, and if you love this episode, please leave a review.