Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Therapists | Ep 34: How One Therapist Built a $6,000 Intensive Model

Released: 06/05/2026

Show Notes:

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Dr. Carolyn Solo to talk about how therapy intensives helped her build a practice that better supports her life, family, and nervous system. Carolyn shares her journey from a traditional therapy model to an intensive focused practice, including how parenting a neurodivergent child influenced the way she thought about time, energy, and sustainability. Together, they explore the realities of marketing and pricing EMDR intensives, overcoming fears around charging premium fees, and using networking, SEO, and community support to fill an intensive practice. They also discuss why therapists often stay stuck in models that no longer fit and how creating a business around your actual needs can completely change your experience of the work.

About Dr. Carolyn Solo, PhD, LCSW:

My guest today is Dr. Carolyn Solo, PhD, LCSW, and she’s an EMDRIA-approved consultant and the founder of Integritas Wellness and Recovery, a private practice in Stowe, VT specializing in multi-day retreat EMDR intensives. Her two client specialties include dissociative disorders and working with parents of neurodivergent children. Carolyn is a mom of three, the oldest of whom is PDA profile AuDHD, so this client profile is dear to her heart and lived experience. Recognizing the burnout and high caseloads common in the field, Carolyn also founded Future Template Parent to coach other clinicians.. Her trainings and coaching programs specifically help EMDR therapists optimize their practices by structuring EMDR intensives so they can work fewer hours while increasing their income and achieving superior client results. She shares her expertise weekly on the Future Template Parent podcast, which has over 145 episodes and 20000 downloads.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Therapy intensives can create more flexibility and sustainability for therapists, especially those balancing parenting, caregiving, or other significant life responsibilities.
2. Filling an intensive practice often comes down to consistent networking, strong SEO, and clear positioning rather than relying on social media alone.
3. Charging premium fees is less about convincing clients to pay more and more about confidently communicating the value, expertise, and transformation your work provides.

Connect with Carolyn:

• Instagram: @futuretemplateparent and @integritas_intensive_emdr
• EMDR Intensive Client Workbook
• Future Template Parent Podcast
• Websites: https://www.futuretemplateparent.com/ and https://www.integritaswellnessllc.com/

Connect with Amanda:

• Follow on Instagram: @amandakbcoaching
• Check out the Amanda KB Coaching website

Make sure to hit follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Sponsors:

• This episode is sponsored by Alma – learn more here
• This episode is sponsored by Jane – use code: AMANDA2MO for a 2-month grace period

Resources & Links:

SEO for Therapists Membership

Therapy Intensives Academy

Happy, Healthy, & Wealthy Mastermind

Free Training: 3 Steps to Booking Your First Therapy Intensive

Free Guide: 3 Steps to Double Your Income

SEO Freebie

Just a quick heads up, everything I share in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It’s not legal advice, financial advice, or tax advice. Every practice and every state has its own rules. So if you’re wondering how something applies to your situation, make sure to check in with an attorney, accountant, or another qualified professional who can give you guidance based on your specific circumstances.

Transcript:

Amanda (00:00)
Hello, Carolyn. Welcome to the podcast. So excited to have you.

Carolyn Solo (00:03)
Thank you, I’m so glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Amanda (00:06)
Yeah, I was excited to connect generally. And obviously we did a podcast together on your podcast. So I will link that in the show notes for people to just listen to all the things that we have to share. And obviously, yeah, you have a podcast with lots of info. But if people don’t know who you are, don’t know what it is that you do, can you just share a little bit?

Carolyn Solo (00:26)
Sure. I am Dr. Carolyn Solo. I am an EMDR intensive therapist and EMDR consultant in Vermont. I’m also a business coach for therapists who want to launch EMDR intensive in their practices. And I have my own podcast all about EMDR intensive called the Future Template Parent Podcast, which probably has meaning to people who do EMDR but…

Basically the idea that intensives for me as a mom have really given me freedom to design the life that actually works for me and my family. So, all about that. Of course, non-parents, I think, can benefit too, but certainly I bring that lens as a mom of three.

Amanda (01:13)
Yeah, I think that’s huge and that’s, all the different solutions that intensives offer, not just for our therapy clients, but for us as therapists as well. Like I have four babies and like that’s, that’s already enough. Those who have one child, three children, that’s a lot. And you certainly can’t work in the same way that someone who is childless can. Like your hours need to be different. Your capacity is different.

So is that what initially got you into intensives?

Carolyn Solo (01:45)
Yes, and I actually, and I talk about this very openly on the podcast, so I’m happy to share, but my oldest daughter who is nine will be 10 in August. When she started kindergarten, she was always highly sensitive from birth, but she was our first child, so we also didn’t know, it’s like, this just how kids are. But kindergarten was a really difficult transition, and she got diagnosed with autism in, I guess November of that.

year of the, you know, right after she started kindergarten and just the amount of appointments, IEP meetings, times I was getting called to pick her up from school because she was having a hard time just exploded. And, you know, I had a totally full, very traditional private practice at that point. I was like canceling appointments all the time. I was getting super burned out.

