Center for Solutions opens office in Newcastle

Private clinic offers outpatient behavioral health services

Weston County residents who suffer from mental health issues sometimes struggle to access resources, but a new counseling option is now available in the community.

Center for Solutions is an outpatient, private behavioral health clinic concentrated on counseling services and psychiatric evaluation, as well as various management services.

Brenda Engle and Sarah Smith, psychiatric nurse practitioners for 17 years and seven years, respectively, run Center for Solutions. Engle and Smith recently expanded their Gillette-based services to Newcastle for one day a week. The clinic leases office space at the Weston County Health Services hospital in Newcastle, but it is not affiliated with WCHS, Engle said.

Since Center for Solutions opened in 2020, Engle and Smith say they have been working hard to provide telehealth and outpatient services to those who are seeking help and guidance.  They also offer in-person services.

“Well, we started out, just Sarah and I, and now we have almost six therapists. We are bringing on another nurse practitioner in the fall. So, we have been very successful for a small business that opened up during COVID,” Engle said. “There’s a wide range of services we provide. We treat all mental health issues. There’s really nothing we don’t do. If we can’t manage it, we get them assistance.”

According to Engle, Wyoming generally has a high suicide rate, ranking in the top three states in suicide rates, and she said it is crucial to connect with mental health services, such as the Center for Solutions, to receive optimal help. Engel said that she and Smith “wanted to expand access and offer other choices for services for patients so they don’t have to travel.”   

“Our primary goal is to provide mental health services to the state of Wyoming and give and allow access,” Engle said. “People outside the county have to travel, sometimes an hour, to get into a town that has behavioral health services. And not every town has behavioral services; many only have one option and it’s very limited.”

While primary care doctors can provide some services, behavioral health is not their specialty, Engle said. That is exactly what the Center for Solutions does specialize in.

Clients can expect “an initial intake” on their first appointment.

“If they are struggling with marital issues or parenting or depression, or if they are on medication already, they may go see a provider first or they may go see a counselor and then the counselor will then make further decisions,’’ Engle said. “So, it actually depends on what the person wants to address first. And it goes all different ways.”

According to Engle and Smith, Center for Solutions provides a broad spectrum of health services. These include weight loss, substance abuse disorder, helping with withdrawals and detoxes, all mental health conditions, help for children, and case management for Medicaid clients who struggle socio-economically with finding housing, work and managing their health.

They implement treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing , medication when necessary, therapy and counseling.

“We have several therapists and they all have their specialties. We have two therapists that do EMDR and we have a couple of cognitive behavioral therapists. We have a therapist that specializes in ACT, which is good for trauma and emergency first responders,” Engle said. “All of our therapists utilize several modalities, including just psycho-social support. And we also do suboxone, for opioid use disorder. There are providers in Wyoming, in the northeast corner. There are two of them and one of them is me.”

“We are also offering more diverse models since we started, like play therapy for kids and Spravato, which is a ketamine treatment for treatment-resistant depression. So, from 2020 when we started to 2024, we have grown in a healthy way — at a pace we can manage and continue to provide quality care,” Engle said.

A therapist will be available in August, in addition to the med provider currently available once a week, at the Newcastle site.

The provider in Newcastle is Diane Christensen, a registered nurse born and raised in Newcastle. Christensen works with people at the office in Newcastle.

Engle and Smith said they intend to expand access to Center for Solutions’ services in the future. Their goal is to be able to offer services more than one day a week.

“They just need to call the office and let us know what they need,” Engle said. “We’ll direct them to either make … an appointment with a therapist and a medication provider or one or the other. They can do it in the office or if they can’t travel or they don’t have transportation, they can just Zoom in at home. The University of Wyoming provides us with Zoom access, which is HIPAA protected.”

People can find more information about how to connect with Center of Solutions on the website: findingyourpaths.com, as well as their Facebook page, Center for Solutions, LLC-Gillette, WY. The universal contact number for Center for Solutions is 307-363-5930.