WP134 | Called to Travel: Create a Mobile Practice with Kym Tolson, LCSW
In this episode of the Wise Practice Podcast, I’m joined by Kym, a true pioneer in the world of traveling therapists. She’s the real deal—honest, experienced, and incredibly generous with her wisdom. Kym opens up about what it actually takes to live abroad while running a successful online therapy practice. From navigating licensing laws and liability insurance to choosing the right zip code for attracting private-pay clients and dealing with EHR limitations overseas, she doesn’t sugarcoat a thing.
She’s made the mistakes, learned the lessons, and now she’s helping other therapists do it smarter—especially through her active Facebook community where people show up daily with questions like, “How do I move to Albania?” or “Can I bill insurance if I’m outside the U.S.?”
Whether you’re dreaming of running your practice from the beach or just want more freedom from the four walls of a traditional office, this episode is full of real talk and actionable insight. Kym proves that with the right planning, support, and mindset, you can take your practice beyond borders—without losing your mind or your license.
From Office Walls to Worldwide Wi-Fi
Transitioning from in-person to online work wasn’t seamless. Kym recalls the emotional tug of letting go: “People like being in the room with you,” she says. The shift felt deeply personal and required careful conversations, helped along by resources like Amber’s course, which guides therapists through offboarding in-person clients while honoring their needs.
Now, with all her current clients online and a life lived mostly outside her state of licensure (save for occasional family visits), she’s fully embraced the freedom that comes with telehealth.
Beyond the Couch: Multiple Income Streams and a Global Outlook
Though Kym only sees a few long-term clients now, her influence in the therapist community is vast. She supports clinicians in optimizing their practices through smarter marketing, SEO tips, and strategic use of platforms like Psychology Today. One of her pro tips? Choose a zip code with a higher per capita income to increase the likelihood of attracting private-pay clients, especially if you’re licensed in a state but serving via telehealth.
She’s also not shy about calling out the challenges of hybrid models. “If you’re half in, half out,” Kym explains, “it’s harder to market.” People will assume you're available in-person if you’re nearby, even if you’re not. Going all in—either with brick-and-mortar or telehealth—simplifies expectations and branding.
The Practical Side of Being a Nomadic Therapist
And then there’s the nitty-gritty. Things like setting up a Google My Business listing when you don’t have a permanent address (Kym uses her mom’s) or navigating EHR platforms that don’t allow you to practice internationally. Kym’s seen it all:
Blue Cross Blue Shield is notorious for requiring clinicians to physically reside in the state for 183 days a year.
Headway and Alma won’t let you bill if you’re outside the U.S., while TherapyNotes and Sessions Health are more international-friendly.
Liability insurance? You’ll need one like CPH & Associates that allows you to be mobile, so long as you're still following your state’s licensure laws.
And don’t forget about visa rules and foreign tax laws. Spend too long in some countries, and you could be subject to local taxes—even if your income comes from abroad.
Real Talk from the Road
Kym doesn’t paint the traveling therapist life as flawless—it comes with tech issues, state-specific restrictions, and insurance headaches. But with thoughtful planning, strong systems, and up-to-date knowledge (often found in real-time via her Facebook group), it’s more than possible.
“You just get it done,” she says simply.
Because for Kym, and the hundreds she mentors, the dream isn’t about escaping the office. It’s about crafting a life you love, helping people from anywhere in the world, and doing so on your terms.
Thinking about becoming a traveling therapist or shifting your private practice online? Kym’s community is a goldmine of support, resources, and up-to-date industry insight. Because in this ever-evolving field, having a network that moves with you might be the most valuable asset of all.
Show Sponsor Private Pay Masterclass
Go to https://www.wisepracticeconsulting.com/masterclass-private-pay and register for the Private Pay Masterclass.
Kym Tolson’s Resources
Portable Practice Method helps you go from licensing issues to building income streams to managing a lifestyle on the road
Insurance Billing Startup Maximizer - Free Insurance Billing Startup Guide
What Country Should You Move to as a Traveling Therapist?
