In this episode of The Traveling Therapist, I sit down with Dr. Aimee Harris, who has brilliantly woven her passion for travel into her professional life as a telehealth therapist. Aimee shares her journey from a traditional therapy setting to embracing a nomadic lifestyle, powered by the flexibility of telehealth. She recounts the initial challenges and profound benefits of solo travel, describing how it has strengthened her independence and broadened her professional and personal perspectives. Aimee also delves into the integration of her work with her role at her wellness center, highlighting the holistic approach to health that she promotes. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of mental health practice and the freedom offered by a nomadic lifestyle.
Key Points:
About Dr. Aimee Harris:
Dr. Harris has always been intrigued by travel. Her first international trip was to Germany to visit her son in the military. After doing much research on the benefits of health and travel, she began her very first solo trip on her birthday to Paris, France in 2022. She continued travels to Italy through the 13 scenic towns of the Amalfi Coast ending with a car ride to Rome! In 2023 she traveled to Ireland, where she enjoyed the flexibility of working remote; traveling to the Cliffs of Moher, Kinsale and Dublin during the day and working at night with clients. Honolulu Hawaii during Christmas gave a new love for warm air, culture and blue waters. She will be in Greece during the podcast traveling to five iconic islands including the famous island where Mamma Mia was filmed! Dr. Harris is the CEO of Ie Wellness Center and Wellness Retreats, is an industrial organizational psychologist, licensed professional counselor and play therapist who specializes in the core eight dimensions of wellness. She believes that the key to youth and vitality are to never stop playing. Traveling has been shown to enhance all eight dimensions of wellness (I can explain more)! You can find her at www.iewellnesscenter.com, (804) 904-9731 and @Ie Wellness Center on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Snapchat iewellnesscnter. Also Facebook at Wellness Retreats. She is just starting a sister company, Wellness Retreats which will focus on wellness through travel, including retreats, continuing education, and workshops.
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Traveling Therapist Podcast. I'm really excited to have Amy Harris here with us today. Amy, I was reading her bio before I logged in with her and she's been everywhere on my bucket list. So I'm super excited to talk about that. But also just welcoming me and I really want to talk about your journey and the lessons that you've learned along the way.
But I always start out with the question, how'd you go from being a traditional therapist to a traveling therapist? So I think it started with my undergraduate. I've always been fascinated by people and that sociology, the study of people. And I think what led me to traveling therapist was really after COVID.
And I know in some of your other podcasts, you talk about this transition from realizing that you no longer have to work in the office 10 hours, 8 to 10 hours a day, and that during COVID I, I started my own practice and that allowed me to really be virtual. And then the sky was not the limit. It was like, [00:01:00] wow, we can do this pretty much anywhere.
You can go and have that flexibility. So COVID really opened up the door for being able to travel more. I love that so much. Yes. Hating COVID, but love what it did for us, really. Yes, it did. Yes. Oh my goodness. So tell us about your journey. I know in the bio, you talk a little bit about your first like big solo trip by yourself and doing that.
I'd love to talk about that because we, I've had a couple of guests on here that are just straight up solo digital nomads. And to me, that's always been so brave and adventurous. And I don't even know if I could do that by myself. I'd like it to have a partner that can come with me, but I would love to just talk about that and how you got the ball rolling with that and just your adventures and everything.
Just tell us everything. Do it. Yeah. Of course. So it really started at, I don't want to tell my age, but it started at age 18, right? And I was getting tired of most of my friends either were married and then they couldn't go solo or they [00:02:00] couldn't go with me or maybe financially they couldn't afford to travel.
So I was tired of going to the same place every summer. Like you go to the certain beach every summer, you go to the mountains every summer. So for that decade birthday, I decided that I was going to venture into solo traveling Transcribed And yes, and my first destination was, of course, Paris, because I think a lot of people love Paris, but I absolutely have always loved Paris and wanted to go.
So that started the journey to solo traveling. And boy, was it like you said, terrifying and exhilarating at the very same time. Not knowing the language, not knowing what I was in for, but taking that journey because like I said, I was just, I wanted something new and I needed to feel. Something different for that birthday to go from different decade is pretty big.
