I am currently licensed in the state of Colorado, and am offering telehealth services to those who reside in this state. Having a passion to help and understand others, I have been working in the healthcare system since 2008. In 2007, I graduated with my psychology degree from the University of Memphis where I volunteered as research assistant in the field of addiction, primarily gambling. After graduation, I worked as a program counselor, in a residential setting with adolescents with co-occurring diagnoses, who had failed other treatment modalities. Before going to nursing school in 2011, I also served as an intensive mental health case manager for youth within a community mental health center. I was drawn to the field of nursing due to my passion to fully understand and care for the whole person. After graduating from the Lincoln Memorial University in 2012, I worked as a registered nurse at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, TN. For 4.5 years, I worked as a floor nurse and team lead on the stepdown neuro floor. While there, I had the honor of helping the hospital achieve the status of a Comprehensive Stroke Center. This helped me truly understand the importance of collaborative care. In 2016, I graduated from the University of Tennessee with a license to be a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. This degree has enabled me to combine all of my past experiences and education within one role. But more importantly, it allows me a sense of purpose that I do not take for granted. Mental health is poorly understood, and people experiencing mental health problems are often misunderstood and not felt cared for. Unfortunately, its a sad reality that I've seen in the healthcare setting for the past 15 years. It comes from my fascination with the question(s): "Who are you?" or "Who am I?" Well, I am because you are, and you are because of me. Life does not exist in a void because we are all mutually dependent on each other and the earth to exist; at every level. We think we know ourselves because of interactions and relations within our environment/ each other. For example, I'm a nurse practitioner, husband, father, outdoor enthusiast, wood worker, friend, etc. All of those things are dependent on the environment and you. I can help define you, and you can help define me. Of course we all need to be mindful for how the world defines us, and we need to surround ourselves with people that care for our us and our well-being. Caring for another person is an act of mindfulness for how we define someone else or ourselves. Self-care is the same, but obviously directed inwardly. Isolation is different from "me time." With "me time," we're involving ourselves with some sort of experience in the environment (knitting, wood working, drawing, etc). Isolation, however, is often just being lost in thought/ the non-physical. The mind can tell a lot of stories and definitions of ourselves. Their is no grounding when we're lost in thought, and the stories are endless. But they aren't real, and will often lead us down a rabbit hole of misery. Aside from just mental health problems, research shows that isolation itself leads all sorts of other health problems. Telehealth is a means to help us out of isolation. At first I was resistant to the idea, since it doesn't feel real. But it does have the potential to help those stuck in isolation. My goal is to help you out of the prison of your mind/ the illusion. At times, it requires us getting a jump start to our neurons; the other essence for "who we are." My past experience with medication management is primarily with those experiencing symptoms of psychosis, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, trauma symptoms, anxiety, and addiction. I have very little experience in treating ADHD, and I often will defer to those more experienced.
