Wellness Matters providers have varied backgrounds and life experiences that contribute to supporting clients with a myriad of real world challenges:
Katherine (Kat) Fritsch, MA
Contract Therapist/Katherine Fritsch LLC
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor
What are your struggles?
- Do you worry a lot?
- Have you been told you have a problem with alcohol or drugs?
- Do you wonder if you do?
- Do you feel like your past defines your present and your future?
- Do you wish you could talk to someone who doesn’t judge you?
How hard is it to find a little peace and serenity?
Do you find that while you work, parent your children, talk to family and friends, help parents, take the dog out, and wash the dishes, there’s nothing left? These may not be exactly your stressors but we all have stressors that can take over. They sometimes cause us to forget who we are and what is truly important for us.
There are many approaches to treatment.
There are many therapeutic techniques that may help with life’s challenges. As a therapist, I believe that carefully listening assists me in finding the right tools to support each client. My treatment specialties include treating adults struggling with:
- Codependency
- Communication
- Finding hope
- Relationship building
- Shame
- Substance use
- Trauma
These are all things that can be managed and that is why I focus on you.
Your life is complicated. I focus on helping you sort out your dreams and hopes. I will assist you to realize your own power. And to have a positive, empowered life.
My background:
I grew up in the Twin Cities, MN, metro area. My life experiences allow me to see where the hurt exists and how to work through to gain a different future. I worked in the for-profit and not-for-profit industries for 18 years. I spent many of those years in management and am aware of the stress caused by fast paced jobs. And the struggle to balance a personal life at the same time. I also understand the challenges of not having the work satisfaction that one wants. Life stressors can trigger a lot of relationship issues, including relationship with self. Past traumas, losses, and fears of the unknown may try to rule our lives.
My education and licensure:
I earned my Master’s Degree in Addiction Studies: Advanced Practice in 2017 from the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate School. I was licensed as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) in 2017 and as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) IN 2019.
Now is the time to find your own calm in a world that does not slow down. The ability to understand and find yourself may lead you to face life with confidence.
Tap here to call Wellness Matters LLC for more information (218) 616-1276
Tap here to request an appointment online
Sandra Espe, MA, MEd
Contract Therapist/Sandra C. Espe, LLC
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
Do you struggle with the stress of day-to-day living?
Are your relationships with family members or friends not as satisfying as they could be? Are you dissatisfied at work? Would it be helpful to talk to someone about your faith but don’t want to necessarily talk with a pastor or priest?
I take an integrated approach to therapy.
I use the latest techniques to work with clients to improve overall wellness. Whether you are meeting with me as an individual or part of a couple, we work together to establish goals that will lead to desired, achievable results.
Faith is an important part of my life.
I, too, struggle with the brokenness of being human. This challenge prompted me to seek professional schooling that would afford me the privilege to serve people with faith issues.
My specialties include:
- grief and loss
- co-parenting following separation or divorce
- parenting support
- relationships
- spiritual counseling
- educational, vocational, and career struggles
- working with teens (ages 15 and up)
I use a non-judgmental, empathetic approach and think of each person as an important child of God.
My Masters program included specific education and training to be able to counsel you as you work through your struggles or issues related to faith or spirituality. As a Christian, I also have had issues related to feeling broken. I believe that God has provided opportunities throughout my life to serve others and I am humbled when able to do so.
My background:
As a trained Parents Forever™ provider with 25+ years of experience, I supported parents who were married and seeking divorce or never married but were then separating. I know the impact on children both from my Parents Forever™ training, as well as from my own experience of divorce and re-marriage.
With experience as a Certified Global Career Counselor, I am knowledgeable and experiences at providing Career Coaching to people of all ages. I personally understand both the process and challenge of changing careers. My approach is to gather information from a variety of career resources to help you make decisions about your future. For those in transition to retirement, my approach is to assist in finding other ways to find purpose in life beyond earning a paycheck.
My education and licensure:
Having grown up in rural North Dakota, I earned a B.A. in Business Education and English in the mid-1980s. I have over 30 years of experience working with students at all levels—elementary, middle school, high school, college, and adult education. I taught courses in business education and English and served as a career counselor and a school counselor. I earned a Master’s degree in Career and Vocational Education from the University of North Dakota and facilitated the Parents Forever class offered through the NDSU Extension Service for over 25 years. After becoming an empty-nester, I obtained my Master’s degree in clinical counseling from Liberty University. I became licensed as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in 2023.
Contact Wellness Matters for a free 15-minute telephonic consultation or to make an appointment:
Tap here to call Wellness Matters LLC for more information (218) 616-1276
Tap here to request an appointment online
Carolyn Hamilton, MA
Contract Therapist/Connections Mental Health, LLC
Licensed Professional Counselor (Minnesota)
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (Montana)
Do you struggle to find hope and purpose in your day-to-day life?
Is life becoming hard and overwhelming? Are you dealing with difficult change? Do you wonder if your relationships could be better? Healthier? Are you are questioning if there is hope for change? I will work with you to discover hope.