And so that's where it started in Paris. Oh my gosh. Oh, I love that. I've never been to Paris. I've always wanted to go. He will let it in [00:03:00] and that's where it started. And from there, I've just been doing solo for every of my birthdays. There haven't been any since Paris, but several, every year I decide that on my birthday, I'm going to go somewhere different in solo travel.
Oh my gosh. So now, does it feel like, now does it just feel so easy by yourself, or is it still, you get that nervous kind of? I think it's, I wouldn't say it's easy because it takes a lot of planning. And there's lots of bumps in the way, but what it does do is give you this sense of empowerment and independence that you didn't really know you had within you.
And that's what is so freeing and exhilarating is knowing that you do have what it takes to solo travel. And what I find is people are super friendly. People are so friendly. They're super friendly and what I would encourage everyone to do is listen less to what people say and they'll give you their opinion before you go somewhere that a certain place may not be friendly or [00:04:00] go with just go not expecting the unexpected and then run into other solo travelers other women other therapists and it just, people are super friendly out there and I felt, I've always felt safe where I've been so far.
Yeah, I love that so much. I'll never forget we did an episode. Her name is Julie O's and she was in Mexico By herself drive. She drove from the tip to the tip of Mexico by herself, like on those roads through Mexico in a rental car. . I was like, girl, you were so great. She's all about attitude, and I've taken that with me.
It really is. It's like mindset work really with a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Is what I, and a little Yeah. Baking it to you. Make it, like you say, going out, looking like you're confident. You're not the typical traveler. And like you said, it's all, it's really about mindset. It really is. I love that so much.
Oh my gosh. So before we hit record, we were chit chatting a little bit. We were talking about some of the health benefits that you've discovered. [00:05:00] I don't know if it's for research or just your own anecdotal like personal experience, but health benefits of travel. And I thought it'd be cool to talk about that.
Just touch on some of those. That you've discovered? Yeah. A few years ago did a podcast with Girls Guide to the World, and now it's, it was Girls Guide to Paris, but now it's Girls Guide to the World. And we talk a lot about the wellness benefits of travel, and a lot of people don't realize that a lot of people accumulate their vacation time and whether they get ca, money for that or they don't really take their va, a lot of people that I see, especially executives, do not take their vacation time.
Or they work when they're on vacation. And there are so many scientific studies and research on the benefits of travel. In fact, traveling helps decrease your mortality. People that don't take vacations, especially women, have a higher rate of mortality. Of actually death. Oh, really? Yes, it helps. [00:06:00] Yeah. Yeah.
It helps. Makes sense. That's helpful. Thanks for coming out. Bye bye. Yes, because you really need, I know about you because you do this quite frequently too. You really need that time away to help reconnect with yourself and also nature. So it helps with mortality, with heart health, with your decreasing mental illness, depression, anxiety.
It helps with environmental and intellectual wellness because it challenges your brain and other ways that them are used to. Yeah. Yeah. So there's so many benefits of health and wellness for travel. In fact, I did a blog about a year or two ago about the benefits of travel. Amazing. Oh, good. I hope we have it.
If we don't have it, maybe you could send it to me. We could put it in the show. Sure. I would love it. That'd be nice. I'd love to do that. Yeah, because that's something I talk about all the time on this podcast. I am guilty of working obviously because I travel every day. I'm in a new, like every week, every couple of weeks [00:07:00] we're in a new place.
So I do work while I've been trapped and I'm guilty of not taking enough time, but we talk about it on this podcast all the time, like trying to find that balance, even if you're doing what I'm doing of have boundaries around how much you're going to work. So you can be in these places and take in the nature and the scenery and just all these new places.
And it's so exhilarating and exciting for me. Every time I get to a new place, it's I can't wait for it. It's just so much fun for me. Yeah. It's like you said, half the boundaries, but how neat it is. If you think about it, to be able to go, like when I was in Greece recently, explore for the day, like you probably do.
And then you come back and work, and then you get the best of both, you get to not only see something new, but then at night time, that's when, I don't know if that works out with you, where you get to work at night, and then you just go to sleep, and you wake up and do the same thing and explore a different area.
And you basically are getting paid because you're working, so you're getting aid. You're getting paid to go see a new place. How exciting. Oh my gosh. Oh, I love it when [00:08:00] you talk about Greece too. I'm getting ready to go there in October and I'm so excited just to go and I've never been to Greece. So I'm really excited.
