My Journey to Being a Digital Nomad Therapist
I feel extremely lucky to be writing this blog to you from a new cafe I’m exploring in Medellin, Colombia. This is my fourth trip here, and this city is the origin story of my decision to be a digital nomad therapist, so it only feels appropriate that I would write about my experiences from this cafe.
If you’ve found your way to this corner of the internet, you might be a fellow Registered Clinical Counsellor in BC or a therapist elsewhere, curious about the “digital nomad” life. You’re likely wondering: How did you get here? And is it actually possible for me to do it, too?
My answer is YES! But because I love to share this story, let me rewind and start from the beginning..
My First Seeds of Travel: From Haiti to Bangkok
It’s 2013 and I’m on a global projects trip in Haiti. I was studying psychology and english, still unsure if I would pursue journalism. I was on this trip with 7 other nurses and I was the one of two people who weren’t in the medical field on the trip.Surrounded by nurses, I felt a pang of “career envy.” I saw them combining travel with meaningful, boots-on-the-ground help.
I had a mini-crisis: Should I switch to nursing so I can work outside of Canada and join Doctors Without Borders? How can a therapist ever work and travel?
Travel nursing and working with internationally with Doctors without Borders seemed like an easy opportunity to combine career, travel and helping other people, but in psychology I was lost. I had connected to a new part of myself: a spontaneous, adventurous and curious part that did not want to be “stifled” and stuck in one place.
After some deliberation, I decided that given my passion for psychology and counselling and that it would be for the best that I would finish my degree and see what the world had to offer me, rather than switching it up and needing to start from the beginning. I won’t be able to travel for work, but I can travel during my vacation time right? Maybe that will be enough.
Flash forward, its 2016 and I’m living and working in Bangkok, Thailand. I worked with an organization called NightLight at a safe home for women who had been sexually exploited and were in process to return to their home countries. I had a lot of different reasons for choosing to work there after graduating, mostly related to my area of passion – supporting women who have been sexually exploited. Following my 6 month work in the program I realized a few things
- I wanted to do long term trauma work
- I loved travelling
- I definitely wanted to do my masters degree in counselling
Vancouver, COVID, and the “Virtual Therapy” Pivot
During my masters I had a dream to go work for IJM following graduation and continue to pursue additional trauma therapy training to support women who had been exploited. Well…plans changed a little bit when I met my (future) husband while I was in grad school. Wanting to see what would happen if we continued to date while in the same country I graduated and began working for two private practices and moved to Vancouver. Just a month after I was officially an RCC and started to build up a caseload COVID hit…..all the clients I originally had said “i’ll just see you in 2 weeks” rather than try the weird “virtual therapy” thing.
Well…we all know what happened next. And as 2 weeks became months, and years, people became more and more comfortable and in need of virtual therapy. At the end of 2021 I opened my own private practice and began to build from there. Going out on my own was a huge leap, but also a very exciting one! At that time I didn’t imagine that this might mean I could still maintain long term therapy relationships while travelling the world…nope, that came a bit later!
The Ferry Ride That Changed Everything
On New Year’s Day 2023, sitting on the ferry back from Vancouver Island, my husband and I started dreaming. We loved our life in Kitsilano, our community, and the proximity to the mountains and the ocean. But we felt a tug of curiosity: Could we live somewhere else for a while? Could I maintain my trauma therapy practice while on another continent?
We spent that ferry ride furiously googling:
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“What kind of insurance does a BC therapist need to practice abroad?”
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“Virtual physiotherapy jobs in Canada” (for my husband).
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“Tax implications for digital nomad therapists.”
We landed on Medellin. The time zone was only 3 hours ahead of Vancouver (perfect for afternoon sessions with BC clients), and it offered a chance to deepen my Spanish, and connect with my husband’s home culture. By the time the ferry docked, we looked at each other and said: “are we really going to this??!” and the answer was yes!
Preparing to be Digital Nomads
We gave ourselves 9 months to figure it all out. We saved up our money, built up my virtual caseload – I expanded and rebranded into “Haven Wellness Collective” and brought on my first contractors to join the team who would be working in Vancouver while I was away. I had conversations with them about how they might feel working at an office where I wasn’t going to be for a year. I figured out who would be able to do what – i.e. who is watering the plants, depositing cheques, restocking the tea in the office? I didn’t know anyone who had a group private practice who managed it remotely…I had no template for what I was about to do, but I wanted to try anyways!
I told my clients a few months before we were going to leave. I gave them the option to switch to virtual, or be referred to someone else and almost all of them decided to stay with me virtually. Every decision we made that put us one step closer to this dream was scary and exciting. My husband quit his job in Vancouver, we said our goodbyes, and then that was it! We were on a plane with a one way ticket to Medellin!
And Finally…Being a Digital Nomad!
The next year was full of amazing, exciting moments, hard moments and mistakes (oops…I definitely messed up the time zones a few times!). Not everything was easy with managing a practice while on another continent, and things that I didn’t anticipate happened which at times made me question my decisions. I learned what it meant to run a business while also living my life, and I can say that this was one of the best years of my life. I found a work-life balance that I’m still trying to replicate back in Vancouver, and fulfilled multiple desires at the same time: helping clients over the long term while also prioritizing the things that matter to me (travel and adventure). Some of my favourite moments from that year were:
- Travelling in the Galapagos for 2 weeks!! While I definitely took more time off while we were there, I also managed to work for a few days as well. Some of the best days consisted of yummy breakfast and coffee in the morning before walking around the island and snorkelling with the turtles before coming back and having some sessions with my clients.
- The Salkentay Hike in Peru: We embarked on the Salkentay 4 day trek starting in Cusco, and ending at Machu Picchu. We had an incredible group of other travellers and an amazing guide. The views were unbelievable, and as there was no cell service I was fully disconnected from work. This was both scary (because who was running the practice and what if something happened where people needed me?!) and SO restful.
- Having over 10 people come visit us and show them around! We made Medellin our home base and built up a life there – full of friends, hobbies and a routine, and we were so happy to show it to people who had never been to South America before.
Ready for your own Digital Nomad Therapist Journey!?
If you’ve made it this far, I hope that this can inspire you to also pursue your dreams! It is completely possible to maintain a private practice fully virtually while you travel the world. Are there some important logistics to figure out? Absolutely! Can you do it? Absolutely!
If you want a cheerleader, mentor and support system to help you figure out how you can do your own version of this I would love to help you. Reach out and book a free 15 minute consultation call with me today and we’ll get started!
