Progress 2024: Holistic health services grow in the Brainerd lakes area – Brainerd Dispatch

BRAINERD — According to a poll by Gallup and West Health, 42% of respondents felt their most recent experiences with a medical provider were not worth the cost of care, and 57% said the United States had a poor or failing ability to address mental health conditions.

Although high cost is the main reason Americans are dissatisfied with their care — only 17% of survey respondents rated the United States poor or failing in quality of care, versus 75% giving those ratings for cost of care — people like Amanda Plevell, Julienne Becker, Jenna Niggeler, Kelly Vanvickle and Kelly Thompson believe there is something missing from the way we treat illness.

Amanda Plevell’s story is, in her opinion, nothing short of a miracle.

When her chronic illness left her wheelchair-bound, unable to move her arms or legs and suffering from neuropathy and myopathy — diseases of the nerves and muscles respectively — Plevell’s doctors weren’t sure she would ever walk again. Unsatisfied with the answers she was getting from the conventional medical community, she went to seek out her own.

ANMC Holistic Health — Amanda Plevell, founder of AMNC Holistic Health gives a tour of her building on Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

Fifteen years and a doctorate later, Plevell is walking, gesturing and “doing all the things.” Beyond that, she is sharing the knowledge that led to her success.

“I think acute medicine in America is amazing, phenomenal, we need it,” Plevell said. “What we could do better at is holistic wellness ahead of time.”

Acute medicine is the medical specialty concerned with urgent medical needs, like managing life-threatening medical emergencies and administering care in the first 72 hours of presenting ailments, according to the Society for Acute Medicine. Holistic wellness, in contrast, is an approach to health that considers many aspects of wellness such as physical, emotional, social and spiritual, according to Western Connecticut’s Institute for Holistic Health Studies.

Plevell’s company, ANMC Holistic Health in Little Falls, uses a method Plevell called PIP care, which stands for proactive, intentional and purposeful, to address clients’ health needs. By developing a personalized relationship with clients and their bodies, she said ANMC intends not to treat disease, but to cause health.

“The biggest mission (is) creating communities where it’s easy to be healthy and OK to be happy,” Plevell said. “What are the things that we can be doing to teach people, so that they’re causing their own health, so that we don’t end up in these disease states?”

ANMC operates on long-term relationships with clients to improve their overall health and well-being. During ANMC’s $320 comprehensive initial consultation, Plevell and her staff collect information on clients’ current health and lifestyle in order to create a personalized plan to address their needs.

“So once we know the concepts and the challenges and the limiting beliefs and the things that are getting in their way, the coaches work to teach out and train those various things, so they can create new blueprints in their mind,” Plevell said. “So when they’re done with their coaching, we might have … a couple of infrared saunas that we use for chromotherapy. We use chromotherapy, we use a lot of frequency and light and sound, vibration.”

Plevell said using non-invasive therapies that involve sound and light helps avoid stress in clients and allows them to feel safe.

Plevell said finding her staff, building and clients felt meant to be. Jessica Scherping, ANMC Holistic Health’s executive assistant and client support specialist, agreed.

“Yeah, it was truly just divine intervention,” Scherping said. “I had worked for the county for a long time, had my son, wanted something different, and I found Amanda. I started right away and I’ve been here for three years.”

Scherping, office administrative assistant Danielle Crawford and intern Calli Funk all said they appreciated the ability to get to know patients on an individual level. Scherping said being able to see customers come in with problems and watch how they improve wasn’t as possible when she was working at the county.

ANMC has a program called The Next Generation of Healers, in which Plevell personally trains members of partner clinics to operate on a more holistic medical model. Although Plevell does plan to open a second location sometime in the future, she said this program is her main priority at the moment.

“I’m at the point now where I can work individually, and I can train a staff to work with bigger groups of individuals, but I’m at the point now where I need to train individuals to affect their group of people,” Plevell said.

Julienne Becker started her health career in the military, where she served as a Navy cryptologic technician, but found herself responsible for the health of her crewmates because, “it was a lot of fun.”

After the military, Becker went on to St. Cloud State University to earn a degree in public health, then to a county health department in Arizona, back to school for a degree in medical specialties and eventually to a job as a medical assistant. It was there that Becker noticed something missing from Western medical care.

“It just kind of set me on fire to provide a little bit more of a bridge between Western medicine and Eastern medicine,” Becker said. “So I ended up going back to school and getting my acupuncture degree, and I have never looked back. I have enjoyed every minute of it.”

Better Days Acupuncture is nestled in the Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd, sharing a location with another acupuncture business, New Morning Acupuncture. Becker has been practicing at this location for six years.

Owner Julienne Becker at Better Days Acupuncture on June 21, 2024, at The Franklin Arts Center.

Becker’s services include needle acupuncture; electrical stimulation applied to those same acupuncture points for those nervous about needles; cupping, which is the practice of heating the rim of a glass cup and placing it on the body to suck skin outward and stimulate circulation; and a variety of massage techniques.

Becker described acupuncture as a means to direct the body’s awareness through electrical energy and frequency, inflicting tiny traumas to stimulate circulation and allow the body to go into a healing state without actually being severely injured. She said the process is cooperative between the practitioner and the patient, and going on that journey with people is beautiful.