Where are you going? You might have to pick your brain. My friend, Megan Gunnels, she runs the Thriving Therapist Facebook group. I don't know if you're in that group, but she and her husband's a chef and they host these culinary tours. So they're doing a culinary tour on Crete for five days where it's six shops.
Basically, they cook you breakfast, lunch. We go to the winery and in classes and it's just Oh, you're in a immersive. No. They got speakings. If you're interested. Yes. I know that fight. I'm friends with her. I had no idea they were doing a stuff thing. And yes, it's October 5th. This the week I'm going.
Yeah. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. Exciting. You're going to love it. I was in Crete where it was my favorite. That was my favorite because it's so spread out. Then you have travel. Paros is smaller, but Crete, it's so many exciting little. Cities in between and the landscape. Oh. [00:09:00] Oh, you're, it's divine. And the food.
So excited. Oh, I can't wait. , I was gonna, that word I'm getting off track. Yeah, you should. I'll send you the link. Oh my gosh. Because I know she has two spaces left. Oh yeah. Anyway, yeah, I'm really excited about that because I love to eat and I love going to new places. So the best of both worlds, and I think I would share.
And the wine, yeah, there's a beautiful winery and one of the hosts there is, she was the editor of wine and something magazine. Like she was the editor of wine magazine and she knows everything about Greece and the wine on Crete and it's just going to be, she's like a sommelier or whatever. I can't find that word, but yeah, it's so wonderful where I'm like, Hey, let's plug Megan's thing.
This is so exciting because she does these twice a year at different places around the world. So there's so amazing. Oh yes. So I'm really excited about that and now I've totally gotten off track, so I'm just talking about my life. [00:10:00] I can tell you some of the places I've visited. Like I said, I just started the journey two years ago.
Yeah, I would, I'd love to just even catch up and pick your break, cause we're trying to figure out, we have three days after Crete, so we're trying, I'm taking my mom. Which I'm really excited about. I've shared it on the podcast before with this life I'm living with multiple income streams. I was able to afford like the business class flights and I'm taking her on this culinary tour.
And it's just, it's a dream come true really to be able to take my mom. I never thought I'd be able to do something like that, but it's happened. And it just makes me really happy to be able to do that for her. But total side note. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. Speaking of that, I have a friend.
She's on my team. She's a financial advisor married to a hacker. And she's currently in Greece. And she took her mother. She took her mother and they're gonna recreate the whole Mamma Mia. The whole Mamma Mia. Skyfallows. I'm sorry if I say it wrong. [00:11:00] But all of the islands that were filmed in Mamma Mia. And I'm talking about that she could take her mother.
And that you're gonna take your mother to Greece? And it'll be cool when you go, it'll be, yeah, October. Yeah. Yeah. I'm hoping it's going to be like perfect weather. So anyway, I'm so excited, but all that to say, what an amazing life to be able to just go, and I just love hearing that you're doing that too, and you could just pick up and work.
I know we're talking about boundaries and not working, but I think. I don't think it can get better than that. Like you said, you just have to set the boundaries that you're not going to work past a certain amount of time. Or like you said, that during the day you're going to be doing this. And I do agree with you that Being tele, telehealth, you do have to really set boundaries with clients for them texting or [00:12:00] emailing and that is one thing that you really have to be careful of.
Setting your time that you can go work out and have exercise and have a well balanced life. Because so many people do get overworked with telehealth. They could, like you, I think I heard of one of your podcasts being 30 to so many people a week. You really need the time for. Self care and also other dimensions of wellness like getting out in the environment and being social and having other aspects of wellness to focus on.
It's a struggle for real, because it's so easy for a client to say, gosh, I need a session. And so I'm not really doing anything right now. I guess I could hop on, but then it's, there's no boundary. Yeah. And that's easy to do because of our profession. We really want that help. And it's like you said, it's very, it takes a lot of effort to that and the boundaries, but it overall helps with our overall and it's very important, but it's hard, really.
It is hard. [00:13:00] So what's your strategy for the time zone thing? Do you like just tell your clients way in advance you're going to be, you're going to have to change time, but what's your strategy for that? Do you like prepare them ahead of time and change? Their appointment schedule or do you just adapt their schedule and then just work then?