Links and Resources
Looking for support and connection: Join the Wise Practice Community
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
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[00:00:00] Laura Long: Hi, I am Laura Long, and if you're a faith-based therapist stuck on insurance panels, drowning in low payouts, and wondering if private pay is even possible for you. I want you to know it absolutely is. That's why I created this masterclass to help you confidently transition off panels and build a profitable God-honoring practice that gives you freedom and margin.
We'll have six live classes and three live office hours where I will personally walk you through the strategy and mindset shifts that you're gonna need to go private pay. Plus I'll be able to answer your questions in real time. And don't worry, every class is recorded and sent to you afterward. It's $249 a month for three months, and trust me, the return on investment is well worth it with the income that you're going to earn.
Sign up at www.wisepracticeconsulting.com. Let's build the practice you've been praying for. I'll see you inside.
[00:00:56] Whitney Owens: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place.
Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice. While also having a good time. Now let's get started.
[00:01:23] Jingle: Where she grows your practice. She don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
Whitney Owens and Wise Practice
[00:01:38] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Today on the Wise Practice podcast I'm interviewing. Kym Tolson and she is the traveling therapist. She's gonna tell you all about how to create a mobile practice so that you can travel and have the life you want and the practice you want. She has so much great information, you're gonna learn so much, and she's got a free of you at the end about insurance billing and a great course to make sure you make it to the end of the episode so you can grab all that or head to the show notes and get those links.
I am excited because. My girl, Laura Long, who is one of the consultants with Wise Practice is hosting a course this summer all about how to become an private pay practice. This is a topic that I'm super passionate about. In fact, I spoke on this at the a CA conference just a few weeks ago on how to build a private pay practice in an insurance based world.
I have had so many people reach out and say. Is it really possible or is this a mindset issue? Or, my clients would never wanna go from insurance to private pay. We have consulted with hundreds of practice owners at Wise Practice who think about going private pay. They're not really sure. Then they sign up for consulting with us or take our courses and they make that transition and it is scary.
I hear you. But the truth is it can be done. And I promise you here on this podcast, I have never had someone come back to me and say, why did I come off insurance panels? Never. I've never had someone who we helped go private pay, come back and get back on insurance panels, because yes, insurance panels are always gonna be there, y'all.
If you come off a panel and it ain't working for you, you can go back on panels, right? But you can have the practice that you want, you can see less clients, you can make more money, you can get rid of the headache, all the paperwork. You don't have to be stringent on your diagnostic in the way that the insurance company needs you to be.
You can diagnose in the way that you believe is best for clients. You can do treatment that you wanna do, if it's couples therapy or if it's a longer EMDR session. There's so much more flexibility to do the kind of work we wanna do. And with seeing less clients making more money, you're gonna have a lot more energy and you're gonna be able to serve more in the long run by kinda having that energy to come up with new services, new ideas, things that you can do in your practice.
Or maybe you've got a side hustle that you wanna do, but you're having to see so many clients you can't get it started. Going to a private pay practice is gonna provide you so much more flexibility and income. And yes, it can be done. And Laura, who's one of the Wise Practice consultants, she's based outta Greenville, South Carolina.
She's got a private practice there and has for years all cash pay, and she's helped so many people get there. So she's gonna be launching this course in June. The doors are open now. You can head to wise practice consulting.com. You'll find a popup there, or you can join the class, or you can go under Masterminds and you'll see the dropdown there for the private pay masterclass.
It will be six classes, two in June, two in July, two in August, one hour long on Zoom. And if you can't be there, it will be recorded. We will send it to you if you're unable to make it one week. But she's gonna really get in it with you and show you exactly how to go private pay, walk you through all the steps, break down the myths, the money mindset stuff.
And then she's also in addition to the six courses, offering live office hours so you can hit her up. Three different times, one hour each month, and you'll have a live time to ask her questions and implement. These are gonna be on Tuesdays at noon Eastern time in the months of June, July, and August. The dates are in.
You'll get the dates sent to you, but you'll also see 'em on the landing page because we wanna, we did have to work a little bit around 4th of July and things like that, but it's gonna be an awesome course. If you have ever thought about going private pay, this is the time in the summer. It's gonna give you that freedom and flexibility to really set that up so that you're ready when fall comes again, go to learning page, you can get all the information.