I actually ended up taking a two month medical leave for myself during that time because I was like, I can’t, I’m losing it. was getting horrible insomnia, which I hadn’t had in years. And so during that time that I took off, was already, I was in consultation to become a consultant for EMDR. And one of my consultants was talking about intensives, like, and saying like, this could be something you could try. Maybe this will be something that can really help.

you manage this. And I’d already heard about Intentions a little, but I was like, who am I to do these? I don’t know anything. But it was sort of a crisis where I was like, well, I don’t know what else to do. I’m just going to try this. And so I came back from my leave and I just started offering them to current clients. I had no idea what I was doing. Made a lot of mistakes. Figured it out along the way. now, ⁓ but I realized very quickly there’s no other way I can work. This is it. So.

Amanda (03:18)
Uh-huh. ⁓

Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (03:42)
That was my journey in a nutshell. And her needs are huge. So, you know, it’s not like my other two kids’ have changed.

Amanda (03:45)
Yeah, yeah, I think they’re… Yeah.

Yes, yes. And so you being able to really embrace intensives and just go all in on it on your practice has helped you to be more available for whatever comes up for your kids and your family.

Carolyn Solo (04:05)
Yeah, and let me tell you, specialized care for a special needs kid is very expensive. Doesn’t matter what insurance you have. It’s so important for me to provide her and all my children with what they deserve. But that money doesn’t come out of nowhere. And I firmly believe in paying specialists what they deserve to be paid. So I want to pay someone who is getting who’s well compensated for what they’re providing my children. But you know, that money doesn’t grow on trees.

Amanda (04:11)
Yes.

Yes.

100%.

Exactly, as much as we wish it did. Yeah. Seriously. So yeah, you kind of jumped right into intensives. What were some of the lessons you learned along the way as you just started offering?

Carolyn Solo (04:34)
So, not to mention just like buying eggs, know, it’s all that.

Yeah.

Certainly, well I totally wasn’t charging enough at the beginning. I was charging $25 more an hour than I was for my regular. My private practice rate at the time was…

I know $50 was 175 for a 50 minute session. I started charging $2.25 an hour for an intensive for a three hour intensive, which I was like, Whoa, look at me go. That’s so much. Um, and I was doing, I just like came up with this random package. I was like three, three hour intensive over two weeks. Like I don’t, just sort of pulled it out of the air. Um, it wasn’t bad. Actually, it gave me a sense of the power of what I could do in that time, but

Amanda (05:08)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (05:36)
Over time I like, you know, have figured out exactly what works for me, but pricing, I priced it way too low. And I wasn’t being intentional about how was structuring the rest of my practice to make space for intensives. And that was a learning curve because at first it wasn’t helping me that much. Lighten the load because I hadn’t thought through that part.

Amanda (06:02)
Mmm.

Carolyn Solo (06:04)
So that was a little bit bumpy and I had to terminate with some clients and that didn’t go as smoothly as I could have. I don’t think I did anything unethical, the big words that everyone’s afraid of, but sometimes I didn’t feel good. So things like that, I think. And yeah, I think I had a lot of imposter syndrome, so I took a lot of extra trainings, which I’m not saying were bad, but I think I paid a lot of money that I didn’t need to pay.

Amanda (06:18)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (06:34)
And I did a lot of things that you know I bought these courses that I never finished and like So yeah things like that I’m not really thinking through like What I even thought an intensive structure looks like just sort of being like there are longer sessions I’m not saying isn’t valuable because it is but I think part of the process is coming up with a Structure or treatment plan that works for you really well as a clinician

Amanda (07:00)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (07:02)
And so that’s been a learning curve. But that was four years ago, so I’ve come a long way. I’ve learned a lot.

Amanda (07:06)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

exactly. And I think that’s what I’ve always said to myself and other therapists is the best you’re going to learn is in what you do. Like anyone could lay out here is the structure and here’s what you do and here’s what you think about it. But if it doesn’t work for you, it something comes up with your specific training or clientele. Like everything you learn is going to be a product, a matter of like trial and error, like actually learning what you want to do differently. And

I think a lot of that is also dependent on how you do run your intensives. And I think you do a little bit more from what I understand. Do you do multi-day intensives across a week?

Carolyn Solo (07:50)
Yeah, I now do three days, you know, ideally, a week, like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And it’s like, more or less two and a half hours, hour break for lunch, two and a half hours. I like to have a day between if I can. And that doesn’t include the 90 minute intake. And then I have like a follow-up session a month later. But that’s the structure. And again, it’s not the structure that I say everybody has to do.