I approach therapy by trying to understand your perspective.
Everyone has unique experiences and needs that influence how we perceive and respond to life events. My role is to understand your experience and how it is currently impacting you. Together we will work to discover the best way for you to manage your life’s challenges.
I will work with you in discovering and understanding how you relate to yourself and others. Then, we will identify destructive thought processes that may be affecting your emotions and behaviors. Together we will work on challenging and changing those patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
My specialties include:
- Social skills
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Healthy relationships
- Parenting support
- Faith issues
My background:
I have experience working with clients from the age of 4 and into later adulthood. My past work
experience includes 12 years of providing support and counseling services to students pre-K
through 12 th grade at a rural public school.
I have also provided support to administrators,teachers, parents, guardians, and grandparents. I have
worked with students that experienced the death of a family member by suicide and have been active in suicide prevention efforts. My passion is to help people overcome hardship and discover hope. I can offer an empathetic, compassionate approach that views you as a unique person, not a problem to be solved.
My education and licensure:
I have a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Montana (1997) and an Master of Arts in Professional Counseling (2021) from Liberty University. My master’s program provided training to integrate matters of therapy, spirituality and faith. I am also a certified trainer with the QPR (question,
persuade, refer) suicide prevention program.
I provide mental health services to clients in both Montana and Minnesota. I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Montana and an Licensed Professional Counselor in Minnesota.
Faith is an important part of my life:
I know that life can be hard and I have found my Christian faith to be a foundation I can turn to for comfort and help during difficult times. If interested, I can integrate faith into my therapeutic approach for those desiring a faith-based approach to counseling.
I provide telehealth (i.e., on-line) appointments:
I provide services using a secure and easy to use telehealth platform accessed on a smart phone, computer or tablet. Advances in technology have made mental health services more accessible (appointments can be attended from the comfort of your home, office, or even your car) and less time consuming (travel time to and from appointments). Though telehealth is different from meeting face-to-face, it is an effective mode of therapy.
I look forward to working with you to help manage life challenges and discover hope.
Contact Wellness Matters for a free 15-minute telephonic consultation or to make an appointment:
Tap here to call Wellness Matters LLC for more information (218) 616-1276
Tap here to request an appointment online
Emily Pierson, MEd
Contract Therapist/Pierson Mental Health Services LLC
Licensed Professional Counselor (Minnesota)
Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (Montana)
Are you struggling to adapt to life changes?
Are you finding that life is throwing you a curve ball? Have you noticed that you or your family members have had more difficulty than usual successfully navigating life transitions? Have you noticed more signs of stress, anxiety, or depression in yourself or teenager? Do you feel “I should just be able to handle this?” Are you worried that things are not getting better?
Whether life changes are expected or unexpected, they can be overwhelming.
Pile them on top of day-to-day stressors and they can seem insurmountable. Stress and disrupted routines sometimes prohibit you or your teen from living a normal, healthy life. I know where you are coming from. Unwelcome changes are often overwhelming and distressing.
I understand the difficulties of managing life transitions.
I want to help you (or your teen) find a way to create a happy and fulfilling life. I find it rewarding to assist teens (aged 14 and up) as well as young adults. Learning healthy ways to manage and improve depression, anxiety, school issues, stress, and self-esteem can transform life’s trajectory. I also understand the unique stressors faced by educators and others working in an academic setting.
I have a passion for helping teens, college-age students, and adults find ways to live a healthy, fulfilling life.
Having worked in a school setting as a school counselor, I have seen and can empathize with the unique challenges faced by teachers and other educational professionals. In transitioning to working in a private clinic, I have brought that experience with me.
I have experience working with clients on a variety of concerns including:
- anxiety
- depression
- healthy relationships/friendships
- coping skills
- grief and loss
- school issues
- social skills
- self-esteem
I believe that taking a holistic approach is important.
No two people are exactly the same. Our needs differ. And, how we process the daily events differ. We all have different family networks, support systems, backgrounds, learning styles, and strengths. I take all of this into consideration and collaborate with clients to identify best treatment methods.
I provide individual services using a telehealth platform.
While it differs from traditional face-to-face sessions, telehealth negates the time and resources it takes to commute and can be accessed from the comfort of your home or private office.
Trauma Treatment:
Some traumatic events stick with us. When you think about these moments, they may feel as if they are happening ‘right now’, causing your body to have an adverse or exaggerated reaction. When this type of response happens, it can mean that your brain has stored unprocessed memories, events, and information in an unhealthy way.
Unprocessed memories may lead to negative thoughts.
You think that you are not good enough, unlovable, or unsafe in everyday situations. In turn, this can lead to feelings of stress, anxiousness, depression, and more.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy:
EMDR helps your brain process these memories in a healthier, more realistic way. EMDR uses bilateral (i.e., both sides of the body) stimulation through eye movements or tapping to access these memories and reprocess them appropriately.