This course is 2 49 a month. You are well gonna make that back by going private pay. If you can just get two or three clients to go private pay, you're gonna make that money back and you will be able to do that. And way more so for 2 49 a month for a three month course. We are so excited. So head to wise practice consulting.com if you wanna get to know Laura.
She was on episode 1 32 where we talk all about going to private pay. So make sure you check out that episode so you can hear more about that. But for today, we're gonna talk with Kym and she's gonna tell us all about how to have a mobile practice and have the lifestyle and dreams that we've always been looking for.
Today on the Wise Practice Podcast, I have Ken Sson, who's a licensed clinical social worker, digital nomad, and founder of the Traveling Therapist, a movement helping therapist build location independent private practices. She specializes in telehealth insurance billing, multi-state licensure in creating AI driven travel friendly systems that allow therapists to see clients from anywhere.
Kym also hosts the Traveling Therapist Podcast, where she interviews clinicians living and working around the world, whether she's in Costa Rica or Colorado. Her mission is to help therapists build businesses that fit their lives, not the other way around. Kym, thanks for coming on the show. Welcome.
Thanks for having me. Yeah. So I remember when I, I first heard about you and all the traveling you did, I was like, Hmm, I don't know how that works. Right? Like, how is she able to travel and be a therapist? So can you kind of take us back to when did you kind of start traveling? How'd you put this together and how do you make this work?
[00:07:39] Kym Tolson: Well, I used to take like eight weeks of vacation a year, right? Because I love to travel, so I was in a brick and mortar. And I would like go on vacation, I'd come back, I'd like cram all my clients in, you know, and then I would go on vacation again. And really I was burned out like on vacation. I was just like recouping really, you know?
Exactly. So it was kind of like something's gotta give. And then right around the same time I found out about Amber Leida. You probably know her, the online therapist group? I don't
actually.
[00:08:06] Kym Tolson: Oh my gosh. Okay. She's amazing. If you guys don't know her. Online therapist group, Amber Leida. She was like my mentor in taking my practice all online back in 2018.
I found her, I was in a, like a hotel room in Mexico and I was like just kind of scrolling Facebook and I ran across her group and I was like, wait a second. Wait, what is this? You can be an online therapist, you can work from anywhere. Like I didn't even know that was a thing back in 2018. Of course, now we all know about being online because of Covid and everything, but.
At the time I took her course, like I was like, should I, shouldn't I, I signed up and about six months later I was totally online and then, but still, you know, still kind of had the brick and mortar. I was kind of scared to get rid of it, but I finally did. I talked to all my clients into going online, you know, that whole thing that we've all had to go through now for anybody that's remember.
Um, and then my boyfriend and I were like, you know what, let's just. Sell everything and, and just kind of like go from place to place. At first it was like, we're, we're gonna just go down to Hollywood, Florida. We're just gonna live, maybe rent an apartment. 'cause we could both be remote. And we did that for a while and then we were like, what if we just like didn't have like a, like a stable place to live?
What if we lived in Airbnbs? And then he was like, I don't know if we could do it. I was like, I don't know if we could do it either. And then we were like, let's just do it. So we kind of like really downsized and put everything into a storage unit in Fort Lauderdale, which was kind of a mistake, but put it all in there.
I could talk about that. If you want to put it all in there. And you know, that was in, that was on February 2nd, 2022. So 2, 2 22 we decided to just go all in on living in Airbnbs and we've been doing it ever since. And since then. You know, it's been a process, right? Because I had to learn about licensing rules and you know, insurance and can I be out of the country if I'm seeing my client, you know, through my simple practice, EHR.
It was like a whole evolving process and along the way I started a Facebook group called A Traveling Therapist, and I've, you know, since then helped so many therapists take their practices like to a portable level where they can just live anywhere and still run a pretty good private practice from wherever they want to.
[00:10:13] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Oh, I love your story. I love hearing you jump out and do it. Yeah. And also emphasized that you found somebody to help you figure these things out. Yes. And then you went and figured out more things, and now you teach people those things. I just think so many therapists. Don't wanna pay for coaching, consulting, whatever.