It’s what I really like doing and therefore it works because I really like doing it. And it’s very flexible. can make it be a lot of different things depending on the client.

Amanda (08:23)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Which is part of the whole benefit of these intensives, that they are tailored to what the client is going through, what their goals are, and yeah, ultimately what works for you too. Yeah. So talk a little bit about the piece of where you’re living now, because I know you recently moved, so now you’re a little bit more in a rural area. How are you finding marketing intensives where you’re currently at?

Carolyn Solo (08:55)
Yeah, so in July of 2024, so it will be two years this July, the day before my youngest daughter turned three, we moved from the close, close suburbs of Philadelphia. So we were like, I could walk to Philadelphia from my house. And you know, urban, very urban, to a town of under 5,000 in Northern Vermont. And this had been something that my husband and I started thinking about during COVID, of course.

Amanda (09:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (09:24)
And it took us about four years to figure out the logistics because it’s a big thing on a lot of levels. But it’s something that we had wanted to do for a long time. But it meant uprooting my family of five. My youngest started preschool when we moved. My middle started kindergarten. And my oldest we had to homeschool because the transition was way too much for her. So, you know, it was a huge amount of transition. We’ve actually moved quite long story. Lots of stuff happened.

Amanda (09:53)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (09:55)
And I took three full months off from work during that transition because I was like, we don’t even know what our child care is. Plus, I really need to be present for my family. That was a lot easier because of intensives to take time off from work, by the way. Didn’t have many ongoing clients, and it wasn’t a huge financial hit in the same way. ⁓ And then, but then the reality was, I had a really established network in Philadelphia. And I had to, and.

Amanda (10:08)
Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (10:22)
For me, most of my intensives are in person. I have done a couple of virtual intensives, but is not my preference. So I had to figure out how to rebuild that practice here, where I didn’t really have any connections. ⁓ So yeah, and it was bumpy at first, of course. And I had come up with some things to kind of help me bridge the gap in a lot of ways. But ⁓ I really have leaned into two things in terms of

marketing. It’s a small community, so word of mouth and trust is huge. I mean, that’s true everywhere, but like Vermont is a place where like literally everybody knows everybody. Like it’s really true. You see the same people working at the grocery store. You see the same, you know, like you see everyone. I leave, like I’ve only been here two years and I can’t go anywhere without like seeing five people I know at least. So it’s just a very small community, which

Trust is always paramount, like when you actually are a part of a community like in a very like integrated way, it really really matters. So ⁓ I immediately started, as soon as I got here, I immediately started networking with therapists that were local. Like I just like went to psychology today, went to the medialist, started reaching out to people, ⁓ following up with people, like finding out who was the psychiatrist in the area.

⁓ And I really passed a wide net I would say like throughout the state because it’s a small state. So that’s one thing and I continue to do that. I always tell therapists I work with like marketing is not like let’s do a three month sprint and then you’re done. Like it’s a part of your job as a therapist, especially if you’re trying to attract high ticket clients, right? I tell them I market all the time. Like I haven’t stopped. Like I’m always working on it, you know. So there’s that.

Amanda (12:13)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Carolyn Solo (12:16)
And then the other piece is, as you know very well, website stuff, SEO, AIO, or whatever it’s called now. ⁓ And so I’m always tweaking my website. I just did a major website overhaul a couple months ago. ⁓ I will say that I outsource most of that because one, I don’t enjoy it, two, I’m not good at it. Those are the main two reasons.

Amanda (12:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (12:46)
⁓

And I have someone I really trust who’s fantastic who that’s like this is his thing. So that’s what he does. But like that means I’m always investing in it, right? I pay money every month to him for this. But it has a huge dividends, right? Time over. So and I will say about that part of what I do and this I don’t think just applies to me, but I think it’s a

It’s something to think about if people are, not everyone thinks about this. I think about my intensity, I live in basically next to a resort town. So part of my marketing is to like the New England area and like the Tri-State region even, which is like New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. I was like, this is somewhere you can come for a retreat experience basically. And when that does,

happen I help people find like a place to stay I give them recommendations for like if they want you know a massage on one of the days off like what are you know what places to eat what you know all that stuff so that’s a certainly very much a part of my marketing and also I love the outdoors like the plunder reasons we moved here so I kind of bring that into my marketing too is like we can integrate that into your experience

you know, whether it’s in the intensive itself or if you want recommendations for like, what’s a great hike to go on the day between, you know, to like, talk about hiking is natural bilateral stimulation, yada, yada. So that’s been very much a part of my marketing too. And I kind of, you know, my website, I changed sort of the look of it and the pictures and all that to really reflect that experience. Plus all the, you know, SEO updates for being in a new location and Google, Google my business and all that stuff.

