By Avery Wageman
Contributing Writer
As of two months ago, Green Bay has a new mental health clinic. The ATT Center’s owner Brittany Berkovitz’s goal is to provide a diverse range of services that she believes are underrepresented in the community’s mental health resources.
This is not Berkovitz’s first time running a business. Alongside her work in counseling, she has been the owner of Broadway District shop, Hat Cetera for the last three years. Now sharing the duty of running Hat Cetera with her father, Berkovitz and her counseling staff are determined to provide comprehensive wellness services for their community.
The ATT Center offers general counseling for children ages four and up, adolescents and adults, as well as more specialized counseling such as sex therapy for individuals and couples, marital counseling and treatment for anxiety-related disorders.
Berkovitz specializes in exposure-based therapies to treat OCD, PTSD and other anxiety-related disorders. She describes an exposure-based treatment plan as “teaching people to move towards their fears through a structured hierarchy of the exposures instead of what a lot of people with anxiety and trauma do, which is avoid dealing with them.”
The clinic will soon be introducing a ketamine-assisted therapy option to assist patients in breaking down mental barriers to treat trauma, depression and anxiety. Berkovitz has completed a certification to administer the treatment, and Autumn Schleis, another therapist at the ATT Center, will soon begin her certification as well.
Berkovitz and Schleis are aware that people unfamiliar with the treatment have concerns with the impact of psychedelics.
“Psychedelics [are] very hard mental and emotional work, and we are completely taking our training seriously so that we can do this in the most ethical and moral way. And we can also help people heal in the process,” said Berkovitz. “One of my jobs is to educate and help people get a better understanding of what it is and what it isn’t, how we work with it, how it can help and that’s been a big challenge as well.”
Offering ketamine-assisted therapy is what drew Schleis to The ATT Center. Specializing in sexual wellness therapy, she believes that the treatment may be a beneficial option for some of her patients.
“I think that sometimes when we’re trying to communicate with our partner, there can be resentment and hurt, and our defenses go up,” said Schleis. “I think that with psychedelic therapy, it kind of opens us up to defenses going down and empathy going up.”
Schleis provides counseling for a range of issues including intimacy discrepancies, erectile dysfunction and exploration of gender identity and sexuality. Understanding that these are often vulnerable topics, she wants to create a comfortable space to discuss them.
“It takes a person to lean in and listen so that you can feel heard and surrounded and supported,” said Schleis. “I like being that person, and I like being in the company of the people that are courageous to do that.”
Craig Linzmeier, who specializes in children and adolescent counseling, also hopes to further destigmatize therapy. With 25 years of counseling experience, Linzmeier has worked in several different areas including school, residential and inpatient counseling.
“I think there’s always hesitation because we don’t know what [therapy] is, number one, or there’s a stigma associated with counseling and so a lot of people avoid it,” said Linzmeier. “And so hopefully we can change that.”
In addition to the clinic’s scope of counseling options, the ATT Center offers yoga sessions with a certified instructor, a zen room and IV vitamin infusions from a Registered Nurse from Hydrovita Infusion Lounge. Berkovitz plans to continue hiring four more counselors to further expand the clinic’s treatment options.
“We’re trying to really just treat the whole person. We want this to be a wellness clinic where all of your needs can be met,” said Berkovitz. “Even though, yes, the focus is on counseling and psychedelic therapy, we have all these other offerings that really enhance the outcomes of whether or not therapy is successful.”
For more information about The ATT Center, its counselors and range of services, check out their website, https://www.theattcenter.com/.