Our Services
Counseling
At Heartland Christian Counseling, we are committed to helping people with evidence based best practices in the field of psychology. We are also deeply committed to the integration of Christian faith and spiritual matters whenever desired and appropriate in treatment with our clients.
We treat mental health conditions, such as severe anxiety, depression, trauma recovery, acute stress, relationship distress, mood disorders, grief and loss, perinatal mood and anxiety, pain management, and more.
Our clinicians are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Family Systems, Healthy Boundaries, Mindfulness, and Good Grieving through Reprocessing & Forgiveness Therapy. We encourage our clients to grow a healthy sense of self and purpose, to effectively use positive coping skills, and to develop social and spiritual supports.
Dr. Heidi Vermeer-Quist also offers Gardening Your Life a personal growth series which can be used in Group Therapy, Individual Therapy, or on your own (preferably with a small group). {Learn More}.
Therapy Groups:
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Gardening Your Life: Grounding for Adults. No groups currently running.
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Gardening Your Life: Grounding for Teens. (See Linked Flyer) Group starting in June of 2023.
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Gardening Your Life: Grieving. Currently running in West Des Moines on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7pm. Led by Intern Gabrielle Llewellyn.
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Pain Group. (See linked flyer) Held on Fridays at 1:30pm in West Des Moines. Led by Barb Graham, LISW
For more information, call:
West Des Moines office at 515 331 0303
Pella office at 641 628 9599
Psychiatry
Psychiatry services are provided for all age groups. Both in-person and telehealth visits are available.
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Children ages 6+
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Adolescents
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Teenagers
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Adults
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Older adults 65+
Our providers treat a wide array of mental health conditions. Treatment plans are patient specific and may include lab work, medication, lifestyle modifications, and referrals for additional testing, as well as psychotherapy.
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Bipolar Disorder
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ADHD
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Schizophrenia
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PTSD
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OCD
What to expect at your first appointment?
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Typically, the first visit you can expect to be with your provider for up to an hour. Please be sure to bring your insurance card to your first appointment. Our friendly providers will talk with you to assess your situation, review pertinent history, and collaborate with you to develop a treatment plan. Follow up appointments are typically a 30-minute visit, and frequency is dependent on the treatment plan established with your provider.
Emergencies
Heartland Christian Counseling Psychiatry does not offer 24 hour per day on-call service, crisis coverage, or emergency treatment and as such any urgent or emergency medical, psychiatric or safety issues should be addressed with emergency or crisis services. The following options are appropriate resources for emergency and crisis situations.
If you or someone you know is in immediate need of medical or psychiatric care or is an immediate danger to self or others, please dial 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
If you call 911 and indicate that your situation is a mental health crisis, you can request the Polk County Mobile Crisis Response Team and they can help assess your situation and send a mobile crisis team and law enforcement to your location. If you would like to access the Mobile Crisis Response Team in a non-emergent situation you can reach them at 515-283-4811.
The Crisis Observation Center (COC) may also be utilized when a crisis cannot be managed at home, but the emergency department may not be necessary. They are open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Their number is 515-282-5724 and are located at 1801 Hickman Road in Des Moines.
More Services Offered
Heartland Christian Counseling provides outpatient counseling and therapy for children, adolescents, adults and older adults. Our staff is clinically trained in psychology and social work best practices. All are either fully licensed in Iowa or in the midst of clinical supervision for licensure.
Services:
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Counseling and therapy for individuals, couples and families covering most mental health and relational concerns
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Psychological assessment of ADHD, intellectual disabilities, pre-surgical procedures, and differential diagnoses (See below)
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Group therapy and support groups
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Premarital assessment and counseling
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Referral to other treatment or programs including inpatient and partial hospitalization
Psychological Assessment
What IS psychological assessment? Psychological assessment is a gathering information using a variety of tests and questionnaires. Often psychological assessment is used to clarify diagnosis for therapists and medication providers. One of our most frequent referrals is to assess for possible ADHD, but we also provide psychological assessments for career guidance (including pastoral and ministry readiness), people seeking to adopt, those seeking bariatric surgery, or to determine qualification for intellectual disability waivers. Our typical adult assessment battery is very comprehensive and includes a brief IQ test, a test of simple sustained attention, a test of frontal lobe executive functioning, a MMPI-3 (which assesses for a very wide variety of pathology) and a MCMI-IV (which assesses for possible personality disorders). Therefore we are able to determine diagnosis or at least clarify diagnoses between disorders such as ADHD, bipolar, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders – all of which can present in similar ways at times.
Who might be a good candidate for being referred for testing? We are able to test clients as young as 5 years old, but it is often more advantageous to wait (if possible) until age 7 because we are able to use a wider variety of assessments.
Who is NOT a good candidate?
Unfortunately at this time we cannot test clients with Medicaid insurance or children younger than 5 years of age. We also do not typically do any court ordered assessments. Finally, we are not able to offer assessment of autism, learning disorders, neurological disorders (such as Alzheimers), or pre-surgical evaluations other than bariatric surgeries (such as gender confirmation surgery, spinal stimulation surgeries, etc.).