Yeah. So I would say those are the main things and ⁓ something else people ask me about a lot is social media. ⁓ Personally, social media has been much more of a revenue driver for my coaching business. I still have it for my private practice because I know that it can like, it’s sort of like part of the ecosystem. And I think it’s like a trust

Amanda (14:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (15:12)
building thing that people can like go there, but I don’t use that as my way to get in touch with clients. I think it’s going to continue my understanding of like bolster, know, AIO ranking, whatever. I don’t even know, but like I think that that is why I do it. And it’s so integrated into my routine at this point, but I’m just like, whatever, doesn’t take me very long. Well, I can’t hurt.

Amanda (15:30)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (15:41)
But I’m not relying on that. So that’s something I do like to tell people. Like I wouldn’t rely on that ⁓ as this, unless you’re a real unicorn and you know, maybe it works for some people, but it’s not, that’s not been my experience.

Amanda (15:53)
Yeah, yeah, I think especially like one of the whole points of social media is, you know, to be entertained and like to see something fun or connective. I think generally I’m starting to see this shift anyway more in 2026 of people who are, you know, we’re not, we’re no longer posting like three reasons why you should start therapy or five tips for blah, blah, blah. Like a lot of it is more relatable content and pain point driven and hope point driven, but especially I think with intensives.

because a lot of the lay clientele out there don’t know that word exists. It’s not gonna stop the scroll of like, here’s why you should do an intensive. They’re like, I don’t know what that is and they’re gonna keep scrolling by. So you might need some more creative marketing if you’re going to try that, but I agree. I really don’t use my therapy account for marketing, even my therapy practice, because I’ve never really seen it convert in that way. But SEO has been the huge thing for me. And yeah, certainly depending on where you live.

Carolyn Solo (16:33)
Exactly. Right.

Amanda (16:53)
who your ideal client is in contact with. All the networking things that you mentioned too can be just a good way to build that trust and be the person that someone refers to.

Carolyn Solo (17:04)
And I would say something else about networking, and this is true everywhere, but I don’t just network with therapists. I’m looking to other providers who are going to have a similar clientele. And it’s interesting because not only do I try to connect with those people, I use their services, honestly. There’s a massage therapist in my building. I get massages from her. She’s good.

She’s very good, but it also benefits me in that it’s not just a give and take, but I actually know this person and trust this person and she values me. So I think those are important things. ⁓ One of my niche populations is parents of neurodivergent kids, just because it is a really difficult experience to parent neurodivergent kids in a world that’s not built for them.

Amanda (17:37)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (18:03)
So I talk to teachers, I talk to kid therapists, I talk to OTs, I talk to speech therapists, people who work with those kids and who see that their parents need support. So it’s not just other therapists. That’s something else I would say is vital.

Amanda (18:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, being more creative in how you’re reaching different people.

Carolyn Solo (18:27)
can be really organic.

I don’t know, let’s break up a conversation with somebody at a coffee shop. I don’t know, that used to be very nerve-wracking for me, but I think I’ve kind of just had to get over it. And the things that you’re really afraid of don’t usually happen. I think when it comes to a lot of, like any of marketing, but we all have lot of fears about what could happen, and it’s very unusual that one of those fears comes true.

Amanda (18:54)
Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (19:00)
in my team.

Amanda (19:01)
Yes.

Yes, same. I’m curious because I just recently got, I’ve been subleasing an office in Seattle for my intensives, but I just finally got my own office and they do weekly, they do weekly like happy hours, co-working kind of, it’s like a co-working space. So there’s going to be more opportunities for networking. And I’m like, this is finally the year where like, I know I don’t need to, cause all my SEO stuff works, but like, I am curious to push myself.

Carolyn Solo (19:18)
Nice.

Amanda (19:29)
to try some more networking, just to put my name out there more. Exactly. So I’ll keep everyone updated on how that goes for me as an introvert to finally push myself out there. ⁓ So I’m excited about that. But one of these fears that you’re talking about around marketing, and especially the intensives, especially for the therapist who wants to offer a multi-day, a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, a Friday through Sunday, whatever it is, intensive, the biggest fear I hear from therapists is around like,

Carolyn Solo (19:30)
Yeah. Can’t hurt.

Do it. Do it.

Amanda (19:58)
no one’s gonna wanna pay my price or they’re gonna think I’m, you know, greedy or insulting or whatever it is. And can you speak to that part as someone who offers multi-day intensives of what you’ve seen?

Carolyn Solo (20:07)
Alright.

Yeah, and I will say that like I was saying earlier that I started by charging $2.25 an hour, now my intent is $6,000. Whatever that math works out to. I don’t really remember. That’s just the price I’ve settled on. It’s like the whole package, you know? And two years ago or three years ago, I would have like, like practically thrown up if I heard myself say that. So it’s been a journey to get there, I will say. But I also want to encourage other therapists not to let it take as long as it did for me because it’s not necessary.

Amanda (20:21)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (20:40)
But I think that there are so many reasons why it is worth that. And I think lots of there you can come up with, I mean, I could list them, but it’s almost like we know them, right? We are not paying, someone’s not paying for the hour, they’re paying for the transformation and they’re paying for our expertise, which we accumulate in countless ways over the years, starting with grad school and going forward.

you know, the amount we pay, and have paid, like all that, you know, that is so much for one. Two, the amount that gets done in that time far exceeds what you get done in like a year of therapy, even though, who knows, right? It’s hard to quantify. I think that there are just costs that come along with running a really elevated business, which I think intensives are, like you need a nice office, you need good marketing, like all that stuff costs money.

And I also think that when we have that financial freedom, gives us, well, there’s so many things. You can show up really well for the client when you’re not worried about your finances. You can actually contribute meaningfully in other areas of your life that are, you know, the giving back thing that we’re all afraid that we’re not doing. And then, so all of that I say just because I think it’s important for us as therapists to be grounded in that before we say what we’re targeting.

Amanda (22:00)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (22:10)
And

like, knowing your why, like I talked about my why, I can’t live a life that’s different than this, so I have to do it this way. And so I think keeping all that in mind is really important. And then just really practicing saying your fee in a really grounded way, not over explaining it, not starting to say, but you know, if you can’t pay that then, no, just, so this card, this is $6,000. That’s my fee. It includes this and this.

Amanda (22:33)
You

Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (22:39)
I’m currently booking for this time. What questions do you have?

and like know that you’re gonna feel scared sometimes. But I also think that what’s good for one of us is good for all of us. If there are therapists who are setting that bar, it’s elevating all of us. And I also don’t wanna be the therapist who’s lowering the bar for other people.

Amanda (22:50)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (23:09)
So, and so many of us have these money stories, like there’s so many reasons, like we all know this, you talk about it very eloquently on your podcast. Those are not good reasons to make something cost-less.

Amanda (23:23)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (23:25)
And we also need to trust that people can make an investment that they feel is worth it. Like, they can decide. They’re allowed to say no and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. And I’ve had people say to me, I don’t know if I can afford that. And come back six months later and be like, you know what, I decided I’m doing this. Great. And it’s hard and it feels difficult at first, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Amanda (23:32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (23:54)
⁓ And so, and it’s hard, like, I, you know, this week on Instagram I got some mean comments on a post reel that I made about like being greedy and inaccessible and I’m harmful and like, you know, blah blah blah. And I just didn’t even, I leave, I just leave them up now and don’t respond to them because I’m like, first of all, all engagement is good engagement. And two, like, those people don’t know me and I don’t know them also, to be fair.

Amanda (24:13)
Hehehe.

Carolyn Solo (24:22)
I don’t know their reality, they don’t know my reality. And Instagram is not the place to explain it to them.

Because I know a lot of therapists fear being called out, right? But I also remind myself that every time that’s happened, nothing bad has happened to me.

Amanda (24:33)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (24:41)
So, I don’t know, just those are my thoughts in general on that. ⁓ And it’s our responsibility as clinicians to do what we need to do to be well and to show up.

Amanda (24:41)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Literally in most of our ethical code lines, take care of ourselves.

Carolyn Solo (24:56)
Like I remember.

Yeah, yeah, I don’t know how I don’t know about you, but like, I’m not a trust fund baby. So and even if somebody were a trust fund baby, I still say charge what you want to charge like your That’s your right, your right to do so. But like, I don’t know why we as mental health clinicians are supposed to be the ones who sacrifice ourselves. ⁓

Amanda (25:10)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (25:24)
and I’m not doing it. I was in community mental health for four years. Like I’ve done that.

Amanda (25:28)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (25:29)
And I don’t regret that experience, I learned a ton. Got my licensure out. But, I’ve done my time, you know? So that’s my little spiel on that.

Amanda (25:34)
Mm-hmm.

Honestly,

I love it. mean, I’m in alignment with all of it because yeah, think it’s great for those people who have the lifestyle and the financial privilege to care about the version of accessibility via the definition of low cost therapy. But not all of us have that privilege, whether it’s family and childcare or.

not being trust fund babies or having significant amount of debt. We all have our reasons for why when we look at intensives or even just premium fees, if you like sticking to the weekly model and don’t want to do intensives, there’s a reason we’re excited by what can I charge actually and how can I get clients who are willing to pay that, which is because they’re realizing their life is not working for them with a hundred dollar fee, a hundred and fifty dollar fee, like a lot of us need.

significantly higher to do the work well, to do it sustainably, and to, you know, we also deserve good lives too, not just to give, give, give, and not really actually receive the benefits from all the hard work that it is to run your own practice.

