InnSæi: Health for Mind and Body

Karen Van Wie

Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

2230 E Speedway Blvd, Ste 100, Tucson

520-343-2105 • InnSaeiHMB.com

 

InnSæi is an ancient Icelandic term translated to mean “the sea within”. It is often interpreted as to see within oneself and to see from the inside out. ​As a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Karen Van Wie works with children, adolescents, adults and family members to identify individual strengths and areas of need. These qualities influence how each individual perceives, interprets and responds to their internal and external environment. Diagnosis and treatment are individualized and based on a person’s unique qualities. Treatment success is enhanced with lifestyle changes that can include improvement of nutrition, sleep, physical activity, attention to health conditions and management of life stress.

Van Wie graduated with a bachelor’s in nursing in 1977, received her master’s in nursing in 1998 and became board-certified as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in 2005. She worked as a R.N. for 28 years in neonatal intensive care units and provided early intervention services for infants and young children birth to 5 years of age throughout southern Arizona. Van Wie assisted in the development of an enhanced level of care for the Special Care Nursery at St. Joseph Hospital in 1990.

She worked to bring early intervention services to rural areas in five southern Arizona counties. Services included comprehensive developmental evaluation, home visiting, family advocacy and education and professional education and training. Van Wie has participated statewide to develop and support mental health services for infants, toddlers and children. She has extensive education, training and experience working with children and adolescents, including those with autistic and developmental disorders.

​Van Wie spent time providing psychiatric care for active duty military men and women, veterans and military dependents stationed throughout Europe. There, she worked with individuals presenting with post-traumatic stress disorder and conditions associated with traumatic brain injury.

Because she recognizes that treatment for the child, adolescent or adult may not always require medication, alternative treatment options are explored. Genetic testing is available to assist with assessment and treatment planning. Medication management, if needed, is most successful in combination with therapy, nutritional and lifestyle changes, she says. Successful treatment is a combined effort of the individual, family and provider.