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…
Connect with Charity:
Website: https://charityoreilly.com/
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: 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.
[00:00:10] 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?
[00:00:21] Charity: 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.
[00:00:32] 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.
[00:00:54] And I did not know the word nervous system back then. But I could feel, I'm a, 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.
[00:01:11] And so I actually added on a business minor and I said, you know, one day when I'm a grownup therapist, I am 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.
[00:01:28] You know, I, 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 was on call 24 hours a day running a large therapy department in a, in a nonprofit.
[00:01:52] I finally had some time to think about making this dream a reality. And so I was able to take the leap into building a 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.
[00:02:10] We do IFS informed EMDR together in 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.
[00:02:33] 'cause 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,
[00:02:40] Kym: Oh my gosh, there's so much there. I'm like, I just wanna pick apart all these pieces, so, okay. Let's talk about the sabbatical first, and then we can talk about everything you built, because before we hit record, we were talking about this, like, you've modeled this life specifically that 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 because I'm like, I wanna know what you're doing. Tell me how you're
[00:03:04] Charity: absolutely.
[00:03:06] Kym: so let's talk about that part first, and then dig into all the rest of it, if that's okay
[00:03:10] Charity: 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.
[00:03:27] 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.
[00:03:46] 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 and my parts and the ways that I am for my clients.
[00:04:04] We all know that we can't pour from an TY 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 any intensives during this period of time.
[00:04:19] 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.
[00:04:35] Kym: That's amazing. Oh, I love it. So I think you said you're going like what, France and just all
[00:04:41] Charity: Yes. Yeah. 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.
[00:04:53] Kym: That's so cool. 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 booked 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
[00:05:06] Charity: it's been, it's been in the works.
[00:05:08] Kym: Okay, gotcha.
[00:05:10] Charity: 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.
[00:05:24] 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.
[00:05:31] Kym: 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 wanna take one. But it does sound like, I mean, basically you've gotta 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, and not have to see clients during that time.
[00:05:49] Charity: And you know, I know you've interviewed other intensive therapists before and they've said this same thing, which is that intensives 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.
[00:06:01] 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
[00:06:20] Kym: 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.
[00:06:32] Charity: Yeah, I don't see any ongoing clients. I only do intensives.
[00:06:36] Kym: Yeah. That's amazing. 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?
[00:06:51] Charity: 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.
[00:07:08] 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're physically located in Pennsylvania. So it doesn't actually matter where they're from. It matters that they come here to Pennsylvania to see me.
[00:07:25] Kym: Perfect. Yes. And I really wanted to clarify that. 'cause it, 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
[00:07:41] Charity: Yes. And actually, 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, 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.
[00:07:59] 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, 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.
[00:08:24] 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.
[00:08:36] And I think it's like that with traveling practices as well. Like as long as we're staying legal and ethical which is gonna vary from place to place, we can be so creative in how we make that happen.
[00:08:47] Kym: 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, 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
[00:09:00] Charity: 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 gonna be a change out there for me.
[00:09:18] And I don't feel like with a busy practice and, you know, I write books and I do trainings. 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 wanna do, I do trauma sensitive yoga, maybe I wanna do yoga retreats. Who knows?
[00:09:32] Kym: Yes. I love that. And that's really a big part of the message of this podcast. It's like, let your niche change, let your population change. Let the intensity of what you're doing change if it's going to suit where you are in your life right now. You know, if you wanna live in France and, you know, working under your license doesn't work, like figure something else out. Figure out a way.
[00:09:51] Charity: Exactly. 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 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.
[00:10:08] 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, in 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?
[00:10:30] Kym: Yep. Love that so much. 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, it's somebody's coming to, right? can you tell us what this is. 'Cause I wonder other people would wonder too.
[00:10:46] Charity: 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.
[00:11:03] We did a, a big remodel of it um, when I first started this practice to be just perfect for healing. So there's a, an amazing clawfoot 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.
[00:11:27] But I always say now I only like to do clinical consultation. I don't like to sign people's time sheets. 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, a wonderful team of body workers who come and work with clients. So I do therapy with the client all day, six hours.
[00:11:44] 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, each retreat is totally customizable to what the person wants to kind of just keep integrating that work afterwards.
[00:12:03] And there are people who actually come and they're like, I don't want anything. I just wanna 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.
[00:12:13] Kym: That's awesome. So they come and stay like, like it's an Airbnb, but it's like a fancy, like with built out for therapeutic modalities and that sort of thing. Wow.
