Our Staff
Nicole R. Frost Merchant, M.A.
Nicole Merchant is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Trauma informed treatment. Her passion is in helping people learn to thrive within their lives. Nicole works with children, teenagers, and adults. She provides treatment for individuals, couples, and families who are suffering from various mood or thought disorders, interpersonal crisis and trauma related occurrences. Nicole carries a contract with Multiple local EAPs and most insurances.
Travis Crotser, M.A.
Travis works with adults, couples, teenagers, and families. He believes counseling is a co-creative process and strives to create a collaborative environment to work through past issues and current stressors. He has experience working with issues of anxiety, depression, grief, anger management, family or marital conflict, substance use, trauma, healing childhood wounds, and life transitions. He has advanced training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) along with Level I Gottman Couples Therapy.
Rebecca Brueck, MSN PMHNP-BC PMH-C
Becky is a Board Certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Perinatal Mental Health Provider. Becky’s main role in treatment is providing medication management services for mental health conditions and symptoms. She has worked within the Community Mental Health system and the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) system. She is excited to be a part of the Illume Wellness Group team and be able to provide behavioral health medication management services to her community. She has experience treating a variety of mental health diagnoses; including Depression, Anxiety, PSTD/Trauma, OCD, ADHD, Mood Disorders (such as Bipolar Disorder), Thought Disorders (such as Schizophrenia), and Personality Disorders. She enjoys helping parents navigate family planning as well as treatment during pregnancy and post-partum. Becky is also an Adjunct Professor for Spring Arbor University in their Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program.
Robert Gray Perra, Ed. D.
Robert Perra specializes in substance abuse disorders as well as loss/grief counseling, wellness and prevention counseling, family therapy, and stress management. He works with clients ages 16 through adult. He is an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University where he teaches in the areas of ethics and substance abuse interventions. Reach out for more information.
Sarah Findlay, M.A.
Sarah works with focus areas of anxiety, depression, fear, grief and loss, family dynamics, parenting issues, trauma, and many more. She works with children, teenagers, and adults. Sarah is currently not taking any new clients.
Erika A. Hinga, M.A.
Erika provides individualized, person-centered, trauma-informed and neuro-affirming assessment services for individuals of all ages, including toddlers to late adulthood. Erika believes that there is no one-size-fits all approach in addressing assessment needs. Her thorough, and comprehensive approach focuses on gathering all relevant information necessary to understand the individual’s concerns, symptoms, and history, in order to make a thorough and accurate diagnosis. Erika’s goal is that through the assessment process clients feel validated and understood, and that upon completion of the results review they have a better understanding of their diagnosis, as well as treatment options, with the goal of assisting clients in accessing the necessary services to assist them in feeling their best selves.
Unfortunately, at this time, due to a high volume of assessment requests, Erika’s counseling caseload is limited to her current clients. Upon completion of assessments, Erika will gladly assist clients in scheduling with the Illume provider who specializes in their unique needs.
Celeste Salvador-Gonzalez, LMSW
Celeste is a bilingual (English/Spanish) and bicultural, Licensed Master Social Worker. Celeste’s goal is to create a safe space where you feel empowered and motivated to create positive change in your life. Celeste works with children, teenagers, and adults. Celeste has experience working with issues of depression, anxiety, adjustment issues/navigating life transitions, childhood trauma, cultural identity, acculturation, culture shock, abandonment, stress management, relationship issues, and family conflict. Celeste’s approach is trauma-informed, strength-based, culturally sensitive, and person centered. Celeste uses several different approaches to best fit individual needs.
Celeste es una trabajadora social bilingüe (inglés y español). La meta de Celeste es crear un espacio seguro donde te sientas empoderado y motivado para crear un cambio positivo en tu vida. Celeste trabaja con niños, adolescentes y adultos. Celeste tiene experiencia trabajando con problemas de depresión, ansiedad, problemas de adaptación/navegación de transiciones de la vida, trauma infantil, identidad cultural, aculturación, choque cultural, abandono, manejo del estrés, problemas de relación y conflicto familiar. Celeste utiliza varios enfoques diferentes para adaptarse mejor a las necesidades individuales de cada persona.
Stacy DuBois, M.A.
Stacy works with adults, families, couples, and children 16 and above. She has experience working with anxiety, depression, grief, family conflicts, substance use, and trauma. Stacy has transitioned from a career in law enforcement and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with her.