“I offer people to take back their healing power, to recognize that they’re in charge of their own healing,” Becker said. “So, acupuncture is just one way to connect the mind, body, soul together in the healing journey.”

An initial appointment at Better Days Acupuncture is $140, and a follow up is $100.

Becker said she’d like to hire somebody to help out at her practice, as both she and her colleague were consistently booked out. Until then, she plans on incorporating breath work, stretching and meditation into her range of services.

In the same large office space as Becker, their workspaces separated by lushly decorated canopies, Jenna Niggeler runs her own acupuncture practice.

Niggeler, who grew up in the Brainerd area, said her work in health care started as a medical assistant. When she got acupuncture done to help with her knee pain as she trained for a marathon, she noticed other aspects of her health improving.

A person standing — Jenna Niggeler at New Morning Acupuncture.

“So that’s where I kept going back for my women’s health stuff, and digestion, and sleep, and all these things that I were told were OK and couldn’t get better got better,” Niggeler said. “And then that’s where I decided that I needed to study this more and go to school for it.”

Now, Niggeler has been doing acupuncture for a decade, and has been running New Morning Acupuncture in Brainerd for five years. She generally focuses her services on women’s health, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause care, but will treat anything that walks through the door.

“I don’t have them fill out any paperwork,” Niggeler said, referring to her patients during intake. “I like to chat. And so, asking kind of basic questions, you know, what they’re in for, what have they tried for it? I think that’s important as to, you know, what they’ve done to help their bodies so far. And then, of course, like, nutrition. I’m a fan of going through, like, a breakfast, lunch and dinner with them.”

A bed in a room with medical equipment and fairy lights — Jenna Niggeler’s work space at New Morning Acupuncture.

Niggeler said she chats for about 10 minutes with new patients to get an idea of their nutrition, activity and emotional state, and to allow them to ask any questions they’d like about her practice. This first visit is priced at $100, with subsequent visits at $80.

Cupping at New Morning Acupuncture is $60 for a 30-minute session, and a facial rejuvenation session is $120.

Becker and Niggeler met five years ago, both looking for someone to provide holistic medicine services they could not perform on themselves. Niggeler said the difference in perspective she and Becker had retained from studying at different schools helped them learn from each other and improve their practices.

“I really feel lucky to have her here, that’s for sure,” Niggeler said. “We just kind of joined forces, even though we’re two separate businesses who share space. Like, some people might think that’s crazy, but it works really, really well for us.”

Key Wellness and Aesthetics

Kelly Vanvickle and Kelly Thompson, known to their staff as “The Kellys,” have been working together for 24 years, but opened Key Wellness together in October of 2021.

Two people sitting and talking — Kelly Thompson, left, and Kelly Vanvickle, right, at Key Wellness and Aesthetics on Thursday, July 11, 2024.

Vanvickle and Thompson initially worked together at the Lakewood Health System in Staples, when they were both registered nurses, but eventually decided that would not be the best fit for them going forward. Their current location in Crosslake is 38.2 miles from Lakewood, requiring them to get a variance on their noncompete with them, which specified a 40-mile radius.

“I kind of sensed a change in Kelly one day and was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Vanvickle said. “She said she was putting in her resignation. And I said, ‘Well, you’re not going without me, so what are we doing?’”

Key Wellness offers a wide variety of services including infertility consultations, IV nutrition therapy, nutrition supplements, post bariatric support, weight management, laser hair removal, skin resurfacing, botox and hormone management. An initial aesthetic consultation is free, but a hormone consultation is $150, and a client may be charged if they choose to discuss health information during an aesthetic consultation.

A building — Key Wellness and Aesthetics in Crosslake, Minnesota.

Besides botox maintenance and follow up appointments, which are free, other treatments at Key Wellness range from $99-$150.

Thompson said she and Vanvickle added aesthetic services to Key Wellness’s roster after being asked for referrals by clients.

“And, you know, you always say, before that you thought of all that stuff as vanity,” Thompson said to Vanvickle.

“Vanity, I did,” Vanvickle said. “It was something I didn’t grow up with.”

“And neither did I,” Thompson said.

“And then I had it done,” Vanvickle continued. “Actually, Kelly did a little bit of filler in the cheeks. And I remember looking in the mirror and thinking, ‘Oh, that looks good, I don’t look as tired,’ And it dawned on me that that’s not vanity — that’s self confidence. I looked in the mirror and had a positive thought instead of something negative. We can do that now, for other people.”

The Key Wellness location also includes a boutique out front that sells clothes, jewelry and skincare. Vanvickle said this was added to bring in some retail to cater to tourists in the area, who wouldn’t normally come into the building if there wasn’t something to buy.

clothes on mannequins and hangers — The front boutique section of Key Wellness and Aesthetics.

Vanvickle and Thompson also work with Therapeutic Touch in Nisswa to provide massage services at Key Wellness.

Key Wellness employs about seven people, including Morgan Rickard, a registered nurse and injector who said there was nothing about her job she didn’t like. Rickard said she appreciates the ability to offer clients comprehensive care, as well as learn about her own body.

“Talking with both of the Kellys, they teach me so much each day,” Rickard said. “I feel like I come into work, and I’m constantly just learning from them, which is awesome.”

Caroline Julstrom, intern, may be reached at 218-855-5851 or [email protected].

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