We recently connected with Whitney Frost and have shared our conversation below.
Whitney, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
In 2016 I graduated with my Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I had already been offered a job at the community mental health center that I had previously interned at during my masters program so it seemed like the right progression for my career. I didn’t get to define what type of therapist I was or my niche population, I worked with anyone and everyone. This job provided me with fantastic training and experience that I still find useful in my practice today.
After spending 3 years with this center, I decided to take the jump into private practice, which was necessary for me as a therapist to be able to grow and develop, while also terrifying to not have someone to reassure me. I had a vision of providing quality mental health services to the women of my community without cost being a barrier. In 2019, I did just that! I opened Peaceful Journies Counseling which served women struggling with Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and women navigating pregnancy, infertility, pregnancy loss, and the postpartum journey. I provided care to women on a sliding scale rate, pro-bono, and accepted commercial and government insurance plans.
It was a slow start as expected but by the time I celebrated my first anniversary, I had a thriving practice. I began writing books, being interviewed on podcasts, and owning my niche. The Covid-19 pandemic elevated my practice in ways I never knew possible and showed me the need of birthing folx and their families in a whole new light.
As a mother that has struggled with postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, I have always dreamed of creating a place that incorporated everything that birthing folx and their families would need as they faced pregnancy, pregnancy loss, infertility, and the postpartum journey but I didn’t know how, where, or who.
In May of 2023, I realized that I was the person to create this place and the time was now. Maternal mortality is at its highest in the US and birthing folx alongside their families their families need access to this type of care now!
I launched the Rylie Center for Hope and Healing June 1,2023 with the help of 28 amazingly talented practitioners. We launched the Rylie Center virtually as a means of being able to support moms anywhere in Colorado and some specialties outside of Colorado. In September, we opened a physical location in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver.
The Rylie Center offers individual therapy, couples counseling, psychiatric medication management, group therapy, birth and postpartum doulas, lactation support, sleep support, childbirth and postpartum classes, music therapy, occupational therapy, feeding therapy, pelvic floor therapy, midwifery, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic healing, acupuncture, fertility support, and prenatal yoga.
The mission of the Rylie Center has stayed true to my original mission of my private practice, we provide quality care without cost being a barrier. We accept sliding scale rates, government insurance, and commercial insurance policies.
The reception from the community has been beautiful and welcoming. We have found ourselves making connections and partnerships with so many valued orgnanizations and programs.
Leaving my agency job and taking the leap into my own dreams was the best investment in myself I could have made.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Whitney Frost, I’m a mom, a wife, a therapist, an author, a teacher, and a mental health advocate. I’ve been a therapist for 10 years in various setting but most recently have spent my time in my private practice since 2019 specializing in serving women with Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder and birthing folx navigate matrescence, pregnancy, the postpartum journey, infertility, and pregnancy loss. Since becoming a mother in 2015 and battling my own struggles with Postpartum Depression, I have been called to support others facing the same challenges. It has been a dream of mine to open a center that has an interdisciplinary approach to help women, birthing folx, and their families navigate the birth space. Earlier this year, I took the leap and launched The Rylie Center for Hope and Healing, which is an inclusive collective of providers that serve women, birthing folx, and their families from a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to provide well-rounded, whole person support to our clients. We offer services in person and virtual as a means to be able to reach our clients where they are, when they need support. We offer mental health care including individual therapy, family therapy, group support, and psychiatric medication support, lactation and feeding support, prenatal and postpartum doulas, sleep support, parent education, childbirth classes, pelvic floor therapy, midwifery, prenatal yoga, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, occupational therapy, and fertility support. We believe in making our services equitable and inclusive to everyone so all of our providers are trained in DEI and we provide services through grants, we offer sliding scale fees, and we accept state insurance plans like Medicaid along with commercial insurance policies.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Since childhood, I had dreams of becoming a doctor and saving the world. Those dreams changed abruptly when I had a cheerleading accident in high school and I went from a straight-A student to lucky to make it through a full day of school. This accident left me with Epilepsy and resulted in having anywhere from 50-75 seizures a day. My public high school was not supportive of my disability and often times sent me home for “being a distraction” so I was lucky to graduate with a c-average, let alone graduate 2 years early as I did. My struggles with finding the right doctor, the right medication, and the appropriate long-term solution for my Epilepsy would prove to be long and exhausting. At the age of 18 I had brain surgery to remove a golfball size portion of my brain that was the culprit of my seizures. While this would prove to be the cure for my seizures, I was left behind where I “should be” to be applying for medical school but my experience as an older patient in a children’s hospital gave me a new perspective of what my helping skills and passions could be used for. This experience allowed me to pivot my desire to save the world as a medical doctor and focus my energy on becoming a therapist; a different way of saving the world.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Consistency! I believe that when working with people, especially people that are struggling with their mental health, they need someone who can be consistent. Peers and colleagues also need someone that they can refer to and trust to be consistent when they send a referral or make a recommendation to a client or a peer that will follow through and be a solid referral source. Beyond showing up for my clients, peers, and colleagues, I pride myself on being approachable and accessible whether I’m sharing my knowledge at a training or I’m out in the community speaking to people about my practice, I believe that one of the only way of breaking down the barriers related to mental health is speaking about them in an open way and sharing our knowledge in a safe, non-judgmental way for the world to learn from.
Contact Info:
- Website: theryliecenter.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/the.rylie.center
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093171813204
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-frost-39a271b5/
Image Credits
Valuable Gem Photography