Carolyn Solo (26:56)
Yeah, not spending taxes, running around business, it’s expensive. Paying for our own health care? I mean, something else I always remind therapists of is like, that’s your why, and it’s also no one else’s business. Like, you don’t need to tell somebody that. Like, they’re not entitled to know that about you. And that’s coming from your own feelings, like, projection and guilt and stuff. That’s for you to hold, to ground you.

Amanda (27:01)
Yes. Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Hey.

Carolyn Solo (27:25)
But it’s nobody else’s. Like I said before, if you are a trust fund baby, I don’t care. That’s your business. Charge $6,000, that’s your business. I have no idea what your life is like. Because I think we feel like we have to justify everything we do. And also what I have found is that that doesn’t make people more likely to say yes. So it just makes them feel like now they’re in this weird, you put this

Amanda (27:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (27:54)
potential client in a very strange position.

Amanda (27:57)
Yes. Yeah.

Carolyn Solo (27:58)
So, there’s no need to do that. Like,

trust that they’re an adult who will make a decision that’s their decision.

Amanda (28:06)
Exactly. Yep. Yep. What I have found in my past three years of doing intensives is clients don’t really have pushback on it. It’s more therapists, therapists who are not in the same level of thinking that that we are who have the judgment. But I’ve had conversations with clients who I charge a slightly different fee for virtual intensives versus in-person intensives because, you know, office rent and it is more time for me to

Carolyn Solo (28:18)
yeah. yeah. Yep.

Amanda (28:33)
to get to the office and prepare in that way. And so I give clients that choice of like, here’s the price for virtual, here’s the price for in-person. And some people say, I’d rather save the money, let’s do virtual and great. And some people say, I’d rather do in-person, I’ll pay a little bit more money. Great. Like that is their choice. My job is to give them the informed consent of here are the options, here may be the differences between virtual and in-person. And again, to just answer their questions, but it is not my job to

explain all of the, you know, here’s my rationale behind everything. And like I’ve had, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Carolyn Solo (29:09)
other therapists.

Like you said, those are the ones that’s where we mostly get the pushback.

Amanda (29:17)
Yes.

Carolyn Solo (29:19)
And that’s why I think it’s so important to surround yourself with other therapists who are doing similar things. Because then you have people who are like, no, like I’m doing this and people are paying it and you got like, you can do it too. And so the value of that community is so like, there’s no, there’s no price you can put on the value of that really. Like that’s been so instrumental in my.

Amanda (29:25)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (29:48)
success.

Amanda (29:49)
Yeah. Yeah. The more group spaces I’m in, the more group spaces I facilitate, the more it really just feels like whether it is a coaching program or a membership or whatever, like when you are surrounded by people who are like you and want to do similar things, like it actually feels very therapeutic compared to the groups that are just so nasty and the random people who just want to call you out and be mean for no reason at all.

Carolyn Solo (30:09)
my gosh.

I was just saying to my business coach the other day, like you’re like a therapist for my business. I mean, yes, she provides me with incredible strategic advice and all that, but like she’s the person I go to when I’m like this shitty, sorry, I swear? This shitty thing happened, this person said this shitty thing to me, or I did something really dumb and I feel terrible. And she’s like, I’m here for you. Like, and this is part of building a business and I, are not a bad person. You do not need to burn the whole thing down.

Amanda (30:21)
Yes.

Yeah, 100%.

Carolyn Solo (30:47)
Even though, I every six months I probably have one those moments.

Amanda (30:50)
100%.

Carolyn Solo (30:52)
Maybe more, I’m being honest. that’s

why it’s so grounding to have somebody like that. So in group spaces, I completely agree. So vital for our own nourishment and survival and part of prevention.

Amanda (30:56)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

So yeah, I don’t want to let this part slip away because it does feel important. I’ve heard, as you’re talking about, like in your area, a rural area, not only are you maybe targeting people locally, but to be able to target people and market your intensives as like a retreat-like experience. I think that’s also really helpful for people to hear and remember when they are worried about no one in my area is going to want to do this. No one can afford it, but you can attract people from…

higher cost of living or higher income areas that are willing to come to travel to do this. So it does not matter where you live and what you think people around you will or won’t do. Like when you know what you’re doing and how to market these, you can show yourself that these can be successful and that you deserve to have the success in this too.

Carolyn Solo (31:56)
doesn’t have to be in a like you know Vermont is a certain kind of place that attracts it doesn’t have like any rural place has beauty and has the slowness of life and you can capitalize on that as like you know part of the experience and most rural areas are within you know driving distance of big metro areas so like by all means be targeting your marketing towards that you know so I don’t know I think

Amanda (32:06)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (32:25)
It’s just all about how you position yourself and making sure that your SEO and stuff is like prime for that. Which you talked about on my podcast, which I’m excited to have everyone listen to. Cause you know all about that. And I fully will say that is like, talk about it some with coaching clients and like I have some, I know something about it, but I’m always like, there are other people who give you like the lowdown. Like I will give you the basic tips and stuff like that and little things you can do on your own, but like.