So they go start doing it on their own. It's so exhausting in time and like you could probably tell somebody one hour what's gonna take 'em 10 hours to figure out. And yeah, there's chat GPT and Google and stuff, but it's not specific to this industry and what we know in these laws are so important and you probably have so many fun tips.
Oh my gosh.
[00:10:54] Kym Tolson: Yeah. And I've learned them along the way. I mean, they're, I've made every mistake you could possibly make. Yeah. I mean, really. And you know, it's fun to have the Facebook group because you hear people every day saying like, what do I do about this? What do I do about this? And it's just, it's amazing.
And it's amazing just that see people living their dream. Like somebody the other day is like, I wanna live in Albania. You know, it's like, how do I move to Albania? And then all these people are chiming in and they're like, you know, how do I, you know, maintain my licensure back in the United States? And what about liability insurance?
All of that. And, and we just get it done. You know, if you've got the dream, you can do it. It's kind of the whole message of the whole thing.
[00:11:31] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So when you transitioned to all online, was that a struggle to maintain clients in a caseload?
[00:11:39] Kym Tolson: It was in the beginning because a lot of them were used to sitting in the office with me, you know, like, like sharing that space.
You know how that is. I know you've got. Like brick and mortar offices. Two, two offices. Yeah. It's amazing. You know, I mean, people like being in the room with you, but I've found since then that transition part was a challenge. Amber, of course, really helped with that. Like, have the conversation, how can you transition them?
How can you help them find therapists that will be, you know, in person, if that's what they wanna do, just like embracing that process, if it's okay to help them find somebody else. And then, yeah. Now that all my clients are come to me and I'm already online, it's not really a thing anymore because they know that's like the status quo and that's super important to me.
And I could never see anybody in person anyway, because I'm never in my state of licensure. Except for right now I am because of family, but normally I'm not in my state of licensure at all.
[00:12:29] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So how about now? Is it hard to build a caseload being remote or no? Well,
[00:12:36] Kym Tolson: I'm a little. Different because I have like 15 other income streams, so I don't, I haven't brought a new client on for about probably five or six years now myself.
So I've got just like, I really have three clients now that I see, and they're, they're just like, I've known them for like 10, 15 years and they just kind of pop in and out and they need help with something. So I'm not really a good example of that, but I do help people market their practices. We talk about a lot of SEO stuff, you know, like making sure you're using psychology today the right way, having the right zip code in your psychology today to attract, you know, if you're private pay to attract that type of customer that have more income that could pay your private pay rates or you know, I'm also insurance based, so I talk about that.
How do we get on the highest insurance panels that paid the best? If you can still offer taking insurance and still make a living, you know, that kind of stuff, that kind of help around those areas. But getting new clients. It s and flows. I know you probably know this too, you probably help people that are trying to market and get people into their practice, it ebbs and flows like the summer's coming, right?
That's the summer slump. That's a good time to reach out, do the networking, I think, and try to like work on your social media and all that stuff to kind of attract more clients. I love it.
[00:13:51] Whitney Owens: And that was kind of part of, just to be honest, as a marketing per, like, I love marketing and yeah, I think I'm pretty good at it.
I have a private paper practice, like 17 therapists, you know. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. But the, the virtual aspect of it, I have a, I've, I've kind of always said to people, it's hard to. Market when you're doing a lot of things, like if you're doing some brick and mortar and some virtual, it is hard to market to both.
Or if you're in multiple states, it's hard to market in every state. Like the more you kind of niche in what you're doing, you can really hone in your marketing there. So I did wanna talk about marketing, 'cause I do get a lot of questions about that for people that are remote. And I'm always like, well, here's some things.
But even that tip you just gave about psychology today and the zip code. Yes.
[00:14:36] Kym Tolson: Yeah, that's, yeah. If you're, if you're licensed in a state, look for the, the city or county that has the highest per capita income and use that as your zip code on psychology today. You know, 'cause you're, you know, I hate to say that you're gonna attract a higher paying customer if you do that sort of thing, but there's little things like that you can do to bring more money in.
[00:14:56] Whitney Owens: It's the same thing we do with Google Ads. We can narrow it down to a certain income bracket and as a private pay bracket, I've had to do, you know, the top 70, 80% of earners within my zip code.
