What was the inspiration behind your business? What influenced you to choose this particular career path?

I have been working in the trauma field for about 6-7 years now. I started as a social worker working with youth and in the foster care system. Throughout those years of doing social work with youth, I realized that I wanted more of a focused and in-depth approach to mental health and trauma and found childhood development to be a foundational place to begin. It’s foundational not only in the sense that it helps us understand children, but likewise how we are as adults.

The way in which we experience life at a young age heavily impacts who we become and how we approach the world as adults. 

I went on to receive my Master’s Degree through Queens University in Belfast Ireland studying childhood development and specifically how trauma impacts the brain. This ultimately led me to mental health counseling, although I still do part-time social work as I am able. 

It has been a conversation I have had with my husband for a while now, which is the dream for me to open up a private practice. We started in February of this year and my goal is to be able to provide trauma-informed therapy to those who need it. I’ve received personal benefits from trauma therapy in my own life and believe in it. 

How did you end up with your Company name?

I wish I had a more profound answer to this, but the moment came when I had to submit for my business license. Names matter a lot to me, but I did what most of us probably do, I ended up Googling, “What to name your mental health practice” which, funny enough, isn’t helpful at all. There’s a lot of the same out there, but I stumbled across the world “well” and it really resonated with me. I believe in holistic wellness and this really encompassed those pieces that all work together, your brain, your saw, and all of that interconnectedness.

Does mental health seem to be trending right now? Is there a danger to this? What are your hopes in how people approach the topic of mental health?

This is a good question. Anytime things are trendy, sometimes the power can be lost and another thing to remember is that trends also go through periods and may die off. I’d hate to see mental health not be taken seriously due to being associated as a trend. 

I will say that I am glad that it seems that the stigma around mental health is taking a downturn. The reality is that we are all on a spectrum of mental health and this will fluctuate throughout our life. To live in a culture where the conversation around mental health became normalized is beneficial to us all and allows us to move more quickly towards solutions and collective understanding. 

My hope is that the work that is being laid down right now will remain and continue so that my own children will have the resources they need. These are safeguards for us to work through. 

I think people often forget the importance of sharing our experiences and being honest about what we’re going through. This is where we find community and commonality regarding the topic of mental health as a whole. 

What’s on the horizon for you? 

Even though we’ve hit a roadblock in our plans with this pandemic, my long-term dream for well-counseling is to provide and partner with a network of like-minded therapists who serve different demographics. I can’t serve everyone so having a diverse team to help service other niches. I am most passionate about helping people address the inner child within and discovering ways of creating a new relationship with self and healing wounds that are there so we remove the limitations they put on us as adults. 

In the midst of this crisis I keep hearing about grief, including preemptive or anticipatory grief. Can you talk a little bit about grief? How might this show up in our lives and are their ways we can learn to navigate with a bit more ease?

Yes, I think in this season there are a variety of things we could and likely will grieve. I just want to acknowledge, this is hard. What we are walking through is historic, and while we still have reasons to be grateful, we also have many things we can grieve. We are not only possibly losing loved ones around us, but we can also be losing a sense of identity. 

Many are losing their jobs, careers, or businesses, which could lead to a variety of other losses. All of us have lost a sense of freedom, as well as relational contact with those we love most. These are all important things to grieve and grief can take on a variety of forms.

People process their grief differently, and it is important to understand that we may vary in our length and processes. Although we may not experience all of them, or we may experience them all in any order, there are 5 common stages to grief:

• Denial (avoidance/confusion/fear), 

• Anger (frustration/irritation/anxiety), 

• Bargaining (struggling to find meaning), 

• Depression (overwhelmed/helplessness), 

• Acceptance (exploring options/new plan in place/moving forward). 

It may sound cliché, but the first step in all this is really acknowledging the things you are grieving and then giving yourself the outlets to process. 

Alright, now for some fun stuff. Let’s play fill in the blank.

• The best-kept secret in Tacoma is Top of Tacoma. Steak quesadillas. (not sure how secret it is but this place is the best).

• If you could travel anywhere in the world next it would be Cambodia.

• UNlocking Us on Comparative Suffering is a podcast episode everyone should go listen to right now.

• My grandpa “papa” and Corrie Ten Boom are the people that inspire me most.

• Someone may not know that I could eat just cheese for the rest of my life. 

• Mountaineering is better than people think.

Kate Kozelmen is the founder of WELL Counseling based in Tacoma, WA. Whether you are having difficulties with a relationship, wrestling through identity and family of origin questions, or healing from a trauma or painful loss, WELL Counseling is a safe and peaceful place for you to process and begin your healing.

Kate’s philosophy for counseling is to create a safe, non-judgmental space where together you can identify underlying obstacles and discover tools to help you on a journey towards holistic wellness.

Kate is trained and specializes in Lifespan Integration therapy. Kate is currently offering COVID Care via telehealth at a reduced rate. Learn more

www.wellcounselingnw.com