In 2022, I completed my basic training course in Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR with the Personal Transformation Institute. This approach focuses on how early attachment patterns and body responses affect a person’s trauma response. I have found EMDR techniques to be effective in reprocessing negative experiences and traumas. It’s not always easy to process grief, sadness, hurt, anger, embarrassment, and other hard emotions. I can walk this journey with you and help you get back to being your best self!
Contact Wellness Matters for a free 15-minute telephonic consultation or to make an appointment:
Tap here to call Wellness Matters LLC for more information (218) 616-1276
Tap here to request an appointment online
Therapist and Sole Owner of Wellness Matters LLC
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor
Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor
Do you feel stuck?
Do you feel like you have lost yourself? Have you been taking care of everyone else to the neglect of self? Feeling lonely and unfulfilled despite the appearance of the opposite? Are the choices of your parent, partner, or child “driving you crazy”? Struggling with shame or fear around your health being out of control? Tired of knowing what to do but unable to “just do it”?
A practical approach to therapy:
I quickly “separate the wheat from the chaff” to quickly identify key concerns that can be targeted for immediate improvement. I am proficient in coping skill development for improving health and happiness. I help “pull back the curtain” of family dynamics and assist in identifying choice points for new ways of responding to create new outcomes.
My background:
In my life, I have personally experienced complicated family dynamics. I can personally relate to blended families, physical disability and illness, poverty, substance misuse, co-dependency, loss of parents, and tragic loss of family members. Other relevant life experiences that aid in problem-solving include shift work (9 years), stressful working conditions (i.e., adult corrections), living out of state, relocation after retirement, and starting a new career. In 2019, I founded Wellness Matters LLC and am the sole-owner of this thriving private clinic offering both tele-health and in-person mental health therapy.
My education and licensure:
I graduated from Clarissa High School and received my B.A. in Justice Studies from the University of Alaska – Fairbanks in 1986. Following a 20-year career with the Alaska Department of Corrections, my husband and I returned to MN. I obtained my Master’s degree in Addiction Studies: Advanced Practice in 2014 from the Hazelden Graduate School which afforded me the opportunity to become dual-licensed as a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) in 2014 and a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) in 2017. I am a board certified LADC Supervisor and am a board certified LPCC Supervisor.
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Paula Kitzmann, MA
Contract Therapist/Paula Kitzmann LLC
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker
Paula’s bio will be posted soon!
“Health is a state of body. Wellness is a state of being.” J. Stanford
Vision:
To support an integrative approach for improving the overall health and wellness of our clients and ourselves.
Mission:
To optimize wellness in people who:
- want anonymity when accessing services
- prefer services be delivered in a convenient manner (i.e., in-office, in-home or on-line)
- are struggling adjusting to or effectively managing parenting, illness, chronic medical conditions, medical diagnoses, work problems, relationship problems, spiritual conflict, caregiver burnout, or death of a loved one
- “know what to do” but struggle with implementing health supporting behaviors
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu
Core Values and Culture:
Wellness Matters staff honor “client as the expert” throughout the therapeutic process. We work collaboratively with clients.
Social Media and Internet Guidelines:
This section outlines Wellness Matters’ practices related to the use of Internet and Social Media.
- We believe that it is important that clients and prospective clients know how Wellness Matters staff conduct ourselves as mental health professionals while using the Internet and Social Media.
- These guidelines are in place in order to promote protection of client confidentiality.
- These guidelines help to protect our therapeutic relationships with clients so that they remain intact and in accordance with ethical guidelines.
If you have any questions about our Internet and Social Media guidelines, we encourage you to bring them up when we meet. As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there may be times when we need to update these guidelines. If we do so, we will notify clients of any changes.
Friending
Wellness Matters staff do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, etc.) as outlined by the American Counseling Association guidelines.
Fanning
You are welcome to view our Facebook pages and read or share posted articles; however, we do not accept clients as fans of our Facebook pages. We believe having clients as Facebook fans creates a greater likelihood of compromised client confidentiality, and we feel it is best to be explicit to all who may view our list of fans to know that they will not find client names on that list.
Following
We have blogs on our website. We have no expectation that clients will want to or need to follow the blog.
Please note that we will not follow clients on twitter feeds. We may follow other health professionals on Twitter. If there are things from your online life that you wish to share with us, please bring them into our sessions where we can view and explore them together during the therapy session.
Interacting
We recommend against using SMS (mobile phone text messaging) or messaging on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, or LinkedIn to contact Wellness Matters staff as these sites are not secure and we may not read these messages in a timely fashion. Wellness Matters’ clients have access to a HIPPA secure messaging system through their client account – it is recommended that clients use this messaging system to contact Wellness Matters’ therapists.
Email/Texts
If you choose to communicate with Wellness Matters staff by email, please be aware that all emails and/or texts are likely retained in the logs of Internet service providers or telephone companies. While it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by the system administrator(s). Wellness Matters’ clients have access to a HIPPA secure messaging system through their client portal (i.e., also known as the “client account”). We encourage and recommend clients use this messaging system to contact Wellness Matters’ therapists. You should also know that any emails/texts received from clients and any responses become a part of the client legal medical record.