WAITE PARK — Emily Luitjens has a passion for growing things.
Luitjens, a family and psychiatric nurse practitioner, received a call to head up the start-up Waite Park-based
Aurora Mental Health & Wellness
in March 2025. She decided to join the business, which offers cutting-edge mental health care, including IV ketamine, esketamine and psychiatric services.
It was a drastic career change for Luitjens, 39, who got her start as a registered nurse at St. Cloud Hospital, then later as a family nurse practitioner in the memory care unit at the VA Hospital, where she developed a Behavioral Recovery Outreach Team.
When the federal funding for that outreach team dried up beginning in 2024, the writing was on the wall for Lutijens, who first rebuffed Aurora’s bid to draw her to the mental health practice a couple of years prior.
“After the first of the year (2025) with all those changes, I’m like, ‘OK, maybe it’s time for me to change,’ and so I did,” said Luitjens, who is originally from Tracy, Minnesota. “I’ve loved it, especially because I was nervous at first to go all mental health, but it’s been a game-changer. I love seeing the difference.”
For Luitjens, mental health feels like her true calling after struggling with depression during COVID-19 while working at the VA. Losing half the unit within a couple weeks of the pandemic will do that to you, she said.
“I understand what it’s like to be a family member or a person that struggles with (mental health),” Luitjens said. “If you understand it yourself and then you can show a different compassion or empathy with them and they can usually feel that and so then they’re more willing to share and be open and talk about the tough stuff.”
One of those patients, John Minks, 69, from Milaca, praised the work of Luitjens and the team at Aurora Mental Health.
“If I had to describe (ketamine treatments) to somebody, I would say that it keeps the monsters at bay, the things that bother us that sometimes we have a hard time shutting that off; past traumas and things like that,” Minks said.
Treatments used at Aurora Mental Health & Wellness
Aurora Mental Health & Wellness offers three treatments to battle mental health troubles, including:
IV ketamine: a dissociative anesthetic with some hallucinogenic effects, useful for treating depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, drug and alcohol dependency and withdrawal. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the use of IV ketamine for psychiatric treatment and it is used as “off-label.” Svaprato (esketamine): A FDA-approved nasal spray, which acts similarly to an antidepressant and can alleviate depression symptoms within hours in some cases.NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A FDA-cleared, non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic pulses to activate areas of the brain associated with mood regulation to treat adults with major depressive disorder.
IV ketamine and Svaprato treatments are approved only for those 18 and older, while those 15 and older can access NeuroStar services.
“With these treatments (IV ketamine and esketamine), they can respond a lot faster than medications, which take at least six weeks and then dose changes if it doesn’t work or you have to find a new one,” Luitjens said. “Between TMS, Svaprato and ketamine, within the first few weeks, people are noticing a difference.
Emily Luitjens, a family and psychiatric nurse practitioner at Aurora Mental Health & Wellness, works inside her office on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025.
Trent Abrego / St. Cloud LIVE
“To be able to see them when they come in and they do their intake and struggling with depression, PTSD, anxiety, and then being able to see them a couple weeks later and they come in and they’re smiling and they’re like, ‘I feel so much better,’” Luitjens said. “To be able to see that is huge, because mental health is hard.”
Luitjens and her team also offer psychiatric services and medication management.
“It’s very pleasant. They’re all wonderful, they’re just great people at Aurora,” Minks said.
Along with treating patients struggling with mental health in the St. Cloud area, Luitjens has been tasked with growing the practice that started just a couple of years ago.
“Since I started this role, one of my biggest pushes has been going out to mental health clinics, therapy clinics,” Luitjens said. “CentraCare has been sending us tons of referrals, and so trying to educate the clinics, especially therapy clinics; we get a lot of referrals from them, too.”
She said Aurora Mental Health & Wellness received nearly a dozen referrals in just one November week. Those referrals have helped grow the practice in a new, expanded way.
“A lot of times, I have patients say, ‘I didn’t even know you were here … I saw it on Google,’” she said. “So, getting that out there, and just letting places know that we’re here and we can do med management and all these other things helps.”
Working at a startup also fulfills a desire that Luitjens has had since growing up.
“I definitely strived my whole life to push myself,” she said. “You can do better, keep (getting) bigger and bigger, so maybe that perfectionist (mindset) since I was little. I just like growing and growing.”
What: Aurora Mental Health & Wellness
Where: 384 Third St. NE, Waite Park
When: 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday and Thursday; 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday; 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday.
Contact: 320-250-9188
Online: