Meet Carissa Sietsema

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carissa Sietsema. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Carissa, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Like many of the individuals I work with, life has presented me with numerous hurdles and painful moments. One of the earlier hurdles that strongly shaped my ability to be resilient was being born with a rare genetic disorder that caused hand and arm birth defects. These birth defects required that I learn how to navigate life and daily tasks in a way that was realistically possible. This amounted to hundreds of hours of physical therapy and practice to be able to achieve basic tasks such as styling my hair. Later in life other challenges included being the caregiver to my mother who was sick with cancer, being homeless, and facing abusive situations. These challenges, while difficult, I feel greatly influenced my determination and adaptability. The support I received from others further gave me the safe space I needed to take risks and find solutions that worked for me. All these pieces combined contribute to my current resilience.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I founded my Private Practice, Ever Blooming Therapy Services LLC in March 2023. Creating my own private practice gave me an avenue to provide quality mental health care to individuals in my community and surrounding areas. This dream to create my own practice came after watching members in my community struggle with long wait times to receive mental health services, struggling to find a therapist that had the specific training needed to meet their needs, and struggling with accessing services due lack of transportation. Access to mental health treatment has always been difficult, especially in the rural tristate area of West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky that we serve. Being a small private practice allows me to focus on ways I can assist individuals who are struggling with anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, and who have experienced traumatic events. By being able to focus on specific mental health issues it allows my practice to provide more tailored and evidence-based treatment that best suits our clients’ needs. This also allows us to have smaller caseloads meaning that prospective clients can begin receiving treatment right away instead of waiting for almost a month to see a clinician. We also can offer flexible hours including evening and weekend sessions, which makes it easier for those that work to seek help. Lastly, all our services are provided via telehealth further reducing barriers to accessing treatment such as not having transportation or needing to account for long commute times.

Since opening my practice, I have been able to hire a second clinician, further expanding the number of clients we can assist. In addition to clinicians Ever Blooming Therapy Services LLC is also proud to host student interns who are earning the master’s in social work (MSW) Degrees. In September of 2024 the University of Kentucky awarded me the Outstanding Field Instructor award due to my work supervising students at my practice. With the help of our student interns, we are now able to offer additional services which are free to anyone that needs them. These services include free connections to resources such as locating housing assistance or food assistance. We are also able to offer free group therapy each semester, with our next group being in March 2024 which focuses on helping caregivers who are experiencing burnout. I am excited at all the opportunities the future holds for Ever Blooming Therapy Services LLC, and ways we can continue to improve people’s lives. It is my hope that we can continue to grow, training new clinicians who will remain in the communities of rural Appalachia and continue to serve its residents.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think the most helpful qualities in this journey so far have been the willingness to try something new, the willingness to ask for help, and the willingness to continue to expand my knowledge. I knew as I worked towards my social work licensure at other agencies, something wasn’t working well. We were failing at our ability to provide quality care to our clients, and many were going without treatment. This led me to begin exploring what could be done differently and how my opening my own practice might allow me to better serve individuals. Often, I hear people discuss the hard work and unknowns that creating your own practice would entail. I knew, however, if I wasn’t willing to take the risk I would never know if something could be better. This way of thinking aligns with my favorite quote, “failure isn’t an option” basically meaning every time we fail we have an opportunity to learn something if we are willing.

When going to school to become a social worker you don’t learn about the business end of things, so this led me to needing to be willing to ask for help. I was fortunate I had two great former supervisors who had also opened their own practices and were able to patiently guide me through the steps needed to get everything off the ground. When asking for help this also meant asking for resources or people I could network with. Such resources and networking have become invaluable, and I would still be stuck at square one if I never had the willingness to ask for help. Lastly, the willingness to expand my learning is something that has strongly benefited me throughout my entire career. I have an obligation to those I serve to stay informed about current issues that impact them and the best evidence-based practices that can help them feel better. If I fail to expand my learning, I will become stagnant as a clinician and will be of no help to anyone, including myself.

My advice to others looking at opening their own mental health private practice, is first network with others and not just other clinicians. You will learn about a wide variety of resources and opportunities as you get to know other professionals. Having your own practice and working for yourself can be isolating so having a community you can rely on will help. As you network, approach things with an open mind, try not to be frozen in fear by the “what ifs” and see what you can do to take baby steps to explore the possibilities. Lastly, never stop learning in both your professional life and personal life. Learning will improve your skill set as a clinician as well as improve your ability to connect with others and the world.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I have been so fortunate to that I have had so many wonderful mentors over the years. I came from a rough upbringing, but I was very privileged at a young age that I had members of the community step up and take me under their wings. One of my earliest mentors was a veterinarian named Dr. Paula Acer that allowed me to begin volunteering at her animal clinic when I was 10 years old. Later mentors included Nancy Smith and Pam Stauffer who oversaw organizing events at the local humane society. Through these mentors and experiences, my passion for work and learning how I could adapt to difficult tasks was fostered. It allowed me to feel more comfortable in the idea that if I believed in the benefits of trying a new task it was possible despite the difficulties I may face. These mentors and opportunities also literally provided me with a safe place and safe relationships that I did not get in my home life. With their help I was able to navigate some of the darkest times in my life and not lose sight of the potential that my life could be.

As I entered the social work field I had similar mentors in the form of supervisors, namely Jennifer Reagan and Dr. Britta Caudill, who had an open-door policy. This policy allowed me to get help I needed while also having the necessary space to learn my craft. Outside of official mentors, family friends and colleagues have been insurmountable at providing me with the support I needed to cope with let downs and find resources needed to move forward. These wonderful mentors over the years have given me the space I needed to learn how to complete tasks based on my abilities including my physical abilities while also providing me with support needed to feel safe to take risks. I can’t recall ever these individuals being told “no that’s not possible” or worse being told that because I’m disabled, I’m incapable of doing something. Instead, these individuals met with support and creative brainstorming ideas. My natural desire to be helpful and explore new things was encouraged and I feel this greatly influenced my mindset that I am capable of trying new things and making things work. The support I received also shaped my passion for helping others as I know I was one of the few privileged individuals to have so many people step up to help me. Without the help of my mentors, especially my earliest mentors, I firmly believe I would have never left my abusive home life behind.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.everbloomingtherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everbloomingtherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everbloomingtherapy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carissa-sietsema-6a2a75288/