We recently connected with Katie Hendrickson and have shared our conversation below.

Katie , appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

As a parent of a child with mental health symptoms I faced many barriers getting him the care he needed. We were told he was too young by numerous providers despite his symptoms having a significant impact on all aspects of his life. I met my neighbor, Katie Engstrom, now Vice-President and founder of See Me, and learned she could relate to our struggles as she had faced similar barriers with her children. We quickly decided we had to pool our knowledge and do something to shorten the time families and children have to live in crisis as a result of mental health. We met multiple times a week after our kids went to bed and began building our nonprofit.

Katie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

See Me: Unlocking Resources for the Neurodiverse is a nonprofit organization which helps families find and access community resources, helps to empower parents, caretakers, and clients and also works to reduce the stigmas against mental health. When families reach out to us, we meet with them to learn where they are in their process, what they have already done, and what they are hoping to do. Then we take over and leave them to love and care for their family. We find services in their area, provide them with all contact information, and guide them through the process of testing, diagnosis, treatments, and supports. We also hold events in the community for parents and caretakers. It’s not often parents and caretakers get a break. We try to provide them a small respite from the stress of being a special needs parent. We also host several events for the children. These events offer the kids an opportunity to parallel play, work on developing connections, and increase their confidence in their social and emotional skills. We host as many of our events as possible in the community amongst the neurotypical population because we want to be seen. Being seen is what helps us to educate and reduce the stigmas in our communities. We also host a parent and caretaker support group twice a month in Prior Lake. These meetings have been an incredible resources for parents, including us! It is our passion to help families. Watching your child struggle with mental health can be very isolating and terrifying. We believe no parents should have to navigate that process alone. In addition, our current mental health system is not set up for a true “early diagnosis” as they tend to want to wait until a specific age to diagnosis, rather than diagnosis at the onset of symptoms. Many parents trust their doctors and assume they have to wait. We are here to help families find the providers that are willing to help today. Because the longer we wait to diagnose, the more delayed treatments are, and the more traumatic it is on the entire family. If any of this sounds familiar to you, we are here to support you, no matter where you are in the process. We see you!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

About a year into our journey as a nonprofit, we had an amazing mom join us at one of our meetings, Amy Crnecki. She radiated positive energy and it was clear how much she loves her children and is passionate about supporting their emotional development. Soon after, we invited her to be on our board of directors as our marketing specialist. Amy is a professional writer and owns her own business called My Story Seller. She has been an incredible asset to our nonprofit. She built as an incredible website that functions professionally and is easy for our clients to navigate. She also created all of our marketing supplies such as business cards, hand outs, signage, etc. Since Amy joined us as our marketing specialist our followers and professional collaborations have increased significantly. She truly is a gem and we are beyond grateful to have her on our board. You must check out our website just to see her beautiful work!

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We take significant pride in our loyalty to our clients. We keep in touch with our clients through many different venues including Facebook, Instagram, text messaging, phone calls, emails, coffee, etc. We meet the parents where they are at, whatever they prefer we aim to do. We like to follow up and see how things are going, check in with them at our events that they attend, and of course, see how else we can be of a support to them. Many parents have likely been let down by professionals once they find us, we are committed to being a professionally agency they can trust and rely on.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.seemeneurodiverse.org
• Instagram: See Me: Unlocking Resources
• Facebook: @seemeneurodiverse
• Youtube: See Me: ADHD, AUTISM, and NEURODIVERSE
• Other: Tik Tok: @seemeneurodiverse

Image Credits
Andrea Bernhardt Photography