Radio Front Desk

How to make therapy feel like self-care (and why it keeps clients coming back)

• Jane.app • Season 2 • Episode 21

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What if your clinic felt more like a tea party than a therapy office? That's exactly where Andrea Valliere started with her clinic, Road to Hana. 

In this episode of Radio Front Desk, Denzil sits down with Andrea to explore how looking beyond healthcare to hospitality, design, and even brands like Disney and Bumble helped her reimagine what a clinic could be. With little luxuries like seasonal drink menus and cozy blankets, Andrea explains how she thinks like a host (not a practitioner), and why creating comfort and delight can be just as healing as the therapy itself.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to design a therapy or wellness space that supports neurodivergent and anxious clients
  • What clinic owners can learn from Disney’s attention to detail and Bumble’s culture of care
  • Why designing from the client’s perspective transforms experience and retention
  •  How small hospitality touches like tea, textures, and colour can help you stand out


Guest Bio

Andrea is the founder of Road to Hana, and the CEO of R2H Holdings Inc. She also hosts a YouTube series featuring celebrity interviews on mental health and coined the term “Pink Collar” to describe an employee-centered corporation built from women’s perspectives. Passionate about social impact and mental wellness, Andrea continues to disrupt her industry.

Resources mentioned


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Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional medical, legal, or financial advice.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast host or its affi

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, people get shocked when they see the drink menu. Cause they and they go like, was this for me? And it's like, yeah, oh my gosh, of course. I think that is when you see people's eyes light up. When you see someone's body language, like their shoulders go down a bit and they exhale, you're like, okay, they're starting to relax a little bit.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to Radio Front Dusk by Jane App. I'm your host, Denzel Ford. When you think of therapy, you probably don't think luxury. But that's exactly where Andrea Valiere started. At her Vancouver Clinic, Road to HANA, you'll find delicious seasonal drinks, rich design choices, and even dog-friendly furniture. Every detail is intentional and meant to make therapy feel less clinical and more like self-care. Andrea's ideas came from unexpected places. She looked beyond healthcare to industries like design, hospitality, and corporate leadership, borrowing lessons from CEOs and brands like Disney and Bumble to build a business strategy that sets her clinic apart. In this episode, we talk about how borrowing from these other industries can help any clinic rethink the way it serves, leads, and grows. Let's get into it. Andrea, welcome to Radio Front Desk. I'm so glad that you're here today. How are you?

SPEAKER_02:

Very well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02:

And how are you today?

SPEAKER_01:

I am so excited for probably 800 reasons to get into your story today. Wow. But one reason is that you're not a practitioner, but you have a very creative way of reimagining a clinic business and what a clinic can look like and how it can operate. From what I'm understanding, you're pulling inspiration from really unexpected places like art, literature, and CEOs from other industries, including one from a dating app. So let's start there. You could have built a business in any industry, but you chose a mental health clinic. Why did you choose that?

SPEAKER_02:

I actually did my first year of university, shout out VIU, dropped out. Best thing that ever happened to me. I did it in psychology because I thought I maybe wanted to be maybe a psychologist, maybe a counselor. The more I delved into it, I thought, okay, definitely counselor. And then I thought, I'm gonna be terrible at this. I'm probably gonna do more harm than good. So I, for like the safety of society, should remove myself from this career path. Um, and then I always kind of had this void of like, I just want to improve Vancouver's mental health, but how can I contribute if I'm not a counselor? And then, okay, what am I good at? And what do I love? And I think the answer is actually tea parties. That's my favorite thing, and I think I'm really good at it. I love hosting. And then it dawned on me that that is totally a job where it contributes to mental health as well, is being the host of the space for clinical counseling. Um yeah, and it's just like if you are the janitor in a hospital, you are just as integral to brain surgery and a heart transplant as the surgeon because like you are so responsible for the space. Yeah. So the counselors a hundred percent, they're all my staff, they're heroes. They come in and they save lives every day. But I do feel very fulfilled being the host of the space as well.

SPEAKER_01:

I love the imagery there of like hosting tea parties. I love that so much. Yeah. Do you think that they're that not being a practitioner has advantages in business? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Could you talk about those a little bit?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah. It's all industries. Like, do you want to create a product from the eye of the consumer or the eye of the person creating the product? Do you want an office that suits the therapist or suits the client? Obviously, you can do things that make it easier for the therapists and the office team and the marketing team, and and you can kind of go through the chain and make it easier for the staff, of course. But at the end of the day, like when you hire amazing staff, they're really adaptable. The client might not be, and they shouldn't have to adapt to you. It should be really tailored for them. So if I'm coming in for just as an example, like I've always struggled with anxiety. And so when, and I've always been a consumer of counseling. So when I sit down on a couch, one of the first things I notice is like, can I rub the couch for texture? Is that gonna be like for grounding or or like what kind of textures can I touch? And so in our office, like with that lens, everything like we are never far away from three different textures when you sit down. Right. Yeah, and that's just because it's the eye of the consumer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, interesting. Back to the texture thing. I mean, a lot of your decisions are science-backed. Yes. So, what is that attention to texture, furniture, colors change about the experience for the people that come in for treatment in your clinic?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I mean, it has loads of benefits, especially if you're neurodivergent, having different colors, like contrasting. That's where like talking to somebody who specializes in neurology is going to be really helpful. We kind of see a lot of clinical counseling practices are just mirrors of the ones before them. And often based on this uh like 1970s Swedish model of that like ultra-soothing, like ocean sounds, like gray walls, and like that kind of tone, and how that under stimulation isn't necessarily effective for everyone. We just have so much more updated research that proves that that's not the best method. So, why are we still using it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. And so your space is very not typical then. It's bright, playful. I hear it's dog friendly. You have snacks and drinks. What is the story behind creating all of that?

SPEAKER_02:

The snacks and drinks and blankies, we have like chilled towels in the summer and stuff like that. Um, that's just like basic hosting a tea party etiquette. So you want to make sure your guests come in and like we have like really fun drinks on the menu. And there is like some science behind it there because often if you're a little emotional, like your blood sugar is gonna drop. So we specifically have some sweet drinks on there to combat that. It's also just comfortable. Like, you know, if I'm having a bad day, like maybe I just even want to hold a really bougie tea or like a pumpkin spice latte because that makes me feel a little bit more comfort. That's just like having a blankie, just like having kind of any anything that feels like a little bit of a luxury is gonna make you feel valued.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I really love the model of the tea party you keep bringing back up. Yeah. There's a there's a playfulness to that too, where it's not just it's making people feel comfortable, but it's also like lightening the vibe a little bit when sometimes these especially in in mental health treatments, it's it's a little more serious.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, people get shocked when they see the drink menu because they and they go like, Oh, is this for me? And it's like, yeah, oh my gosh, of course. Like, I think that is when you see people's eyes light up. Sometimes we want to make sure they're feeling comfortable when they when they come in, and like when you see someone's body language, like their shoulders go down a bit and they exhale, you're like, okay, they're starting to relax a little bit. We know they're in a good spot and a bit more open when they sit down and they reach for our Barbie book. Because we have the on the middle of the coffee table is the Barbie World Tour. Everything that Margot Robbie wore on the Barbie World tour, it like fits perfectly in the room. It's this like hot pink book. And so it's kind of when they relax enough to pick up the book, then we go, okay, they're ready. Interesting. Yeah. And what is the drink menu? Oh gosh, there's like 10 or 12 drinks of like uh like a hazelnut latte or like an iced pistachio latte. All the teas are like peach bellini tea or different flavors of La Croix. Um gosh, and Jesse, what are some drinks we have?

unknown:

Lemonades.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, we do like rose lemonades and we put dried roses on top, like just to make it feel Oh, I love that. Yeah. Disney is a good example of this, is any product that you get in Disneyland, it just looks like so, so much thought went into it, even if it's just a drink. And so we were like, okay, that's one thing I borrow from that company is like, how can we make it a little magical? So we we called the rosebuds Pixie Dusts, like, put some pixie dust on top.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. Well, let's talk about Bob Iger then, and let's get into a little bit more of how that has influenced what you're thinking here and the decisions that you make.

SPEAKER_02:

One way he kind of inspires our company is product control, like every single thing that goes out. If we're gonna put our name on it, it's gotta be perfect and it's gotta be kind of inspire and have have that signature like pixie dust, if you will. Because yeah, no company does it like like the Walt Disney company, but he's also a really good advocate for sharing your mental health as a leader with your staff because he he talks about openly how he's had panic attacks at work, where it it's quite similar to a heart attack. And so they always have the like staff doctor come in and and he always shares with his staff, like, you know what, I was incredibly anxious, I had a panic attack. And just in sharing that with your staff, like it gives them that reminder of, you know what, we all gotta take time off, we have to look after our health. If I have a panic attack at work, I know I'm gonna be fine. I'm not gonna be ridiculed, or that's not gonna be held against me later. It all starts at the top, right? So him being very vulnerable and sharing that with his staff, I think makes everything run better. And it just has this amazing trickle-down effect with the company.