Amanda (32:36)
Yes. Yes.

Yeah

⁓

Carolyn Solo (32:54)
I do feel like it’s worth it to invest in that if that’s not something you want to devote your life to learning.

Amanda (33:02)
Exactly. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. Because it is the more the marketing landscape changes, like we’re always going to have the basics of like, how do we network and how do we form relationships and you know, social media, you might have to adapt to the algorithm if that’s what you want to do. But the more the SEO and AIO and who knows what it’s going to look like in even another five or 10 years. Yeah. Seriously.

Carolyn Solo (33:22)
a year. Seriously. Like three years ago,

the landscape with AI was not even, I was just thinking about this together, even two years ago. It’s so wild. So like the whole, everything changes all the time and you may not want to be the person who’s keeping tabs on that. And there are people that, that’s like, I have somebody that’s who I pay to do that. So I’m not the one doing it. You know, so.

Amanda (33:29)
Yeah. Isn’t that wild?

Yep. Yeah, exactly. Yes.

Carolyn Solo (33:49)
And again,

premium fees means that I can afford to do that, to pay that to somebody. And I feel really good because I’m paying him a really good rate that he deserved because he’s awesome. And I’m not like Nicola and Dymie looking for someone who charges me $10 an hour. You know, well. again, that’s a business building thing. It’s taken me time to get to the place where can afford that. You know, but it’s all, it’s a gross. You know, I’ve been at this for four years. It’s not like I do it overnight.

Amanda (33:53)
Yes.

Yes. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Exactly.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, exactly. And that’s a lot of why I teach people to like DIY the SEO and AIO stuff. So it’s like, let’s get your business set up so that you can make the money you need so that you don’t have to ever touch that again if you don’t want to.

Carolyn Solo (34:28)
Right, right,

totally, yeah. So, all that good stuff.

Amanda (34:34)
But I love

to, like even that is a reflection of something you said earlier, like this value of we pay people who know their shit to do it really well, right? So whether that’s your therapist, your marketing person, your whatever it is, like if that’s actually a value you have, like it’s both like what you put out into the world and what you get in return. But yeah, times when I was hiring a virtual assistant from like the Philippines or whoever I can find from.

Carolyn Solo (34:44)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda (35:01)
⁓ Fiver like when I was more in scarcity mindset like yeah my quality of work in terms of my marketing like it legitimately wasn’t that good compared to now I have VA’s I charge between or who charged between 30 and 45 an hour and it’s a hundred percent worth it because they produce quality results and I respect the work that they do and yeah, there’s just Exactly

Carolyn Solo (35:21)
You don’t have micromanage them. You’re not redoing everything. Yeah, I’ve been there with

the, yeah. so, but it’s like sometimes you need to start with obviously the lower budget option to get your things done and then you grow. Everything grows. You know, I just invested in a really good new accountant and like tax strategist. And it’s been amazing, but like, I know why I couldn’t afford it that a few years ago. Or did I even think I needed it? Honestly.

Amanda (35:41)
amazing.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (35:50)
And I probably didn’t then, but as my business

gets more, like as the business gets more complex, I’m like, I didn’t need revenue to. That is not what I want to be messing with, trust me. That is not my skill set, nor should it be. But I want to pay someone really well because he does a great job. And I trust him and he has integrity and like all that.

Amanda (35:58)
Nope, nope, Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yes.

Yes, yes.

Yes.

Carolyn Solo (36:12)
And intensives allow all that to be possible for me.

Amanda (36:17)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and right, this is not something that you said too of you don’t have to get all these extra trainings to do them. Like I’ve even, I’ve talked with therapists who are like, I see that there’s a training on how to do a brain spotting intensive. Should I take that? And I’m like, I don’t know, I haven’t taken it. ⁓ I’ve had one person I know who has gone through it they’re like, I didn’t really learn anything extra special. It was more just like thinking through intake and planning processes, but nothing like skills wise, which I think is ultimately like, yes, it’s important that you know.

what your structure is, what your goal is. You have a rough idea of what you’re gonna do when, but there’s nothing that’s really, I think, gonna teach you the extra special skill to offer and intensive outside of you having the capacity to rest and think and be mindful and prepare. Like that’s the hugest thing is the schedule shift to be able to do this well.

Carolyn Solo (37:10)
Yeah, in this space,

yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. It’s a massively specialized.

can make it what you want it to be and what feels good for you.

Amanda (37:30)
Yeah. Well, again, I appreciate this conversation and I’m sure like you and I just might have to continue showing up on each other’s podcasts and just talk about all that. Yeah, we just go and go.

