A Decade of Sustainable Well-Being: Lessons from Ten Years of Resolve
Ten years ago, I decided to take a risk: start a business and see if I could make Kansas City a happier, healthier place.
At the time, I was the clinical director of an acute psychiatric hospital, and over the course of many years I saw the same profile of patient walk through our doors: someone who would not be as sick as they were if they'd received counseling when they needed it, months or sometimes even years earlier. I began asking myself, and our patients, what had stopped them from getting help sooner. The answer was almost always some version of the same thing:
Therapists didn't answer the phone
Patients couldn't find someone who specialized in what they needed
There was a waitlist
Payment was confusing and not transparent
These problems seemed small, but they were quietly closing off access to one of the most important parts of our lives: mental wellness. So I asked myself if I could solve for them, and the answer came quickly. Yes: Resolve would answer the phone. We would have specialists across a range of modalities. We would never have a waitlist. And our cost would be transparent, posted on our website and talked about from the very first conversation.
There was a second problem I wanted to solve, too. I had worked for community health organizations and companies before that didn't truly understand the weight of carrying someone else's stories and trauma. They burned out their clinicians, handing them caseloads that were unreasonable and unsustainable. A large part of my goal in starting Resolve was to build a place where therapists could have a long, sustainable professional life. Where they felt supported, not depleted, by the organization around them.
What Ten Years Have Taught Me
Over the past decade, I've learned more as an owner and leader than I ever expected to.
I've learned that burnout is a real threat in our line of work, even when the right supports are in place. But I've also learned that when a company takes care of its people, that care flows downhill, it's what allows those people to truly take care of the community. Therapist well-being and community well-being are interconnected. You cannot have one without the other.
I've learned that the best decisions aren't made alone. Starting a business from scratch sometimes makes you feel like you have to do everything yourself. But these ten years have taught me that asking the tough questions, listening to the team, and encouraging people to share openly has made our organization stronger and better than I could have made it on my own.
That kind of listening is only possible with trust, and I've learned that trust is the real currency of an organization. When my staff know I have their back, and I know they have mine, we can move forward together and actually change something. Not just for our clients, but for how an entire city thinks about mental wellness.
I've also learned that resiliency is just as important in mental wellness as it is in business ownership. Not every year is a growth year, and not every season feels like a win, but the important part is not mistaking a hard season for a failing one. Taking care of our people, protecting what we've built, and continuing to follow our mission are what will keep us resilient.
And I've learned that community well-being isn't a single intervention. It's infrastructure. It's consistency. It's relationships built over years, not quarters.
The Next Ten Years
If the first decade of Resolve was about creating an organization where access and sustainability could coexist, then the next decade is about helping more people.
Over the past ten years, we've completed over 230,000 appointments. That's not just a number, it’s 230,000 moments where someone reached out and wasn't turned away. It's the parent who finally found an hour for themselves. The teenager who got help before things got worse. The brother who decided to get sober. The person who almost didn't call, and did. Behind every one of those appointments is a story that could have gone differently.
The next decade is about growing that number, bringing the same promise to communities beyond the ones we've already reached: someone will answer the phone, someone will fit your needs, you won't wait, and you'll understand what it costs.
Kansas City is where this started, and it will always be home. I am passionate about making this city a happier, healthier place, and I'm not done yet.
That was the goal ten years ago. It still is today.
Amber Reed, LSCSW, LCAC
Owner of Resolve