Beyond Healing – Company History
Beyond Healing started by accident. Jen Savage and Melissa Benintendi were supposed to ride to Atlanta, Georgia for the EMDRIA Conference (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing International Association) the Fall of 2018 with a group of therapists from Springfield, Missouri. All of the other therapists couldn’t make it on the trip. Jen and Melissa downsized to Melissa’s Prius and took off on their own. Jen and Melissa were professional acquaintances, but were not personal friends and in an effort to fill the many hours drive from Springfield to Atlanta searched for podcasts about EMDR. To their surprise, they couldn’t find one. Neither had extensive experience with audio recording or production, but they thought, if there isn’t anyone in the space, why don’t we try one. Notice That – An EMDR Podcast was born.
The first episode of Notice That – An EMDR Podcast was released on February 13th, 2019. Notice That released episodes twice a month. Notice That takes a progressive, adaptive and innovative approach to EMDR therapy in a traditionally very protocolized and structured field. The growth of their relationship, their validation of the therapist experience and the humanizing of the EMDR Protocol invited thousands of eager therapists to tune in. Today the podcast is branded under the media production business, Think Beyond, which hosts and produces four podcasts and experiences 40,000 monthly downloads.
The feedback from the podcast spurred development in expanding a therapeutic practice that subjectifies both the therapist and the client. The desire to grow led to questions like, What can we do to support other therapists from experiencing burnout? What are some of the motivating factors for therapists leaving the field? What are the main reasons why therapy doesn’t work for some clients? Jen and Melissa recruited the assistance of Ryan Savage and Bridger Falkenstien to join as partners to assist with growing a training and consultation business and therapy practice that embodies what it means to practice with the humans first.
Beyond Healing Center purchased 325 South Ave in June 2021. The new property gave room to grow the therapy practice. The growth in practitioners and clients who desire to be seen this way has been unprecedented. In 2020, two Beyond therapists completed 422 therapy appointments. In 2021, seven Beyond therapists completed 4,200 therapy appointments and in 2022 twenty-five Beyond therapists completed 12,000 therapy appointments. In 2023 Beyond Healing has 30 therapists projected to complete 15,000 therapy appointments.
Feedback from our clients, clinicians, podcast followers and fans encouraged us to write trainings that could offer the tools necessary to re-conceceptualize the way they see themselves and invite them to see clients in a new light. Somatic Integration and Processing (SIP) is a culmination of our theoretical background and our clinical experience that revolutionizes the world of mental health and has the potential to push beyond the standard of human healthcare. So far over 2000 practitioners in the US have been trained in SIP and in 2022 and 2023 we are training EMDR Canada, EMDR Ireland, EMDR UK and EMDR Australia with the basics of the model.