Crystal A. Miller, M.A.
Crystal believes that awareness of our feelings, thoughts, and beliefs helps us to take control of and change our lives. She values person-centered care because everyone has a unique life story. She strives to empower clients by working within their strengths. She previously worked as a Recovery Coach helping those struggling with addiction which inspired her to continue her education at Western Michigan University pursuing an MA in Clinical Mental Health. As a counselor, she will continue helping those with addictions along with many other mental health issues. Crystal works with teenagers, adults, couples, and families.
Katie Grabe, M.S.
As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I believe that every person is the expert in their life and everyone is unique. I understand that therapy is not a one size fits all and utilize treatment modalities that include Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and various other modalities to meet the unique needs of every individual, couple, and family I work with. It’s through these modalities and beliefs that the children, young adults, adults, families, and couples that I work with will find healing, peace, and true, genuine understanding of themselves, family, or relationships. Therapeutic rapport is essential to the treatment that I provide and I am focused on providing a safe and non judgmental space for everyone to be the true version of themselves. I believe that everyone deserves unconditional positive regard and acceptance of who they are as a whole.
Dawn Eldridge, LMSW
Dawn is here to offer support and direction when it comes to your mental health and wellness. Working with Dawn will look like a partnership to identify what’s most important to you and your goals. Dawn is an expert in treating mental health conditions and you are the best expert in you. Dawn is passionate about providing a warm, compassionate, non-judgmental space that will allow hard work to be done together and allow you to make positive changes. Dawn will help you work towards living the life you want, through a variety of therapeutic techniques, tailored to what works best for you. Dawn is excited to help clients create positive changes in order to live meaningful lives according to their values. Dawn works with adults and adolescents (age 13 and up) with a wide variety of symptoms and challenges, including those who may struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, mood disorders, and grief and loss.
Dillon Webb, LLMSW
Dillon has been working in the helping profession since 2011 in a wide array of endeavors. He received his Bachelor’s degree in 2009 and Master’s degree in 2021. He has been passionate about baseball since childhood and has spent the past decade as the pitching coach for the Sturgis High School baseball team. His other personal interests are live music, time spent with family, camping, and anything that brings joy and laughter into his life. Dillon currently does crisis response through Pivotal with the Sturgis Police Department and throughout St Joseph County. He has a strong desire to help teens, adults, couples and families with trauma, depression, anxiety, along with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
Kaiti Diekman, LLMSW
Kaiti works with children, teenagers, and adults. She provides treatment for individuals and families who are suffering from various mood or thought disorders, interpersonal crisis and trauma related occurrences. Her passion is in helping people learn to thrive within their lives.
Ashley Clark, MA
Ashley is interning for her Limited Licensed Professional Counselor license. She prefers to work with adults, families, and children over the age of nine. She has lots of experience with children and has worked directly with them for 16 years in various ways such as behavior redirection, regulation, and emotion identification. Ashley is patient, and understanding, and loves to provide a nonjudgmental environment. She believes everyone has a unique story and experiences that have led them to where they are today, and she works hard to help them understand any struggles that may be associated with those experiences. Ashley has a degree in Early Childhood, Psychology, and is in the process of completing a counseling degree.
Anne Bowen
Prior to joining Illume Wellness Group, Anne enjoyed a full career as a teacher at Sturgis High School. She has a Bachelor of Science in Education, Sociology, and the Social Sciences. She believes in an integrated approach to wholeness and health and is very passionate about the services offered at Illume. She is happy to facilitate access to our mental health and physical wellness clinicians.
Liz Brothers
Liz Brothers, L.M.T. received her certification in 2016, from the nationally recognized and accredited Blue Heron Academy located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Liz has worked nationwide with some of the most skilled therapists and professional athletes, and she continues her education regularly to ensure clients are receiving the best care possible. She focuses on body mechanics and systems by using a combination of methods to encourage the body to repair damages from training or just everyday life. These techniques result in reducing inflammation, improving range of motion, correcting alignment issues, and most of all reducing pain. Liz has a passion for helping others, and she will show you what it means to have a tranquil experience, one session at a time.
Kelsi Crotser
Kelsi is currently in college with a goal of earning her Masters to be a counselor at Illume. In the meantime, she serves as our technical coordinator helping with the website, billing, scheduling, and many other behind the scenes duties.