[00:12:22] Charity: 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, their clothes.
[00:12:34] And I tell them, you know, if you have a, a special face moisturizer you use, you should bring that. I have lots of face moisturizer in this 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.
[00:12:47] And the work is hard. I mean, we do six hours a day of IFS informed EMDR, we break it up with body work. 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 the space is what supports that.
[00:13:08] Kym: That is amazing. And now how many of these will you do as a therapist? 'cause I'm hearing you say five days, six hours. I'm like, oh my gosh. How many are you doing? It
[00:13:17] Charity: every other week.
[00:13:19] Kym: Okay.
[00:13:19] Charity: Yep. 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 overwork. But no, it turns out I will do that to myself in my own practice.
[00:13:38] 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 scheduled 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've, I've done every other for the past three years.
[00:13:54] Which for me is a great schedule. On the off weeks, I'm not off, I do 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.
[00:14:10] Kym: 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.
[00:14:18] Charity: can't wait.
[00:14:19] Kym: 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?
[00:14:28] Charity: Oh, I would love to.
[00:14:30] Kym: about the process a little bit. 'cause 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.
[00:14:37] Charity: 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.
[00:15:00] 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.
[00:15:18] 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.
[00:15:31] We talk 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?
[00:15:49] 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.
[00:16:10] 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.
[00:16:23] So if you have people in your life who are just not gonna 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.
[00:16:38] And then this year, 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.
[00:16:56] 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 wanna work with you 'cause 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. We published this August a book called how to Understand Deal with ADHD.
[00:17:14] 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. 'cause 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.
[00:17:29] 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.
[00:17:41] Kym: Oh my gosh. I love it. I think you even said earlier that you were gonna be trying to get some writing in during your sabbatical that
[00:17:47] Charity: Yes, 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. I'm, although it's a fiction book, but the, there is a therapist character of course.
[00:18:00] Kym: There has to be. I love that. But who's better to write about that than an actual therapist? So that's really good. How
[00:18:06] Charity: a lot of fun. Yeah.
[00:18:08] Kym: I love everything you're doing. So how do people find you, like connect with you if they wanna 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
[00:18:21] Charity: Yeah, 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 intensivess that their first conversation was with me, and I'm so glad about that when I first started.
[00:18:36] No one. Was doing intensivess. 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.
[00:18:50] 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 t with a trauma therapist, and so my Instagram is t with a trauma therapist.
[00:19:06] People can find me there. I also have an online course called T with a trauma therapist that people can find. T with the trauma therapist.com and I have a newsletter, which is a great way to connect. I share about the trainings that I have upcoming. We have some wonderful with wellness counseling, some wonderful international trainings coming up.
[00:19:22] 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. So people are looking for CEEs and things like that. Although, I'll say that the training in 2026 in Sedona is actually about building an intensive practice.
[00:19:38] So if people
[00:19:38] Kym: Oh, cool.
[00:19:40] Charity: 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 the trauma therapist Instagram, or through my website, which is just charity O'Reilly dot com.
[00:19:51] The tea with the. 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, charity O'Reilly dot com I keep everybody posted about all the upcoming trainings that are happening all around the world.
[00:20:07] Kym: That's awesome. So is that 'cause 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.
[00:20:16] Charity: Absolutely. So let me give a shout out to um, Alda. She runs Wellness Counseling Inc. They're actually right now, you know Alda? 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.
[00:20:35] 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.
[00:20:50] 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 you're also getting CEUs for.
[00:21:02] Kym: That's awesome. Yeah, I love that episode. She's so interesting. She has a Facebook group too, right? I
[00:21:07] Charity: Yep, she does.
[00:21:08] Kym: her, I can't remember the name of it.
[00:21:10] Charity: 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,
[00:21:25] Kym: Okay. Yeah, I see posts about people in Bali right now. I'm like, that is so
[00:21:29] Charity: Yes, I know 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.
[00:21:49] Yeah, I'll be with her in Panama, in Morocco this year. As well as Sedona Can't wait.
[00:21:55] Kym: So cool. I love it. I love everything you're doing. Oh my gosh. Thanks for coming and being a guest today. So
[00:22:01] Charity: Ah. 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 wanna write a book or travel, or host retreats or whatever it is that they want to do.
[00:22:16] Kym: 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.
[00:22:23] Charity: Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.