Meet Diane Fern of Mountain West Wisdom and Wellness, LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Diane Fern.

Hi Diane, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story starts very small town Iowa. Home of the Iowa Basic Skills tests and, at the time, viewed as the salt of the earth kind of people as well as mentally sound and resilient overall, my life was safe and consistent and sometimes considered storybook. I was deeply aware of those around me that did not have that experience. I remember in 8th grade and the mobile career exploration trailer visited my school and we were given the opportunity to learn about multiple careers and what each of them was about and, most importantly, how to get on the path to make that career happen. My interests directed me into Social Work and, at the time, the duties of a social worker was actually described as a “friendly visitor” that went into peoples homes to support them during a difficult time. The handout showed a woman at a dining room table drinking coffee with another woman. Although the description was vague, the intrigue of helping people was a starting point that landed for me. In addition to wanting to help people, I was always very aware of the opportunity to use my voice to make a change or make a difference. My father was Editor and Publisher of the local newspaper and showed me how to use my voice as he frequently did to voice his opinion about the goings on of a small Iowa community. My Dad was well-respected and people listened. And, it made a difference. Yes, I was the high school student at the school board meeting armed with a speech to present to the board with the goal to persuade them to allow sex education in our health curriculum. It was exhilarating. Fast forward to college and my love for psychology and the mind. I majored in Psychology and minored in Sociology all the while realizing that my favorite classes were actually in the Social Work program. My long term goal was to earn my Masters degree by the time I was 30 and my PhD by the time I was 40. Directly out of undergrad I worked in various settings which had great influence on my future path. Having a psychology degree and no experience, I started my career working the graveyard shift at a RCCF (residential child care facility), then I transitioned into coordinating group homes, eight years in child protective services, as well as a couple years at the local county jail in pre-trial release. It was during these 10 years that I experienced two critical incidents in my jobs that left me in my own state of crisis and despair. Very early in my career and at the age of 26, I lost a client to suicide. Something that I thought would never happen since the young person had been receiving support and intervention and in my mind, that was enough. This was just something that shouldn’t happen since we had services set up to support him. I learned quickly it was not enough and that he needed more. In the midst of a reactive depression (my own) I was challenged by the reality of the pain it caused and challenged by my thinking that I could no longer work in this profession. Fortunately, I was able to continue to do the work and then went to work in Ongoing Child Protection. Approximately one year into my job as a caseworker, one of my clients became involved with a man unbeknownst to the department until it was too late. My client had a six week old infant son who died at the hands of her boyfriend who shook the baby when he became frustrated by his crying. Never in my career exploration class, my college classes or in my imagination did I think that I would ever be faced with watching a 6 week old child be kept alive on life support and eventually die of his injuries. Nor did I ever believe that I would testify at a murder trial. These experiences changed me. With the support of an incredible therapist in a very short amount of time, I was able to find what I needed to keep that desire to help people and continue to work in a career that I loved. As thirty came and went, I knew I wanted to do more. While working in the group homes I frequently attended IEP meetings for the young men I worked with. In a moment I refer to as a CAMEO APPEARANCE in my life, I had a life changing conversation with a school social worker at Lakewood High School that inspired me to apply to graduate school and get my Masters degree in Social Work. By then I was married and had a three year old at home. I was able to work full-time and attend graduate school at DU in their weekend program and had my MSW by the time I was 33. The impact that my graduate program had on me inspired me with each new class, professor, fellow student (who were mostly all like me with years of experience as well as working full-time) as well as the opportunities I had to work directly with clients and families in different settings and levels of need. I had no doubt that I was on the right path. Systems theory and the social work perspective and my training in Direct Practice solidified my awareness that people exist not just in their own head and just in their own personal experience but rather in their life system that included their family, their friends, their mind, their body, their jobs and community and that all of this needs taken into consideration when treating and supporting someone. I knew I could take all that I had learned and experienced and turn it into something that might be enough to support those who did not have the support and the tools necessary to live their best life. While in graduate school, I turned down the opportunity to work in the highly coveted internship in a local psychiatric hospital so that I could get the experience I needed to become a school social worker. I know that with the challenges that this career presented, and the fact that I had a young child and wanted another child, the school system seemed like a great fit with lots of opportunity to work in a setting I knew would be challenging but manageable. Schools offered great opportunity to work with yet another population (many populations in fact) over the course of my 25 year career, I worked in a Title 1 high school that had 32 different languages and a very large refugee population as well as a student parent center filled everyday with 30 of our student’s children, two different alternative high schools, elementary schools both Title 1 as well as a very affluent magnet school and a middle school with SSN program with special needs students with various levels of need and physical disabilities. Watching our youth grow up from a school perspective and seeing the needs of these populations as well as the needs of the mainstream students and their parents and families, I lived and learned everyday the philosophy that a system of support was necessary in addition to knowing it takes more that basic needs to survive and thrive but the awareness of how to do that. Not only did my perspective change based on my experiences and life lessons, but the world changed. The situations I faced early on in my career have intensified in their levels of severity and need. I became an expert in anxiety whether I planned on it or not. Many students were unable to even set foot inside of a school building because they were overcome and flooded with emotions just trying to come to school. Drugs, alcohol, and suicide permeated the students I worked with. Parents were overwhelmed and in need of support so they could support their child as well as cope themselves. Colorado has been one of the highest rates of suicide for youth for many years. Schools became the hub for support and blame as needs skyrocketed. It felt as though it all fell on us.