I actually adapted their schedule. So there were many times that say I would go exploring in Greece, 8, 8 AM to say 6 PM. And then I would work from 6 to sometimes midnight. So I would adjust to their schedules, but they really didn't notice the difference. They might ask me, Oh, what's weird to you? Cause I could tell I might be outside of my patio And it was a different, but different environment, but also what's really neat when you work at night, I could see the sunset all kind of sky wide when you're outside, of course, in a confidential area and it couldn't get better than hearing the ocean and you're seeing the sunset, but you're also working with clients.[00:14:00]
Oh, I love that so much. I just love it. Yeah, it's tough sometimes, like what, like when we work in sometimes we're down like in Miami in those high rise condos, we get Airbnbs there, and we've got this beautiful ocean view. Sometimes it's really hard to be sitting there, working, I don't know if you've experienced that, but it's okay.
It's so hard, like you said, especially when it's still daylight. Yeah. And you want to, like, when I was in, I stayed in Santorini for five days and you can see the cruise ship or yacht passing as you're outside and you're like, yeah. That's what they focus in beautiful places. Yeah, it does take a level of self discipline, I think, to be able to work and travel at the same time.
It's a learning experience every day, and I've been doing it for quite some time now. Every day I'm learning something new about myself. and self [00:15:00] care and just all that. And I don't know about you, but the more you do it, the, I'm already planning my next birthday. I want to go to Boston. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
How cool would that be? So it can be very, it's, I don't want to say addicting, because that's a, it's very exciting because as soon as I get back, I'm like, okay, where am I, where are we going next? Like, where am I going next? Now, are you like that too? Yeah, I was just, my mother and I, mother in law and I were just walking on the beach like less than an hour ago and I was talking to her about this very thing cause it's, I was like, it's not like you get addicted, but it is in a little bit of a way because if we're in a place for more than three weeks, we're like, okay.
We're ready. Let's go. We're done with this one. Let's go to the next one. It's, I don't know what it is, but we definitely yeah, desensitized to being in the same place for too long. And we're just ready to go to the next place. We're always, it's always that. Okay. Right now we're only booked, we're only booked through August 9th right now.
We don't even know where we're going to be, but the search is on. Okay. We got to find the next perfect spot. [00:16:00] That kind of thing. Yeah. And may I just say, I, my personality, you don't know me, you're just getting to know me. I'm very much. Plan and structured detail, of course, with PhDs and, in our career, we have to, as a therapist, be that way.
But what I have about traveling is I do the opposite. I'm just like, you're saying I might stay one place and a night before looking at an Airbnb, like, where am I going next? Yes. And it's so freeing because there is structure. It just lets go into, where I really like to go is where other tourists aren't.
I happen to be at a restaurant that I have no idea what it's like. Yeah. And it's dreaming that you can try different places without having a plan for everything. Yay. Yeah. Oh my God. I, and when I was Greece, I, when I went to Greece, I did the, a very hop island hopping. So I went to Santa Arena, and then I stayed there for a week.
I went to Crete for five days, and then I went to Perro. [00:17:00] And then I went into Paris and island hopping is so fun too because you're just like, let's just get on the ferry and just see where we end up, what restaurant, what people we meet. And I met so many women. I just had people, women come up and talk to me and buy dinner.
It's Unbelievable. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's amazing. I love that so much. That's who I want to be, like this carefree, just like hot from this place to this place. And pretty much I am, except for the stress of running multiple income streams. Other than that, I'm pretty free. So I just love hearing you say that.
Yes, and I do have an executive coach. He's trying to help me with It was funny, he said, maybe if you had more employees to do your stuff, then you could be a great thing. You wouldn't have to work trying, like you said, to increase those revenue streams where you also have more flexibility to have employees that help you also [00:18:00] see people and help their mental health while you're.
Doing other aspects of traveling. Exactly. Yeah. Trying to scale up and less one to one and more passive income coming in is the ultimate goal I feel like. Yeah. And when you see the yacht passes and you're in Greece and I'm remembering what he said, I'm like, what? He's right. Let's build these revenue streams.
Exactly. Yeah. I want to be the one on the yacht. Do you know what? Guilty Pleasure. I watched Below Deck. I don't know if you ever watched that, but Guilty Pleasure is like a reality show. Like the crew is, it shows the crew like doing the private yachts and the people on the yachts and the meals and all that stuff.
