Hafermann Counseling Collaborative: New location, same calling

Lori Kaye Lodes

Contributor

August 4, 2025

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – Hafermann Counseling Collaborative, a certified outpatient integrated behavioral health clinic, has a new home.

Janelle Hafermann, director and dual diagnosis psychotherapist, said the new location – which opened in late May – is a positive for the clinic’s patients and providers alike.

Located at 820 Two Mile Ave. in Wisconsin Rapids, Janelle said the space offers a bigger, brighter and more client-centric destination for the substance use and mental health services its team provides. 

“The space now feels like a cohesive therapy clinic that speaks to the type of space I wanted to create when it was just me,” she said. 

Janelle said the vision when she established her LLC in 2021 was to create a collaborative environment for like-minded therapists who wanted to create trust and safety for their clients. The new space, she said, offers a separate waiting room, space for group therapy, a designated breakroom for colleagues and an in-office restroom.
“It feels more cohesive,” she said. 

Janelle said Hafermann Counseling got its start in September 2023 when she rented the front half of an office suite on the second floor of the former Johnson Hill Building.

As she grew and added team members, in April 2024, Janelle said they took over the full office suite in the building.

As the clinic continued to grow, she said they were bursting at the seams before finding the new location.

Though the former space gave Hafermann Counseling Collaborative its physical start, Janelle said the new location is much better suited for the practice’s current needs.

“The Johnson Hill building had three floors, and while the first and third floors had beautiful, high ceilings and doors, the second floor was more condensed and hard to find,” she said.

Having the designated breakroom in the new space, she said, is also important, as she is a big believer in – as the practice’s name suggests – collaboration. 

“I don’t think of myself as an entrepreneur who’s driving all these things,” she said. “I think of myself and the people I work with as colleagues. They bring ideas and we make decisions together.”

Continued growth

Janelle said the team continues to grow.

The clinic, she said, is now home to seven providers – with an eighth set to this month – as well as a behavioral health manager.

Offering both substance use services and other mental health services, Janelle said adding a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner earlier this year added a new dimension to the practice, as the practitioner can evaluate the need for medications, prescribe them and continuously monitor their safety and effectiveness. 

“It’s a resource that’s incredibly difficult to find, especially with the rural nature of our community,” she said. 

Janelle said this function integrates with the therapeutic care the rest of the team provides – which includes providing therapeutic care for substance use, mood disorders, anxiety, depression, trauma and other areas of specialization.

Historically, Janelle said substance use disorders were often referred to as “alcohol abuse,” “substance abuse,” etc., but that has shifted – emphasizing that semantics matter, with her and the other therapists striving to use non-stigmatizing language.

“I don’t think people are aware of the language we use and the impact that has,” she said. “For example, ‘relapse’ is commonly used. We encourage the use of the word ‘recurrence,’ as in ‘recurrence of symptoms.’”

All the providers at Hafermann Counseling Collaborative, Janelle said, are trauma-informed, which can affect mental health in a multitude of ways.

In addition, she said the practice provides care for the distinct challenges veterans, law enforcement officers and first responders encounter.

Beginning her career as a clinical substance use counselor, Janelle said she can provide clients a dual diagnosis – which means she can treat both substance use and other mental health issues.

Furthermore, she said Hafermann Counseling is now a Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services licensed 7550 clinic – which is defined as an integrated outpatient behavioral health clinic that can work with individuals with mental health diagnoses and individuals with substance use diagnoses.

“We see and work with a lot of individuals who have backgrounds in trauma, and it helps that here, another provider and I are military veterans,” she said. “She also used to be a first responder, and those bases provide a level of understanding for some of her clients.”

Being a licensed 7550 clinic, Janelle said, is more comprehensive than a 35 license, as it requires meeting numerous additional requirements.

“These requirements can get incredibly time consuming and cumbersome, which is why some others do not pursue substance use licensing,” she said.

However, Janelle said, the licensure is necessary to provide therapy services to people who have substance use challenges in addition to other mental health challenges. 

Most of the team at Hafermann Counseling Collaborative, she said, provides the majority of those services in person, though one team member performs all her therapy via telehealth. 

Janelle said telehealth is always an option for patients, and is sometimes the best one to reduce barriers to care – such as distance, poor weather or childcare challenges. 

Hafermann Counseling, Janelle said, receives referrals from all over the state, though most clients are located in Adams and Juneau counties, north to Stevens Point or reaching beyond the Village of Kronenwetter.

The practice also has outlier patients, she said, as far as Milwaukee or northern Wisconsin, because of challenges with accessing mental health providers.

In all instances, Janelle said the therapists are driven by a shared goal of providing a safe space in which they can build trust with their clients.

The clinic’s list of clients, she said, runs the gamut – from as young as age five to an older population and everything in between.

“It’s a privilege to travel alongside people on their journey, figure out what they need [based on] what is already within them and [support] how they want to change or shift things in their life,” she said.

Settling in

Janelle said the team is settling into its “new normal” in the new location, finding a new groove now that they’re becoming increasingly comfortable.

She said it’s a bit surreal to her, since she never sought to have a large practice with several providers, but it has evolved to become just that, while maintaining its original vision.

“[The goal] was always to provide good care, and the growth has just come from working with other people to do that,” she said. “It feels good that within our team, we’ve been able to create safety, security and trust among colleagues that is not always commonly found. We’ve been able to accomplish this together.” Janelle said she credits the composition of the team for the practice’s ability to grow without compromising its foundation.
“I’m a firm believer that there are people who are born to do this work and people who can learn to do this work,” she said. “We have a team that was born to do this work, which is incredibly powerful. They have the intuition, ability to build relationships and ability to help people on their journey with the right perspective.”