Chamber Insider Blog

SBA Finalist Spotlight: Insight Into Action Therapy

Thank you to Insight Into Action Therapy for answering a few of our questions.
Congratulations on being named a finalist in the Health & Wellness Business of the Year!
The 24th Annual Loudoun Small Business Awards will be on November 1, 2018 – Tickets/More Info Here

1. Tell us your story of how your company got to where it is today? 

Craig James and I were meant to meet.  I grew up in New Jersey; he looked at Princeton University.  A year later he attended George Mason University and I toured the campus.  Three years later we both lived in the same neighborhood.  The next year I earned my Master’s Degree in Social Work while Craig did soon after. Craig then worked at a juvenile detention center and I visited my clients there.  For the next few years, we lived within a mile of each other!

We finally met face to face in 2001 and things just clicked. We were quickly seen as the “rogue therapists” who did things differently, but somehow our clients got better. We both shared the entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to create a health and wellness practice to which all others would be compared.

In 2006 we developed the Dual Diagnosis Recovery Program© for people struggling with both substance use disorders and mental health issues.  But we still functioning in a broken system. We wanted to correct the problems that Northern Virginians were dealing with a fragmented behavioral health care system.  Our own neighbors faced waitlists, well-meaning but untrained providers for addiction treatment, and driving to multiple offices for services while the opiate and suicide epidemics raged in Loudoun County.

We envisioned experts who responded quickly and compassionately with all of the providers in one location.  So, we each put our Leesburg homes up as collateral and opened a small business in Loudoun County. Insight Into Action Therapy opened its door to clients on July 13, 2015 where we get to provide the best behavioral healthcare in our own community.

2. What would it mean to you and your company to win a Small Business Award?

We have put in thousands of hours on nights and on weekends to make our practice what it is today. Owners are the first ones in and the last ones to leave. We do a lot of mundane things like taking out the trash, paying taxes, and stocking the fridge.  Winning a Small Business Award will get me through preparing for all of the new services we plan to launch in the next few years. Getting glammed up and experiencing this with other fellow small business owners who know the sacrifices is pretty special.

3. If you weren’t running your own business/working at this business, what would you be doing?

 I would like to be a beach reviewer.  Someone would send me to visit the most beautiful beaches in the world and I would do a write up about which ones have the best sand, waves, color, shells…a girl can dream, right?

4. What book are you reading right now? / What is your favorite book?

I just finished the classis Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Next, I’m on to Jenny Lawson’s  Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things for book club. Finally, I am reading and researching everything about alcohol moderation for my next book.  I’m incredibly excited that a Routledge editor just offered me a book deal. Stay tuned!

5. If you have 24-hours off, and your family was out of town, what would you do?

Right now, all of my time is going to be spent researching and writing my next book. Now if someone offered me that beach reviewer job, I’m otta here!

6. What is the smallest thing that has made the largest impact on your business?

 I heard a famous person once say “It took me ten years to become an overnight sensation.”  I get it now. I have to remember that small things do add up.  Some days I feel like I am just spinning my wheels and I wonder if anyone is seeing or reading all of the articles, blogs, podcasts and such that I write.  Craig and I have spent years doing presentations pro bono because we wanted to educate our community about a better way to treat substance use disorders.  Our messages are now international—I’ve heard from people in New Zealand, Canada, and London who read my first book and we train other providers across the nation about alcohol moderation.  A lot of doors are finally opening up and we are going to be able to help hundreds of thousands instead of just those who can drive to our office.

7. What did you want to be when you grew up as a child? / What was a childhood dream that you had?

You probably won’t believe me, but all I knew was that I would have a beautiful office where I could wear high heels! Twenty years later this six-foot-tall woman in heels now gets to help people turn their insights into action in her calming blue corner office with an amazing team of seven other clinicians.

8. Who is the one person that has influenced you the most in your career?

 Craig James, my business partner and best friend of nearly two decades, has been the person who influenced me the most in my career. He gives me unconditional support. When I get bold ideas like opening up our own practice, writing a second book, or starting a second company, he just says “Go for it” and takes care of the daily operations while I chase the “Big Hairy Ass Goals.”

9. What is your favorite thing about running a business in Loudoun County?

I get to help the people where I live.  It’s natural to feel helpless when you hear about an overdose or suicide, but I’m able to do something about it.  We’re helping families who are struggling, educating our community members, and now are working to change things at the policy level.

10. If you’re not in the office where can we find you?

 At the gym. My first clients of the day know that I am going to have wet hair because I just showered after my workout.  I try to practice what I preach.

11. What is your favorite weekend activity in Loudoun County?

 I’ve been a Northern Virginian now for almost thirty years now and I still haven’t done it all.  Where else can you get the benefits of the city and the country?  If I’m not on deck at a swim meet or at field hockey game with my girls, we’re still exploring all that Loudoun County has to offer.