Depression Treatment

Clay Pavlis, M.D., earned his BS in Biology after graduation Summa Com Laude from South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD. He attended Medical School at the University of Minnesota – Duluth and the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. He is board-certified in Adult Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and licensed in Iowa, Illinois, Texas, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Nebraska, as well as South Dakota and Minnesota.

Dr. Pavlis’s vision for offering personalized care for residents of South Dakota and Minnesota with a team of providers focused on individualized care was the catalyst for him establishing Midwest Wellness Institute, PLLC in 2012, now known as MWI Health. As the chief psychiatrist and medical officer, Dr. Pavlis now leads a growing team of mental health providers, nurses, and staff with organizational core focuses of establishing contracted mental health services through trust-based partnerships, excelling at efficient and thorough independent psychiatric evaluations, and providing patients advanced and comprehensive psychiatric clinic services.

Consistently trying to find innovative ways to improve lives, Dr Pavlis specializes in psychiatric forensic evaluations, independent psychiatric evaluations, Veteran services and evals, opioid addiction treatment with Suboxone, medication management, neuromodulation with TMS, and psychopharmacologenomics. Dr Pavlis also believes strongly in mentorship and education, regularly working with local preceptorship students each semester.

In addition to managing MWI Health’s diverse portfolio of services, Dr. Pavlis also serves as Medical Director at MWI Health, seeing patients of all ages and as young as 5 years old at Community Counseling Services in Madison & Huron, SD, CCM Health in Montevideo, MN, and geriatric patients at Bethel Nursing Home in Madison, SD. Dr Pavlis also oversees the mental health treatment at Windom Area Health in Windom, MN, treats inmates and consults Minnehaha County Jail, and provides guidance to mental health providers at Human Services Agency in Watertown, SD.

Dr. Giebink studied and gained clinical experience at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine in Vermillion and Sioux Falls, graduating with his medical degree in 1992. He continued his medical training in the General Psychiatry Residency training program at the USD School of Medicine in Sioux Falls, finishing in 1996. He began his full-fledged medical career as a staff psychiatrist working at the Sioux Falls VA Medical Center in Sioux Falls. He would have two stints working there. Between those, he worked at the Human Service Agency in Watertown, one of South Dakota’s Community Mental Health Centers that provides outpatient services. He was the adult psychiatrist and medical director at HSA. Most recently, Dr. Giebink worked at Keystone Treatment Center in Canton, SD, an inpatient/residential facility. In addition to treatment of substance use disorders and gambling addiction, KTC provides psychiatric care for patients who have co-occurring psychiatric disorders. He regularly sees patients in our Sioux Falls clinic and at Capital Area Counseling Services in Pierre, SD.

Dr. Giebink has a wealth of experience working with adults in many psychiatric settings. He has treated the full range of common psychiatric conditions, including mood disorders such as bipolar and major depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Relationship problems and abuse of alcohol and other substances often play an important role in the mental health difficulties people have. Dr. Giebink has particular interest in helping people with co-occurring disorders, such as substance abuse in patients who have mood and/or anxiety disorders. He provides medication management but understands the importance and effectiveness of other treatment modalities, including individual counseling, group therapy and 12-Step programs, and procedures such as TMS and others. He will recommend these to his patients as he deems appropriate.

Kristin is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Qualified Mental Health Professional in South Dakota and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Minnesota, earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Northern State University in 2008 and 2011. Developing client/therapist relationships built on trust and understanding, Kristin has a warm, compassionate, and straightforward clinical approach to the psychology of behaviors. In our Sioux Falls office, Kristin is an amazingly versatile team player, never shaken or deterred by any situation, and she is always eager to jump in to help and complete tasks that others find too challenging.

Her specialty areas for therapy include depression, anxiety, trauma/PTSD, grief counseling, and reintegration after incarceration. She has extensive experience in working with individuals with serious mental illnesses in correctional care facilities, accruing nine years of experience working in the prison’s acute mental health unit. Kristin has also worked with court-ordered mental health for adolescents and a wide range of disorders.

With experience in diagnostics, crisis management, forensic analysis, psychological testing, and behavior modification, Kristin has been a valued MWI Health behavioral health team member since October 2020. She leads our Jail-Based Competency Restoration Program and is the POC for our Forensic Psychiatric Evaluations, in addition to working with Dr Pavlis to conduct forensic interviews and information gathering.

Kristen joined us in October 2021 and lives in Yankton, SD. She is licensed in South Dakota, Nebraska & Minnesota, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, SD, and a Master’s of Science Degree as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner from Walden University in Minneapolis, MN, in 2020.

Kristen has extensive experience in psychiatric-mental health nursing since 2006, with training at the S.D. State Penitentiary, Woodfield Center – Lutheran Social Services, Minnehaha County Mobile Crisis Team, Southeastern Behavioral Healthcare, Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health, and S.D. Human Services Center. Self-directed and goal-oriented, Kristen has quickly stepped into two of our fast-paced contracts and impresses us with her direct lines of communication and decision-making abilities.

Kristen sees patients on-site and via telehealth.