Center aims to break stigma
Center for Personal Wellness offers counseling services
MINSTER — A Minster native is working locally to change the stigma surrounding mental health.
Laura Roetgerman, owner and director of operations of Center for Personal Wellness, recently opened a new location at 4 Eagle Drive in Minster in February and held its ribbon cutting ceremony commemorating the occasion earlier this week.
“We’d been rapidly growing the past three to four years I’d say,” said Roetgerman about the need for a bigger location. Her office for the last nine years was in the old Minster Bank location. “Needing to add staff on pretty quickly led me to the situation where I’d get more space or I couldn’t grow anymore. I’d been looking for a while. It was nonnegotiable to stay in Minster. Not only because I was raised here — I was gone for a long time before I came back — but because there was not any services like this here.”
A Minster graduate, Roetgerman completed her undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati and her degrees in clinical psychology at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology in Chicago.
“We didn’t think it was in our plan to return, but as we got to certain phases of our lives like starting our family — I’d been working at a group private practice in Illinois and things I was learning — just suddenly at the right moment it felt right that it was time,” said Roetgerman on her and her husband’s decision to return to Minster. “I always told myself even through graduate school, if I ever did come back to Ohio, it would be Minster. I would not start over someplace else and I’d want my own practice in town.”
Having outgrown the previous location, the new office is more private, something that was key for Roetgerman.
“It’s just our own space,” she said. “In the other building, it was shared. It was wonder
ful and served its purpose, but this is much quieter. Everything has been renovated. I wanted to things to look and feel a certain way. I didn’t want it to feel like a doctor’s office. I wanted it to feel like a home. People are not here for 15-minute appointments, they’re here for an hour. We want people to feel comfortable. That was important to me.”
A client coordinator and five clinicians make up the team at the Center for Personal Wellness: Vanessa Dienhart; Nicole Keller, PCC-S; Dylan Gillis, PCC; Mark Cooper, LSW and Katherine McDevitt, PCC-S — all working to serve its clients.
“The biggest service we offer is counseling. We do individual, family and couples,” said Roetgerman. “In the past, we have offered workshops and support groups.”
Two clinicians practice hypnotherapy and one practices eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) which can help anyone whose emotional disorder stems from troubling or traumatic events.
“The disorders we treat is vast,” said Roetgerman. “Depression, anxiety, behavioral disorders, trauma, grief and loss, pregnancy and utility, postpartum depression — we have quite a list.”
The new location, which started seeing clients on Feb. 28, offers more space and comfortability.
“One huge part at the center of my business is to give back to the community and to help break down stigma and reduce barriers to access to care,” said Roetgerman. “There’s a lot of barriers and a lot of stigma. I feel like we’re seeing a shift overall, at least in the United State, of people being more likely to reach out for help instead of waiting too long.”
Making it easier for care was also a top priority.
“I think that’s a huge goal of ours to make it easier to have access to care. I want it to be different than anybody else. I think that’s something big to say,” said Roetgerman. “There’s more private practices popping up closer to home now than there was when I opened nine years ago.”
Doing something different than other health care centers is a driving motivator for Roetgerman.
“I wanted to do something different. I want it to feel comfortable, fresh and homey,” she said. “Some of my clinicians go above and beyond in taking care of their people. Being more willing to communicate in between sessions if needed, something that you might not get at other places. We’ve worked really hard to stand out and be unique.”
Those interested in services can learn more at CenterForPersonalWellness.com or call at 419-628-6156.