[00:15:07] Kym Tolson: Yeah. Yep. And if you're all telehealth, you've got the whole state to market to instead of just like, you know, an area where somebody could drive like 30 minutes to an hour to come see you, that kind of thing.
Yeah, and I like what you said about, you know, I have found if you're, if you're kind of half in with like a hybrid model, it's harder to market. And I think because I think people want to see you in person, I think that really is the inclination. If you're nearby, even now, my clients will say, well, we would be back in Virginia.
Can I. Can I cook tea? Like can we meet in a coffee shop or something? I'm like, no, we can't do that. But people will want to do that. So I think it really helps to kind of be all in or all out with the telehealth of the brick and mortar really, because you know, people, people will be like, okay, well I'm only gonna see people telehealth on Monday, but then the rest of the time I'll be in the office.
The clients tend to wanna let go the other days, you know? I have found it's harder to feel that way. Oh
[00:15:58] Whitney Owens: yeah, yeah, yeah. We actually have one therapist that's fully remote 'cause she, her husband had gotten a job and so she moved, she's up in Atlanta, so she's like four hours away. Yeah, we, she's able to maintain a calendar, but I was very worried and we have to convince people.
We have to remind them. She's one of the best really like, you know, schedule with her. Alright, here's another question I get a lot about Google my Business. So what do you do about that?
[00:16:22] Kym Tolson: You know, I don't have a Google my business. I don't have that. I don't, I don't need it for me, but I just did a webinar with this guy named Chris Mor.
He's with mm-hmm. Called Moonraker ai. I don't know if you've heard of him, Uhhuh, but he, he just did a whole. Webinar on that. Like it's super important, especially if you're a clinician trying to fill your caseload to make sure that you've got Google My Business. Now what I could do, I use my mom's address and people ask me that all the time.
Like, what address do you use? That's where my car is registered. That's where my voter registration is. So I, I could use that as like an office address. My business is registered there, so I could do that. I was talking to Chris about that the other day actually. But now they want you to like take a picture of the outside of the building and it's like a whole thing.
So if you are remote, you're gonna have to have a way and you wanna do that, you're gonna have to have a way to like show that you've got an office structure there. Now, a lot of. Remote clinicians or traveling therapists will use somebody else's office. Like they'll just pay to have a mailing address.
They'll get their credentialing done through that address. They'll use it to just say like, if I ever possibly had to see a client, could I come in and use one of your offices? And there are other clinicians out there that rent out their mailing, a drop to their, to their physical brick and mortar. Yeah.
[00:17:37] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. That's an interesting idea. It's a moneymaker too. I wonder if that messes with the Google My Business though, for that location.
[00:17:45] Kym Tolson: Yeah. I don't know. That's, that's an interesting question. I'm not sure about that. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:17:50] Whitney Owens: Well, can you talk a little bit about insurance? I know this is a specialty for you, so how does that work?
Traveling and billing insurance.
[00:17:58] Kym Tolson: Oh my gosh. This comes up every day in the traveling therapist group. So there are certain insurance companies that don't care where you're located, and then there's certain ones that do care where you're located. So you know, when people consult with me all the time, they're like, which ones can I take and which ones can I take?
Then there's other nuances, like simple practice doesn't want you out of the country. Sessions. Health says it's okay to be in out of the country. So if you're using different EHRs and trying to bill insurance and see clients, you have to be kind of aware of that stuff too. Therapy Notes says it's okay to be out of the country, so there's different nuances to that, but with the insurance billing.
Bill Blue Cross Blue Shield specifically is the one that's giving everybody a lot of trouble. So if you're ing, you take Blue Cross Blue Shield, that's the one you have to really look out for because some Blue Cross Blue Shield, they're all state dependent, so they're not like, like a national insurance company.
So some of them in some states are requiring the clinician now to be physically present in the state for 183 days out of the year. To maintain a residence there. So they, they, they want you to be living there to be able to be credentialed with them and be able to bill insurance through them and, you know, take clients through them.