Carolyn Solo (37:37)
I have so much, so many things to talk about. And I

was excited to hear that we’re gonna be at the same retreat this fall. I’m so excited. That will be fun.

Amanda (37:45)
Yes. Yeah.

Anyone who has not signed up for Portland, Maine, come hang out with me and Carolyn and let’s talk about Intensive. That’ll be super exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool. You have a couple of things that you want to share with the listeners. You have an EMDR Intensive Client Workbook. Talk a little bit about what that is.

Carolyn Solo (37:52)
Yeah.

Yeah, and all the things.

Yeah, so that’s a free resource and it is, I believe it’s currently 22 pages, but I’m like refining it and changing it. It’s the workbook that I give to my intensive clients before the three days. So like during the 90 minute intake, we talk through it. I give it to them, they complete it beforehand. And it gives us like a really solid foundation to just know exactly what we’re doing, get into the work.

Amanda (38:16)
Mm-hmm.

Carolyn Solo (38:35)
gives me lot of history really quickly, lot of for EMDR therapists, a lot of phase one and two work gets done in that workbook, which is really helpful. And it has pages for like what to do between the days and what do we do on follow-up. And it really helps with treatment planning. It really helps with like tracking what actually gets done during the intensive. And a lot of my clients have said it’s a great resource to bring to their therapists afterwards. Cause you know, part of my…

process is like I really this person needs to have a therapist that’s not because I don’t see them after we’re done so that’s that and that’s totally free and I you know love to answer questions about it so please if you want to ask me something about it after you get it just let me know and then my podcast is a free resource of course which is it’s called the future template here in podcast and I’m about to hit 150 episodes I’m almost at my three year anniversary so there’s

tons of stuff to listen to about all things intensive. A lot of it is EMDR focused, but a lot of it is relevant to just intensive in general. So, like I just recorded an episode about ⁓ getting called out on social media, that was one. That was actually really fun. And then two, ⁓ about the kind of support I use in my business. And three, about how being diagnosed with ADHD in my 40s changed how I think about my business. So those are relevant to like anybody, it’s not about EMDR. So it’s all over the map. And a lot about parents and

Amanda (39:34)
awesome.

Hahaha.

Mmm. I love that. Yes.

Carolyn Solo (40:02)
in parenting and being a therapist. And then paid options. Currently I’m doing one-to-one business coaching and I have two options. You could do a 90-minute intensive with me, like a one-off. And then I also have a three-month container of like learning each twice a month. And part of that three-month container is you get access to my 12-hour video course about intensive that is included. You can also buy that separately.

But like if you do the one-to-one coaching you get that enough and then I run a group intensive of EMDR intensive 12-week intensive, which is a very wordy title that I should change but you know ⁓ And I’m doing my next cohort of that starting in September And also for people who are EMDR trained I also have consultations for certification and becoming a consultant packagers and we talk a lot about intensive and my my clinical specialization besides

Amanda (40:34)
Amazing.

Carolyn Solo (40:59)
parents of neurodivergent kids who actually dissociate with identity disorder and dissociation. So I do concentration on that. Those are the things I do currently. yeah.

Amanda (41:03)
Mmm.

Amazing. For now, right? ADHD

is all about, let me add another thing and another one and another one.

Carolyn Solo (41:17)
my gosh, seriously, I didn’t even realize that that was why I am the way I am until I got diagnosed and now my life makes a lot more sense. So, word to the wise, if you even slightly suspect it, it’s worth looking into on this point. Don’t wait upon it.

Amanda (41:32)
100%. I love that. Well, thanks.

Carolyn Solo (41:33)
Anyway, so yeah,

all that stuff you can have in the show notes, And you can DM me on Instagram. I love to chat with people on Instagram. So just reach out to me that way.

Amanda (41:37)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We’ll link everything so people can.

Yeah, yeah. I’m so much more

accessible for like an Instagram DM than if someone emails me. I’m like, it’s getting lost along all the other spam and cold emails and things like it. So like, let’s just just DM. So yeah.

Carolyn Solo (41:53)
I know, please DM me. Sometimes I’ll be like, star

that email and I never come back for it. So yeah, don’t rely on email. DMs are the way to go. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Amanda (41:58)
Exactly. Yep. Yep. ADHD. Yes. Yes.

Cool. Well, sounds like you’ve got lots of helpful ways for people to learn more about intensives, EMDR intensives, and how they can work with you. So we’ll definitely list everything in the show notes for people to check that out and connect with you. yeah, I will look forward to, I’m sure we’ll probably talk at some point before September, but if not, I’ll look forward to seeing you there.

Carolyn Solo (42:14)
Thank you.

Yeah, well thanks so much for having me. This was so fun.

Amanda (42:24)
Thank you, Carolyn.

Carolyn Solo (42:26)
Okay, take care.