Matthew Deets spent nearly a decade working across several areas of counseling, from residential treatment and family preservation to private practice and specialized trauma work. Over those years, his caseload also took him into areas of clinical practice that required additional training, including risk assessment and treatment involving adult and juvenile clients who had caused sexual harm.
Now working in the Wausau, Wisconsin, area, Matthew holds a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, graduating Summa Cum Laude with departmental honors.
That education gave him a foundation for his career, but much of what he learned later came through years of clinical work.
Matthew Deets on Where a Counseling Career Actually Starts
Matthew Deets began his career as a Residential Therapist with Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, working directly with people who needed consistent clinical support.
He was later promoted to Program Supervisor and Therapist for the Family Preservation Program in Marathon County, where he combined counseling with case and program oversight.
From there, he worked as a Clinical Coordinator at North Central Health Care before moving into private practice with Compass Counseling.
Along the way, Matthew also held part-time clinical roles with Peaceful Solutions, Elmergreen Associates, and Gateways Counseling Center. Working in several settings gave him experience with different clients, treatment needs, and approaches to care.
It also meant learning early that the same approach isn’t going to work for every person who walks into a counseling office.
A Specialty That Requires Extra Training
Within that broader practice, Matthew developed a specialty in trauma-focused therapy along with risk assessment and treatment involving adult and juvenile clients who had caused sexual harm.
The work required additional training beyond his graduate education.
Matthew added trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, Brainspotting, and motivational interviewing to his clinical toolkit.
Each gave him another way to work with clients depending on what they needed. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy provides a structured approach to addressing the effects of trauma, while motivational interviewing helps clients explore their own reasons for making changes. Brainspotting became another therapeutic approach Matthew incorporated into his trauma work.
Having several approaches available gave him more flexibility when a particular client wasn’t responding to one way of working.
For Matthew, that became one of the practical benefits of specialized training. A clinician can know a technique well and still need to recognize when a different approach makes more sense for the person sitting across from them.
What This Kind of Training Actually Requires
Working with trauma survivors and working with clients who have caused harm place different demands on a clinician.
Trauma-focused work may involve helping someone process difficult experiences and regain a sense of stability. Risk assessment and treatment add other responsibilities, including paying close attention to behavior, accountability, and ongoing risk while still building enough of a therapeutic relationship for treatment to work.
Learning how to handle that balance takes time.
It isn’t something that comes from completing a single certification course. Matthew’s experience developed through years of clinical work, supervision, consultation with other professionals, and repeated exposure to complicated cases.
Over time, judgment becomes as important as knowing the treatment model itself.
A clinician has to decide when to keep going with an approach, when to change direction, and when another professional’s perspective would be useful.
For Matthew, years spent doing the work became part of the actual credential.
Why the Training Matters Beyond the Therapy Room
Some of the skills Matthew developed in counseling eventually followed him into a very different kind of work.
In 2023, he trained as a Financial Coach through Ramsey Solutions and began coaching individuals, couples, and families through his own practice. He has also volunteered as a facilitator for Financial Peace University classes.
Financial stress and trauma aren’t the same experience, and the two types of work shouldn’t be treated as interchangeable. But Matthew found that some of the communication skills he had developed as a counselor were useful in financial coaching.
People dealing with money problems may arrive frustrated, embarrassed, overwhelmed, or unsure where to begin. Before building a plan, it helps to understand what is actually happening and what the person or family can realistically follow through on.
Matthew already had years of experience listening to complicated situations, asking questions, and helping people break a larger problem into smaller decisions.
The subject was different, but many of those habits still applied.
Taking Those Skills Into Leadership
Matthew’s career has continued to move beyond traditional clinical practice.
Since January 2025, he has served as President and Director of Operations at Impact Training Center.
The position calls for a different kind of leadership, but his counseling background continues to influence how Matthew leads.
Running an organization involves listening to people, recognizing when something isn’t working, communicating through difficult situations, and building processes that people can realistically follow.
Those are familiar problems for someone who spent years in counseling.
Clinical work also taught Matthew that a plan that looks good on paper isn’t necessarily going to work for the person expected to carry it out. Sometimes the plan needs to change once you understand the situation better.
That lesson applies just as easily to an organization as it does to an individual session.
Training That Shows in the Work, Not the Title
Matthew’s career no longer fits neatly into one professional category.
He has worked as a therapist, clinical coordinator, supervisor, financial coach, and operations leader. The settings and responsibilities have changed, but some of the habits he developed during his clinical career have stayed with him.
He listens before deciding what the problem is. He adjusts when an initial approach isn’t working. He has also learned not to expect complicated situations to resolve themselves quickly.
Those habits took years to develop.
For Matthew Deets, that may be the part of his clinical training that has proved most useful outside the therapy room. The techniques mattered, but so did all the time spent learning when to use them, when to try something different, and when to keep listening before making the next move.