So that's Blue Cross Blue Shield. Yeah. There's some Medicaids in some states that don't want the clinician out of the state. Medicare wants you to have like a physical, like the option to be physically in an office if you have to be Aetna, Cigna, United Behavioral Health as of today. What's today? April 25th, 2025.
It is Okay. If you're international with one of those three insurances because they don't care where the clinician is located as long as you're following your licensure laws and regulation, which most. State for most credentials allow the clinician to be located anywhere when they're delivering services to their client.
[00:19:44] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Oh, there are some states that don't allow that. I.
[00:19:47] Kym Tolson: Yes, I believe, gosh, I wish I had the list in front of me. So like North Carolina, L-L-L-T-F-W to North Carolina aren't allowed to be out of the state. Wow. Yeah. What is another, there's a couple of 'em. Alaska, I believe, for LPCs. Texas used to be, Texas used to be one.
They just recently changed it. Most of them are coming around because there are compacts coming out that are kind of like getting rid of these. Regulations that the licensing boards are restricting upon people. So it's an ever-changing, it's an ever-changing like canvas really, of following these regulations.
So that's why the Facebook group is so good because you could just kind of go in there and somebody will say, no, I just talked to this person yesterday and they said, you can do it. So it kind of helps to stay like real time with stuff. Yeah. Good. Yeah, and so the, back to the insurance question, I get off track with the stuff, but yeah, I mean, you could build a three just fine as long as you're using an EHR that allows you to be, you know, out of the United States when you're building.
Yeah. If you're somebody that goes through Headway or Alma, which I know a lot of people do, you're not allowed to be outta the country with Head We, Alma, and billing insurance through them, they. Recently changed their regulations around that Headway want you either in Canada, Mexico, or the United States, and Alma want you located in the United States if you're gonna bill insurance through them.
So, hmm. Kind of restrict you a little bit. But people will say, well, what do I do? And I'm like, well, let's talk about private pay or talk about coaching. If you're state of licensure won't allow you to. You know, be out of the state. Let's talk about what a coaching model might look like for you. Or let's just focus on these three insurances, get credentialed and make sure you're using the right EHR, and then you can go live anywhere.
So there's a little bit of, you know, work around that stuff. Mm-hmm.
[00:21:29] Whitney Owens: It like makes me sad that these companies that get to make all these decisions, right. I know. Why does the EHR get to decide where I practice? I don't know.
[00:21:39] Kym Tolson: I know they say they, they say it's HIPAA issues that, that it's basically a HIPAA compliance issue that they can't guarantee if you're in a different country that the wifi, the cure or something.
So it has something to do with hipaa, but it still doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. It's like, okay, like hipaa, hipaa, like if you're using a secure, you know, wifi connection, which everybody does pretty much is seeing their clients. You're not like in a coffee shop or something. You would think that.
EHR is secure enough to protect HIPAA anywhere,
[00:22:08] Whitney Owens: which just makes sense. Well, right, and of course we want softwares to be the most compliant possible, but truly it's the role of the therapist to abide by hipaa, not the role of all the softwares or my email or my phone. I need to make sure that they are following my codes.
Yes, exactly. Hmm. That's interesting. Yeah, so traveling to other countries like that sounds really fun. Yeah. Do you have any kind of tips or for therapists about that specifically? Like things they need to be thinking about? Just, you know,
[00:22:39] Kym Tolson: I. There. There's so many things, like it depends on how long you wanna go for.
That's super important. Like there's certain places like the eu, they have this thing called the shenanigan zone, where you can only be in that area for I, I believe that's 183 days. And then you have to be out of the shenanigan zone for 90 days. So unless you have a visa, unless you have a certain type of visa that allows you to stay in that area.
So there's little things like that you've gotta always check. Check visa status if you need a visa and, and how long you can stay there. Like for example, we stayed in the Dominican Republic for four months, one winter, like two winters ago. We stayed down there and they do have a visa that says you have to leave in 30 days, but they don't really care if you oversay your visa like they could care less.
They just charge you like by day, you know, per person by day. And you could stay as long as you want, but if you stay over six months. You are then required to pay taxes, like I think it's 20% of any income that you earn anywhere in the world you're required to pay to the Dominican Republic if you stay there that long.