So I have a dream one day of maybe doing a private yacht. Oh, that would be perfect. What I didn't tell you is then being a traveling therapist, I've started, which a lot of women that looks like are doing this, started a sister company, which is Walnut's Retreat. So we can start doing the hosting retreats and I want to host my [00:19:00] next one in Greece, like you're going to, so that's my goal is to start, yes, to start doing retreats because I find like we were talking about so many women are either skeptical about solo travel or they're scared.
Or there's some limitations to getting a group together where they can travel solo, but then meet women and have the ability to travel solo, but also meet other women. I think it's important. It's really where I want to be in the future. Yes. Oh, I love that. That's amazing. Yeah. There's such a movement now with retreats.
Like in the Traveling Therapist Facebook group every day, somebody's got a retreat they're doing and people just are really craving that, I think, right now. These international retreats. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. So we didn't talk much about that, but what kind of work do you do? And if people want to disconnect with you, how would they find you to see everything that you're doing?
Let's talk about that a little bit for the listeners. Sure. [00:20:00] So about a year ago, I started a wellness center in Williamsburg. We were talking about that, Virginia. Yeah. And just a little bit about our company, we actually specialize in the eight dimensions of wellness. So we not only specialize in mental health, but we really want to integrate all dimensions of wellness.
Okay. With the WHO, with the World Health Organization, they believe it's the 8th dimension, so we specialize in financial wellness, emotional wellness, social, environmental, intellectual, physical, and we have this business in Williamsburg, and the goal is for team members to connect in the various dimensions and really have a one stop wellness center where someone can come and receive counseling, but then also receive care.
A facial for stress management or physical wellness and meditation, yoga. So to say all that I am at I E wellness center. com and that stands for individual and employee wellness. I also, [00:21:00] I have an IO psychology doctorate and we were really focused on workplace wellness and leadership and productivity improvement.
So we want to really integrate all aspects because the World Health Organization really sees wellness as an integration of all aspects and that emotional is not disconnected from physical or vice versa. So I'm in Williamsburg. They could reach me that way. They could reach me at info at IE wellness center.
com. They could reach me at my phone number 804 904 9731 and on social media at fiewellnetsend. I love that. Yeah. So my gosh. Is this an outpatient center, or is it like people come and stay, like for, is it like a facility, like a 28 day facility kind of thing if somebody wants to get their life together, or is it more like local Williamsburg people that are coming for outpatient services, it's so interesting.
Thank you for clarifying, so we do have an outpatient services [00:22:00] center, but I also think that We also, of course, do telehealth so we can see anyone in the state of Virginia, so we not only have the Williamsburg office, but then also remote where, for example, our financial advisor could do consultations via telelink, so we offer the telelink services, too.
We're going to be doing yoga via online, so we really want to access individuals. In some cases, we can see in other states, like my financial advisor can see people all throughout the U. S. Of course, with therapy, we only can practice in the state of Virginia, but there are some team members that have the ability to see someone in Texas.
A health and wellness coach I'm getting ready to hire. So lots of exciting team members. Amazing. Yeah. It sounds like an amazing resource for people and being licensed in Virginia. It's good for me to know about it, to be able to refer people there. So yeah, I didn't learn about it. Yeah. That's amazing.
Yeah. Thank you for sharing. I just love [00:23:00] hearing about your adventures and the solo travel and this wellness center. That's what I think about. Like, When I started private practice, I always had a vision like that of it being like super integrated. Not just let's do a little talk therapy, but having lots of facets like that for people because I know it's that whole person kind of vision.
Like all of these pieces need to be functioning for you to feel like a whole complete functional person and a lot. I love. Yeah. What? Yeah. Can I also thank you? Because I found you. You're super popular. You popped up. so much. But. So many of my solo traveling friends or women have followed other people that you're connected with.
So I just want to thank you for offering these wonderful resources and podcasts for women. And that you've also touched my life and also my friends. So I want to thank you for doing that. You're so sweet. for that. Oh god, something really hurt my heart. Aww. And makes it all worth it, yeah. It does. It [00:24:00] really does.
Thank you. That's so sweet. It makes me a little teary eyed. I don't know why I'm a little emotional today. Anyway, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And I look forward to sharing this with our listeners and we'll put everything in the show notes so you guys can follow Amy, meet her, talk with her if you want to.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Welcome.