SPEAKER_01:

What I found on my team is sometimes it actually allows us to identify things that are going on that we wouldn't have noticed before. If you're not being that kind of open, they're not quite as open with you. And then, you know, maybe it's like a really stressful time and you didn't realize it. And sometimes that that sharing back and forth of like what are we actually experiencing together allows you to come to better understanding what's going on with the business. I think that's what it's like.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, totally. Because if all of a sudden a lot of your staff are sick, for example, yeah, am I overworking them? Like, you know, it allows you to reevaluate things for sure. And but if nobody talks about it and they just oh, power through it, then you're not gonna be made aware of these problems, or they're gonna feel like they can't share. So yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Hey there, Christina here. Just a quick moment to share that this episode is brought to you by Jane. We know how much heart you put into building a practice you're proud of, and that's why we're here. To make things like scheduling, charting, and payments run a little smoother. If you'd like to take a peek, head to jane.app forward slash pricing. Because we love a good bonus, don't forget to use the code RadioFrontdesk for a one-month grace period. Okay, I'll keep it short and sweet. Back to the episode.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's talk about Whitney Wolf Heard. I believe her last name is Heard. So she's the founder CEO of Bumble and also co-founder of Tinder. Yep. How have you found inspiration from her story?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh gosh, many, many ways. But I think her triumph when she left Tinder and or was pushed out, and her fight back and her resilience with her story there, I find incredibly inspiring. Um, and then just making something from the female lens in a male-dominated field, her drive to be like, okay, how can we make this a bit safer for women? And that was the whole mission. So I think that should always be in every company's mission. How can we make this a safer space for women?

SPEAKER_01:

Do you use those kind of stories to create policies around this sort of thing?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so we, you know, for as an example for parents, like one thing that came up recently was we have uh a mom, for example, on our staff that struggles to sometimes get ready for Zoom meetings. Like when I say ready, like she's got kids vomit on her, and she's like been parenting in the morning, and so she's not like physically ready to hop onto a Zoom. She's like, I need to change, I need to shower, I need to do this. And that eats up, like, you know, it's like 45 minutes to get ready.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

If you're lucky. And we were like, you know what? Let's just make a new policy. If you show up in your pajamas, that's fine. If you show up with kid vomit on you, that's fine. If your kid is screaming in the background, we're gonna look the other way. So now there's no expectation for how you show up to our Zoom meetings because like that just saved you 45 minutes of like being able to manage your day and um be accommodating to parents.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. Have you ever found that any of these sorts of ways of being cause challenges? Or have you ever had to manage someone pushing too far with it?

SPEAKER_02:

I think that it takes a long time sometimes for people to rewire their brain because everything you've been taught up until now is that mentality of like, oh, the coworker who gets the promotion is the one that shows up no matter what. Like, you got to be the first to arrive to practice and last to leave. Even if you're throwing up, you have to stay on the court. Like that mentality is That's definitely where I come from.

SPEAKER_01:

Like exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's like over 90% of CEOs have been on a either college or high school team, right? Yeah, so when we have these this new work environment, sometimes it takes people a minute to be like, I'm sick, so I'm not gonna come to work. And I'm like, correct. Like it takes it does take some time reinforcement. Sometimes it takes them a couple times of seeing other people do that and there's no bad consequences to be like, okay, maybe I am actually licensed to do this. Because there are companies that say this for optics, but their work environment isn't actually that good, right? And so you almost don't trust it. Right. Um, so I think you yeah, you have to earn your employees' trust for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I love that. And then this last one is is such a surprise. Jason Oppenheim. Oh, that short king, it should not be a surprise.

SPEAKER_02:

Tell me more, tell me more. Oh my god, Jason, if you're listening. Um uh so he's the CEO of the Oppenheim group, which I believe they have the second most real estate deals in the Los Angeles area. So he and his brother founded this company. And I think just by how many times he's almost gone bankrupt, that alone I find inspiring because he's never given up and he's like again tried to retain ownership. But he actually talks about his own ego a lot, where people often will push you, even if it's not your own idea. It's this push again to like be big and numbers and grow, and it's almost a flex to say, like, oh, well, we open this many locations in this amount of time. That doesn't mean that was the right decision. If anything, it makes you more volatile. So he was saying he was constantly pushed to expand the team, do this. And sometimes it's more effective to have a smaller team. Because when you get so big, all of a sudden you need a much bigger C-suite. You need so many more, like your overhead completely changes. So sometimes it is more effective to say like just stay small. If what you're doing is working and you can just continue to scale without creating more locations or hiring a hundred staff, um, especially when people say, Oh, I just want to get out of the small business phase. I hate being referred to as a small business. You know, technically he still has a small business, it's classified as a small business, as per how many employees he has. But look, you know, he does half a billion in real estate deals. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, let's dive into marketing a little bit more. You have a lot, 85% of your business from social media. What is resonating there?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, our client base is so just over 75% are between the ages of um 26 and 34, and the most used um app and where you most likely to get referrals from, even including healthcare, is Instagram. So why not use that as your kind of tipping off point?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love that. I have for just from talking to enough clinic owners, it's very heavily based on what you just said that who your client base is is kind of where you gotta start building that strategy from.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and that's again, all industries are like that. Like who's your demographic? Okay, research them. What do they see yet seen on there?

