Dr. Vande Braak is a Thanatologist and helps people who have suffered traumatic loss and complicated or prolonged grief. This happens through individual sessions, provided In-person OR by TeleHealth at Okoboji Wellness Clinic. He has 30+ years of mental healthcare experience in Thanatology (death and loss) and Music Therapy. Mark is associated with and also works within Lutheran Family Service.
He is available by Appointment at Okoboji Wellness Clinic on THURSDAYS (In-person OR by TeleHealth from anywhere in the US).
He believes it really has to deal with if people are feeling “stuck” or just “stuck in life”. How do we understand what we’ve been through? If you’re saying “you know, should I do this?” If there’s a question, if you’re feeling like you’re struggling with a particular loss of some type – it could be a death, it could be a loss of a home or a loss of a job – those are the indicators to say “maybe I should reach out and do something.”
What Dr. Mark does is different than counseling. He strives to see people 3-4 times at the most. If I can give them the tools and [opportunity] to practice those tools, and to hold them accountable, that way they really don’t need to see him [long term].
An educator at heart, Dr. Mark believes there’s a large misinterpretation of what grief work is. Many times people want to medicalize it. He comes from a whole different angle, about teaching how to process the grief, not run away from it. That’s the same way with any type of loss, trauma, whatever might be going on, because in our society, people are taught to get a quick fix and get over it. Dr. Mark tries to do things in a little bit different process, that goes through helping people process and understand how the grief has been impacted.
Dr. Mark has worked in behavioral health, at the women’s center – working a lot with miscarriage, still birth, limb loss, cancer. He then worked at a detox place that the community had set up. Instead of people going to jail after an alcohol incident, they went there to sort things out. He also ran a clinic for grief, and then helped start and worked at an addiction center. At the University of South Dakota School of Medicine, he worked with the residency program, in training them on grief. He is also a music therapist, originally.
In addition to working with individuals, Dr. Mark serves people experiencing of loss through virtual and in-person groups. Topics addressed include supporting parents following loss of a child due to illness, suicide, trauma, miscarriage or stillbirth; and spouses or families of those suffering traumatic brain injury or life-changing illnesses such as ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or other Dementias.
A lifelong Christian and Lutheran, Dr. Mark prefers picking up a pizza is his go-to for his wife and himself, and also enjoys brewing coffee at home, with a combination of French vanilla coffee and chocolate mix.