Hmm. So we only stayed four months and we, you know. Pay the payment to overpay our visas, which was only like $70 a person or something like that. It was really not much at all. So just little things like that. If you're gonna go somewhere, you need to research, like the visa laws, the taxation laws. You need to check with your liability insurance to make sure your liability insurance says you can be somewhere else located somewhere else.
The one I use the CPH and associates, and they don't care where the clinician is. As long as you're following your licensing guidelines and regulations and seeing your client that's physically in your state of licensure at the time of service in case they ever wanna bring a lawsuit. If, if you were seeing a client and they were, you know, in Albania or whatever, you would not be covered by your liability insurance.
So you have to. You have to like follow those guidelines wifi, like have a backup because it is a nightmare. I mean, we live in Airbnbs and one thing we always do is we ask like, please set up a speed test of how fast the wifi is. Because you cannot run a business if you don't have wifi, especially if you're in other countries or.
Change of countries every couple of weeks. And most of the time they'll, they'll say, you know, I don't even know what that is. And then sometimes they will send a speed test, but most of the time they'll say, the Internet's fine. I've worked from there. It's fine. There's no problems. And then you get there and it does not work and you cannot get, even get online, you can't even hold a Zoom session without the internet like.
Just crapping out on you. So have some backups. We've got this little dot, it's like this little orange dot that basically could pick up on cell towers. Anywhere you are, you turn it on. It's like a wifi hotspot that we can activate if we need to. We have our cell phone hotspots that have unlimited coverage in internationally, so we could use those hotspots if we need to.
Um, there's remote workplaces you can go. Rent an office for an hour, have to, so there's little things like that. There's little workarounds, but the the key is just do the research before and, and get a good understanding of what you're walking into before you try to go and like, run your whole private practice in some other country where you haven't researched that
[00:25:41] Whitney Owens: stuff.
[00:25:41] Kym Tolson: Yeah.
[00:25:42] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Those such great tips. Hmm. And so this is back to the marketing question. 'cause this was thinking about, this was in my head, I need another cup of coffee. My words are like, all right, so what has. Somebody, somebody's in one state. I see therapists do a lot. They work remote. They're in one state and they're like, I can't get enough clients.
Mm-hmm. So then they go get licensed in three other states. Yes. So they're marketing themselves remotely for like three or four different states. Like what are your thoughts on that?
[00:26:13] Kym Tolson: You know. Well, let me say, I do have a course that's called the Nitty Gritty and Multi-State Private Practice Expansion because so many people come to me about that and they wanna know like, how do I manage, you know, taxes in both places.
Business entities. Yeah. Insur Insurance, billing in both places. You know, what is the age of consent in this state versus the age of consent in the state. Like these are all things you have to take into consideration if you're gonna do multi-state expansion. A lot of people have been successful doing that, but I also.
Feel pretty strongly. Your marketing if tight, if you've got like a really compelling Psychology Today profile, you know your niche, there's plenty of people in your state of licensure that are, that you can fill your case load with. I mean, how many do you need, especially if your private pay, what do you need?
Like 10, 10 clients? A week or something. Maybe 20, but yeah, maybe 20. Yeah. Depending on how much you charge. You know, so I, I've kind of mixed on that. There's people that are determined, they're like, I'm gonna be licensed in 15 states. Like, okay, well here's a great course to help you, but I don't really feel like that's necessary.
I actually think it, like, complicates it a lot more because like, you know, just. All the different things that you have to know. All states have different regulations and rules. Insurance billing gets a lot more complicated if you're an insurance based provider. If you're trying to like bill across multiple states, especially if you're like a Medicare provider and you're like in different Macs, like regional areas of, of like Medicare catchment areas.
Basically, if you've got two different Medicare catchment areas in different states, that's gonna cause you problems. Yeah. Complicated. Mm-hmm.
[00:27:43] Whitney Owens: Definitely, I, I totally agree with everything you said and it always, for me, when I look at their website and when I talk to them, I feel confused on what they do, and I'm like, I'm feeling confused.
Your clients are, when they go and then they don't reach out, you know, I.