I knew I did not want to retire from the schools and that I had more work to do. About the time that COVID-19 changed our lives forever, I set my sights on returning to private practice, but I had no idea of what was ahead. I transitioned out of the schools and into a practice of just myself. I couldn’t keep up. I had so many calls and requests for therapy, I couldn’t even return the call to say I could not get them in. I also learned that once I called them back, I couldn’t say no. Each story stole my heart. The themes were the same, depression, anxiety, overwhelm, physically sick, unmotivated, lonely and unsupported. I decided I needed to find a way to get more services and support so people no longer had to wait 6 months to get into a therapist. I decided to hire someone to join me, so the waitlist was shorter and we could accept people when they called. I also wanted to meet more than their mental health needs, but also their physical health. I knew if we could fulfill those needs we would also fill their needs for social support and overall outlook on life. It happened quickly and we became Mountain West Wisdom and Wellness.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The challenges of the loss of a client very early on in my career made me doubt my ability to continue in this profession. A second loss while I was a caseworker in child protection was a situation that I thought I would never be able to recover from. With great support and my own desire to continue to do this, I was able to work through these two extremely difficult times. The world also changed over the course of my almost 40 years as a social worker in many different roles. The evidence based studies that guide my practice today were not available when I was in undergraduate school. At that time I was taught that 30% of my clients would get better, 30% would get worse and 30% would stay the same. That was a deal breaker for me. I wanted to be a part of changing that. The world and its struggles have worsened to the point that during my 9 years at a local alternative school, we lost a total of 7 former students to drugs, alcohol and suicide. It was a soul crushing yet rewarding job. Not a smooth road by any means but it teaches you a lot about yourself and what you’re made of.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are still “defining Wellness” as our perspective (all social workers) started with mental health and we have seen the need for a bigger picture of an all inclusive kind of wellness. We are a package deal greatly impacted and influenced by many factors that then creates an entire sense of wellbeing. With that, we have added a Nationally Certified Wellness Coach to our team. She is our additional piece to the entire sense of wellbeing and WELLNESS. We all have a great deal of experience and meet people where they are. The WISDOM part of our name was inspired by a dear friend of mine, Karen Singsaas, who offered that big picture of the experience and its power as well as the knowledge and the follow through with integrity and action. We try to utilize that perspective with all our clients. We have set out to offer groups, specifically wellness groups. Our first two were for women over 50 mixing a blend of mental health and physical health. We created an exceptional experience for women who were dealing with many of the same issues but all very different issues that connected them and provided a safe space to explore and learn and be challenged. Our goal is to have more groups, for people of all ages, to come together, take these risks, change some patterns and benefit from the experience.

Currently we are a team of four (hoping to add more) with three social workers and one nationally certified health and wellness coach! Wellness is a package deal with multiple opportunities to support what it looks like for each person. We set out to identify the needs and then provide the support to find them. We are located in Lakewood and have the option for tele-health sessions. Individual mental health support, Group classes each with a different focus as well as the physical wellness piece offered by Emily Brown, our Nationally Certified Wellness Coach.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I will say that I was very aware of the challenges that young women faced at the time (and still to this day) with the limitations placed on me by the world around me. Too many “you can’t do that because” and it was usually simply because I was a female. I did have the opportunity to participate in sports which taught me commitment, grit, integrity and the benefits of working hard. Small towns are a great place to raise a family but it was a barrier to me and I knew I would leave so I could explore and experience more (primarily driven by my career goals). I believe it was my small town upbringing that allowed me to see the struggles and difficulties that people experience and inspired me to find a way to change those experiences so that people can prosper. We can over estimate the barriers that keep us from reaching our goals by seeing them as too big or too permanent and it is important to break them down the barriers piece by piece and take the steps necessary to start new behaviors, new thoughts and creating the roots for change.

Pricing:

• Insurances accepted
• Private pay for some groups

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mountainwestwisdom.com

Image Credits
First image: Diane Fern, LCSW photo credit to Justin Fern

Office Photo: Leland Kessler

Office Staff: left to right, Chelsea Griffith, MSW. Holly Duke, LCSW. Emily Brown, NBHWC and Diane Fern, LCSW. photo credit to Justin Fern