“Imagine, Believe, and Create” is the mantra for Karol Santistevan of Ropes and Roses Therapy Services, LLC, in Natrona county.

 

Karol Santistevan is the founder of Ropes & Roses Therapy Services, which offers outpatient therapy and mental health wellness services specializing in nature-based and animal-assisted approaches. Goats, sheep, horses and dogs reside on the 36 acre campus, where the therapists incorporate nature and animals into treatment strategies. Karol says, “We are an occupational therapy clinic – an outpatient clinic – who specializes in mental health services utilizing equine-assisted and nature-based strategies. Occupational therapy is just, in general, we help people live life to the fullest. So those things that they want to or need to engage in – that’s what we help people do.”

 

Ropes and Roses Therapy Services opened their clinic in late 2022, and in 2023, Karol reached out to the Wyoming Women’s Business Center for business counseling, financial counseling and marketing services. Karol served as the Executive Director of a nonprofit for twenty years, and after going back to school to become an occupational therapist, she sought help to make a mindset-shift into working as an entrepreneur. Karol encourages other business owners to seek help and resources when they start their business by saying, “I am all about looking [into] and accepting help from whatever resource I can to make sure I am setting things up right. Not only am I an occupational therapist, but I’m also the business owner. There’s just the logistics of what goes into running a business as well as providing a service.”

 

Karol participated in the Wyoming Women’s Business Center’s flagship program, DreamBuilder, to refine her business plan. She was also in one of the first cohorts to go through guided financial projections with DreamBuilder’s follow up program, Financing Your Dream. “It can be overwhelming trying to get all of [your business tools] put together, and the templates and programs that the WWBC has just take you by the hand and lead you right through it. And they’re all connected, so as you complete the worksheets, it puts it into a business plan for you and it’s beautiful,” she said of her experience with these programs. 

 

Karol’s business has experienced fantastic growth over the past year. She has added two new employees, a full time COTA, which is an occupational therapy practitioner assistant and a licensed social worker to provide yet another level of mental health services. “Our goal is to be able to provide services to the community so that we have a healthier community. We can help people when they first have some struggles to get those tools they need, rather than wait until it’s a catastrophic event.”

 

And Karol, true to her mantra, is imagining a better business. She sees expansion in her future, whether that be with more services provided for her community, or possible expansion into other parts of the state. “It’s such a great resource to be able to not just limit your dream to what you start with but really see where it takes you. Knowing that I still have those tools through the Wyoming Women’s Business Center … as I expand this business into other parts of Wyoming … is great.”

 

Her advice to future business owners and entrepreneurs is this: “Life is too short to work in a situation where you’re unhappy. And that’s how new businesses start: somebody has a passion about something – so try it. If it doesn’t work out as you planned, that’s not a failure. You’re never gonna know if you don’t try. So be brave and try something because it’s worth the energy and the effort to create.” The Wyoming Women’s Business Center has been a source of opportunities and support for Ms. Santistevan, and are happy to continue to assist Ropes and Roses Therapy Services as it evolves.