SPEAKER_01:

Instead of like what marketing should I be doing, what marketing is this competitor doing? It's who's your clients and where are they? And that's where you start.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think a lot of people lean too heavily into okay, what are my competitors doing? Um, because again, they could just be mirroring the wrong formula that's outdated.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You're gonna be in a saturated market if you just do everything they're doing. But you should be known for your own things and right. Maybe don't look at everyone as a competitor, maybe look at them as a companion. Because if you really are so unique, you're doing something that you can't get anywhere else, then you're not really gonna have any competitors. Um, you know, you're more of a destination. And it's you know, it's like the same with restaurants. Like there's many Michelin star restaurants, but um a lot of them, what is that one thing you can only get there that's gonna bring people through the door? Then the other restaurants aren't really your competitor. You know, you can rely on yourself for your uniqueness or the services or products that you're providing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh we haven't talked too much about your playbook, but we will link the playbook um online on our website. But one of the things you did say is think like an outsider. And I think that's kind of related to what you're saying right now. Design services through your eyes of your client, not your peers, and also create the something that's unique about what you have. So, what else could you say about that?

SPEAKER_02:

I think a lot of people think to succeed in an industry, you have to come from that industry. Whether you're just a Nepo hire from a family that's like a banking dynasty, so obviously you're gonna work in banks, like you you don't have to come from an industry, you don't have to be educated on that industry in formal education. For example, you know, you don't have to have studied psychology or business to create a successful clinical counseling practice. I think, yeah, it's more fundamentals. It's not necessarily like where you're kind of where your background is from. And I think the more removed you are from being, for example, a practitioner, you're gonna be your only view is as a consumer. So you only have the consumer lens on at all times. And so that allows you to design everything for the consumer.

SPEAKER_01:

Would you have any advice for people that are practitioners in terms of how to kind of zoom out to a different perspective? Because there are a lot of people listening to this that are practitioners starting businesses. So how could they create more of a headspace like you have as a business owner? Do you think that's a good thing?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, go be a client. Go sign up for some um like group therapy events, like go, go pretend you're and it's not pretending, like you actually are gonna be a client and you are gonna get a lot out of that. But yeah, um, go check out some other like clinical counseling practices. I'm sure almost all therapists listening have a therapist. A little ironic if you don't. Um, so maybe you next time you go into your therapist's office, like sit down and like what are you taking note of? Like anyone can be a consumer. Like, do you think the people designing the Dyson Blow dryer never tried out other blow dryers? For me, that's it sounds very simple, but I think it's always overlooked for some reason.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

I I wonder if you could articulate what the value system is underneath everything that you're saying here today, as you're looking around you, looking at what what is even possible. It's easy to look at false signals of what success looks like. Because you're saying some really specific things, like you know, really, really paying deep attention to the client experience. Like, what is a value system underneath that that is defining success for you?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, I define success as how safe do people feel in my presence. And I think that you can translate that to a clinical counseling practice. How safe do people feel when they go in the door? If people feel incredibly safe, that's a successful clinic. Now, obviously, you know, but uh you can't pay rent with safety, unfortunately. So that doesn't mean that your operation is gonna stay open forever, even if you do you were really successful at that. I think if you stay open your first year, I think that's a huge success. A quarter of businesses close in the first year. This industry is becoming, I wouldn't say it's becoming more competitive because there's more um consumer traction each year to keep up with the influx of counselors entering the space. So I still think it's a really good industry to invest in right now. Um but yeah, I think success is also celebrating those, they sound like little wins, like oh, staying open a year.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

You already beat out like 25% of people wouldn't be in that boat. So you're already doing a really good job. 50%, I believe, close in the first five years. So if you can stay open that long, oh my gosh, you're killing it. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Especially in, you know, in a location, these businesses have a location, and you know, you're you're helping a client base over time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I think almost every clinical counseling practice like feels that sense of success immediately. Like when you've helped your first person, you're like, okay, you almost get the sense of like, oh my gosh, it was all worth it. I just helped one person. But then you get those clients that you know drop one of these lines like in an email or something, and they get a bit more existential, and they say, I don't know if I'd be here today if it wasn't for your team. Those are the ones, and then I'm like, I'm so successful.

SPEAKER_01:

That's it for today's episode of Radio Front Desk. Huge thanks to Andrea for showing us what happens when creativity meets strategy, and when a therapy clinic dares to look, feel, and operate differently. If you want to learn more about how Andrea built a standout clinic, you can check out her playbook in our show notes. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you next time.