Meet Kimberly (kim) Muhlenbruch | Owner, Clinical and Executive Supervisor, and Therapists at SOBT Therapy, LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kimberly (kim) Muhlenbruch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kimberly (Kim), can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Initially, my desire was to work either at the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Veterans Affairs as I wanted (and still do want) to work with service members, veterans, and their families. However, I soon learned, upon graduation from my graduate program that it is very difficult and one pretty much must “know someone” to get a position at any of the departments I mentioned above.

My passion to address the mental health crisis, and the sigma that has historically surfaced with it, was still very strong. At that time, I decided that I wanted to work for myself and become a supervisor. Unfortunately, mental health professionals (psychotherapists to be exact) have plenty of responsibilities and much is required of us, legally and ethically. However, the pay is very little for different reasons and depending one’s place of employment. Even working for ourselves in private practice, the insurance reimbursements are what we call “disrespectful” behind closed doors, haha.

Lastly, I’ve been “in charge” for many years at this point in my professional life. Discontinuing that trend seemed a little out-of-the-norm to me. Further, working for myself allows me to have a more flexible schedule. I have a daughter who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and her schedule is very demanding of me. When she needs me, I have to be able to go!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Our practice has a diverse team with different backgrounds and we work with a diverse population. Mostly, what gravitates to us is those who are underserved and marginalized. People typically want to work with those who can relate to them :-). We all bring different things to the team as we have experience in different fields that converts very well into the field of mental health. We complement each other as a team! As I said earlier, we also really like working with service members, veterans, firefighters, law enforcement, and medical personnel. We have advanced training in many interventions (including substance use/addictions, art therapy, play therapy, EMDR, emotionally focused therapy, attachment work, dialectical behavior therapy, and many more) to work with anxiety, vocational stress, depression, neurodiversity, trauma history and just about anything condition. We work with children as young as two years old to over 100. We work with individuals, couples, and families. Our practice does take insurance as well as offers a very low discounts for “self-pay”. We love what we do 🙂

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am embarrassed to say that I do not get out much at all. I know a place I would take them is the gym to workout together the entire week. We’d also attend church. We had our first annual holiday party last year at Wynkoop Brewing Company. Outside of that, I’m in trouble, haha.

Thanks for the question. Confirmation that I need to socialize and do things more.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Graduate school was very challenging for me because of what I had going on in my professional and personal life. I started my grad program while I was still in the Arny. I took a year off and once I retired from the Army, I attended the program full-time. I had a high-risk pregnancy and gave birth to a “late preemie” baby. It was absolutely tough!!!

When I entered grad school, my oldest (I’m divorced and have four children) was in college and my two sons, there were three children at the time, were still in middle and elementary school. Quitting for me was absolutely not an option. I wanted to model perseverance and tenacity to my children who were definitely watching. Then my daughter, my youngest, was born. Witnessing how she struggled to relate to the world, even as a toddler, was nothing less than painful. It was exhausting while navigating my daughter’s therapeutic needs that I could not afford at the time. Watching her was very difficult was certainly hurtful for me.

I was raised by a very strong single parent (my mother) and have very supported sisters (and my brother who passed away in 2019) to whom I owe MUCH! I spent 24 (21 active duty) years in the Army and had a couple of deployments to combat zones. My strong faith and prayer are, without a doubt, definitely the main source of support for me. Those people and things made it possible for me to continue to push and persevere. I really wanted to do this!!!

Website: https://www.sobttherapy.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-muhlenbruch-70b9011b3/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078837392775

Image Credits
Blissful Photography and me