[00:27:57] Kym Tolson: Exactly, exactly. It gets complicated. And, and you know, even in that course I was talking about, we've got SEO experts in there that say, you know, you need to have a, like a, basically a whole page on your website for each state. So you're working with the SEO in each state, you know, like talking about Illinois and then talking about Connecticut, you know, and then talk, so Google's picking up on that stuff, the SEO, to know that you're an entity in both states.
Yeah, definitely.
[00:28:24] Whitney Owens: Now you have a freebie for us today about insurance billing.
[00:28:29] Kym Tolson: Yes, I do. So we didn't really talk about that much, but I am an insurance billing expert. I help people like take insurances in their practices, the right insurance for their practice. And I do have this freebie that's like an insurance filling startup maximizer is what I call it.
And it it. It's a lot of information. It's about two hours of a training that myself and two certified billers that I know that we did together, and it walked you through cre, credentialing, contracting. What are ERA? What are e fts? How do I set up my CAQH? So it gets you started on the front end of the insurance billing and helps you like just the, that initial piece if you don't wanna hire a biller to help you do it.
Yeah.
[00:29:11] Whitney Owens: Wow. Well that's a wonderful gift. So we'll have that in the show notes as well. And then you have the portable practice method. Could you talk some about that and how it can help people on the road? I.
[00:29:22] Kym Tolson: Yes, the portable practice method is my signature course that I created based on all of my trial and error and all the, you know, private coaching I've done with clinicians that are trying to live that portable lifestyle.
Mm-hmm. It is basically broken into three parts. So the first part just talked about licensing, regulation, kind of the stuff I touched on here. Liability insurance, how to reach out to your board, what questions to ask, all that stuff. The second part actually works on, you know, we wanna be maybe transition to private pay if you're taking insurance, because it's more complicated, you're gonna be living outta the country.
But it also talks a lot about building other income streams that can support you. Because even myself, mm-hmm. When I first started with this, I had so many clients I would, you know, get to a place, we'd be there for a week. I was like just seeing so many clients that had no time to actually even. Travel and see the places that I was traveling to.
'cause I was so bogged down Yeah. In what I was doing. So, you know, like I mentioned earlier, I have 15 income streams. I've developed these income streams really to give me almost path of income at this point. So I don't have to work a lot so I can get to these places and actually go live my life. So. The second module talks all about how to build other income streams, how to identify your niche, how to branch out and you know, build digital products if you want to or whatever you wanna do.
So that's that section. And then the third section is like how to actually manage the lifestyle. So that's like, you know, self care. Peer consultation if you needed. How do you keep friends on the road? You know, like so a social life, like all of that stuff. So it's that part, like the lifestyle time zones.
How do you manage a time zone? Because if your clients are in Eastern and you're in Japan, you're gonna be seeing them in the middle of the night, you know? So you have to figure out how am I gonna work this schedule for my clients back? Yeah. So it's all that. Yeah. And that's the portable practice method.
[00:31:12] Whitney Owens: Yeah. I love it. That, thank you. That sounds so helpful. Like you just addressed so many things that I would be like, how do I do this? And then you even said things I wouldn't have even thought about.
So yes.
[00:31:23] Kym Tolson: That's great. Yeah, and we got it all in there. I mean, anything that anybody's ever brought up in the traveling therapist Facebook group, I've got a solution for it in this course.
[00:31:31] Whitney Owens: Wonderful. Alright. And then you have the Facebook group. If people are wanting, just get connected, ask questions, and then if people wanted to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that?
[00:31:40] Kym Tolson: You can go to my website, the traveling therapist.com, or you can reach out to info@Kymto.com. That's my email address.
[00:31:47] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Awesome. Well, this has been super great. I've really enjoyed it. Lots of great information. Anything we didn't cover that you wanted to mention? I don't think so.
[00:31:56] Kym Tolson: I think that's it. It's, it's complicated. It probably sounds complicated, but it is so worth it if you're somebody that just loves to travel and, and doesn't wanna put roots down somewhere.
It's, it's an amazing lifestyle. Yeah.
[00:32:08] Whitney Owens: That's great. Well, Kym, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show.
[00:32:15] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and The Wise Practice Podcast. Oh Whitney Wise Practice
[00:32:29] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
