Daily Inspiration: Meet Elie & Meg Carlile

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elie & Meg Carlile.

Elie & Meg, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

We met in 2018 working in a drug and alcohol treatment center in Boca Raton, FL where we became pretty fast friends. Elie (originally from Minneapolis, MN) moved down to South Florida in 2013 after graduating from The University of Wisconsin to work in a support role at this treatment center and gain some experience in the field of addiction. In 2014, she decided to go to graduate school at Florida Atlantic University to pursue her Master’s Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. When she graduated in 2017, she got promoted to the role of a Primary Therapist at the treatment center. Meg (originally from Buffalo, NY) attended Boston University before moving to South Florida in 2014 to attend graduate school for Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She graduated in 2017 and worked at a couple of treatment centers while engaging in numerous trainings to specialize in the treatment of acute and complex trauma. Meg began working at the treatment center where we met in 2018.

Elie left the treatment center to start her own private practice in the spring of 2020, we started dating that summer, and then Meg left the treatment center to start her own private practice that fall. While we were dating and talking more seriously about our future, we knew that we didn’t want to stay in Florida and wanted to move somewhere with seasons, outdoor life and more queer culture. In our travels while dating, we came to Denver a few times and fell in love with the city, the lifestyle, the people, and the culture. We got engaged in June of 2022 and married in November of 2023 in Miami; and then we moved to Denver in May of 2024 where we opened a practice together, The Carlile Therapy Group!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

I think we were both blessed to have had a very solid foundation of challenging yet rewarding experiences that taught us a lot as well as many mentors and guides to help us navigate our paths in private practice. Our experience working at the treatment center where we met afforded us a lot of skills that helped in launching our own practices, and we knew many other therapists who went down this path before us that guided us and helped us achieve the stability we ultimately came to have. There were certainly learning curves and challenges when we transitioned from two solo practices to a joint practice in a state where we really knew no one (which is a little intimidating when the majority of our clients come from referrals and professional connections), but the base we were still able to maintain in working virtually with our Florida clients; and the entrepreneurial skills we learned in the first 4 years of having our individual practices came in handy when we moved to Colorado. I would say one of the biggest struggles has been in establishing relationships and a network of referral providers in our new home of Colorado. Being that we work completely remotely, a lot of the connection-forming is based on our willingness to put ourselves out there and cold-call/email other therapists, psychiatrists, dietitians, treatment centers in order to form relationships. While this part of the job can be very rewarding, it is also very time-consuming and sometimes stressful.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Elie works primarily with individuals in recovery from substance abuse disorders and/or eating disorders. She is known for being dedicated, compassionate and caring deeply about her work. She is very proud to be able to work with–what many other therapists would consider to be–a challenging population and to have seen so much success and growth in her clients over the years. What sets her apart from the others is her willingness and ability to work with populations where the cross-over of substance use disorders and eating disorders are present; and to be able to do so from a trauma-informed, somatically-oriented approach. Many providers specialize in working with substance abuse disorders or eating disorders, but there are not many who are well-versed in working with the presentation of both issues in one client. And frequently, the modalities used to work with these clients are more cognitively- and skills-based, whereas Elie works on resolving the deeper, developmental issues that underlie these symptoms. Additionally, Elie also specializes in working with family members of individuals suffering from or in recovery from substance abuse or eating disorder issues.

Meg works primarily with individuals wanting to heal from complex, developmental, relational, and acute trauma. She strives to address trauma and related symptoms through a non-pathologizing lens and will frequently work with individuals who are struggling with challenges related to identity, boundaries, self-worth, attachment issues, relationship issues, and other symptoms linked to unresolved trauma. She is known for being deeply patient and caring while simultaneously supporting her clients in shifting patterns that no longer serve them. While Meg primarily utilizes the NeuroAffective Relational Model for healing complex trauma and EMDR in her practice, part of what sets her apart from other therapists is her ability to flow between modalities in a way that best supports her clients’ healing. Meg also specializes in working with family members of trauma survivors as well as other therapists who are looking to address burnout, countertransference, or deepen their relationship with themselves and expand their own inner world.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
We’d say that the two most important factors when just starting out as a therapist in private practice are to have a clear vision of the population you want to work with (and therefore market to) and to build solid, long-lasting relationships with other providers and referral sources. Unfortunately, while we are taught in graduate school how to work with clients; we are not taught how to run a business. Learning how to effectively and efficiently run a business has been the biggest learning curve and most valuable tool. Lastly, get a good accountant 😉

Pricing:

• $225 for 45-minute session
• $300 for 60-minute session
• $450 for 90-minute session
• $600 for 120-minute session

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecarliletherapygroup.com

Image Credits
Kenneth Smith Photography