Thank you to our staff!

Director & Counselor: Carmen Larson, Executive Director, LADC
Counselor: Steve Braukmann, Men's House LADC
Counselor: Linda Bongo, Women's House LADC
Nurse: Katherine Thomas, RN
DUI class educator: Amanda Weston

Carmen Larson
Executive Director, LADC

Carmen Larson graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Science and focus on Chemical Dependency and Community Phycology. 

Carmen Started with Rewind in the summer of 2012, she started off as the Men’s House and Outpatient Counselor, became the Women’s House Counselor in the summer of 2013 and moved into the Executive Director Position in the summer of 2015.

​Carmen has always had a passion for helping others and believes that change is always possible.

Carmen enjoys her time away from work by spending time with her family camping, riding horses and gardening. 

---

---

Steve Braukmann
Men's House LADC

Steve Braukmann is a Licenced Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) with the Men’s  Low Intensity Residential Program at Rewind.  He believes the stigmas and stereotypes associated with addiction need to be SMASHED. 

​This can be achieved through compassionate, spiritually based counseling and coaching.  His number one priority is to instill HOPE and belief that any obstacle can be overcome.  Steve graduated from Saint John’s University with a BA in communication and psychology. 

He completed the Addiction Counseling Graduate Certificate program at Minnesota State University Moorhead.  Outside of the office he enjoys outdoor activities, spending time with his blended and blessed family and considers himself a lifelong learner.

---

---

Linda Bongo
Women's House LADC

Hello my name is Linda Bongo. I am a LADC at Rewind. Growing up with the impact of alcohol and living through the subsequent effect on my life and relationships garnered in me a desire for life to be different. When I entered Ridgewater College Chemical Dependency Counseling program it was with a desire to understand how someone could give up their family and choose alcohol. I gained much from the amazing instructors and students at Ridgewater. I had always been ridiculously shy, equating people with pain and suffering and had very low self-esteem. I found more of who I was in Ridgewater through these associations. It was a different life. From there I went on to St. Cloud State University. My goal when entering was to major in psychology, but through the twists of fate my major became Cultural Anthropology. I see this now as an extremely good fit. I loved college. My journey took many twists and turns after graduation from St. Cloud State and it was many years before I returned to my plan of becoming an LADC. Truthfully I felt I had more to learn before I could do the work I had learned so much about and more life to live before I had the substance of character I felt would be sufficient for this work. In 2014 I returned to Ridgewater College and completed the internship part of the program at New Visions in Alexandria. I worked for New Visions in the outpatient program and then in the high intensity women’s program. I met and worked with phenomenal people. As life does it took another turn after leaving my position with New Visions. The impact of chemical use on my life had not ended with my father. As many of us this follows into relationships and into the next generation. The next turn in life brought me to Rewind. One of the questions I was asked when I interviewed was “why here?” I answered simply, “Because it feels like the right place to be.” This has proven to be true as I continue to work with clients and staff at Rewind. I am grateful to be given this opportunity. The day I moved to Perham I watched an eagle fly toward a tree and break off a branch and fly away with it. It was building, and that is what we offer and support here, come and build. My life is different.

---

Join our Team