As the founder of Child and Family Psychology, formerly called Psychologist on Wheels PC, Dr. Renee Clauselle has one mission: to encourage people toward mentally healthy lives. She has been doing just that through her practice, which grew from her basement with one employee to 10 employees and over 2,000 annual clients. Her most recent business venture is eTalkwithyou.com, an online private consultation practice with weekly health picks of the week, newsletters and blogs. Rolling out spoke with Dr. Clauselle about erasing the stigma of using mental health services, making mental health accessible and alternatives to medication.
The stigma of mental health is a major challenge within communities of color. How is your company directly addressing that issue?
I set the tone for the type of environment a client experiences when they walk in the door. The tone is very comfortable, relaxing, and most importantly, down-to-earth. Also through tweets and Facebook updates, I post all types of information and share my worries and concerns about mental health. This serves two purposes; one, giving free information to all, and it makes me, a psychologist, approachable. This helps reduce the stigma.
How has the digital revolution impacted the mental health service field and the way that you operate?
This is a great question, especially since in general speeding ahead in life and not taking time to reflect and process our day does not lend itself to taking care of our emotional health or growth. On the other hand, when people want services, when a crisis has happened, they want an appointment and they want it now. We have addressed this through our online practice and telemental health where patients can communicate with me over the Internet.
You don’t focus on administering medication, so what alternative techniques do you employ to help patients besides verbal communication?
We offer neuro-feedback, relaxation techniques, and mindfulness strategies in combination with therapy. These techniques combined activate the brain to release its own natural pharmaceuticals to heal itself. Studies have shown that meditation, and neuro-feedback done consistently, can be just as effective and in some cases more effective, than medication, without the side effects. The additional benefit of these combinations of therapy is that people learn self-management and how to manage their own symptoms as opposed to having medication do it for them.
