A Little About Me
How Did I get Here?
I received my B.A. in Psychology with a focus on neuroscience at University of Colorado Boulder where I was a research assistant in addictions before I took a hiatus to travel and live on the beach in San Diego. Then I migrated to San Francisco to complete my M.A. in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2015 at Samuel Merritt University and received the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.
My journey lead me back to my home state of Colorado where I worked as a palliative care nurse practitioner. My favorite part of the role was to support healing through laughter, navigating hard conversations, exploring conduits to catharsis, acceptance, and how to live a more fulfilling life before death.
All my years in palliative care prepared me for the next stage. In 2021 after a rather intense year, I sat in the kitchen burned out from death and dying. That’s when my wife life coached me and said “if you could do anything, anything at all in this world, what would you do?” I laughed and said, “well I would go back to my original plan in my 20’s and become a psychologist.”
I Found Psychiatry In A Kitchen
It hit me as I sat there in my kitchen that all I ever wanted to do was psychology. What has made me such a good nurse was the gravitation to connect with others beyond touch, to really see who was in front of me and hear their story. More than likely, the seeds had been planted long ago when I grew up in a home with severe psychiatric issues. It’s as if my 20 year old self knew the path but, I had to go live and get some street credibility before returning.
And now, I can offer my patients even more then I could have. After working as a nurse practitioner for many years I have a good understanding of other biological influences to our emotional states and mental health. My lens is not just a psychiatric lens.
So, thanks to my wife’s life coaching I completed a post-masters specialization as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. During my training, I did a 8 month internship with Dr. Craig Heacock. I am grateful to have found a mentor who has such a warm, direct, and joyful way of cultivating a space to be human, find acceptance and heal. Someone who believes, “if psychiatry is practiced right, isn’t all psychiatry integrative psychiatry?”
Offering A Spectrum Of Psychiatric Options
Currently, I work in an office on Mountain Avenue where I am doing additional training with Dr. Heacock to learn more about ketamine and what it offers our healing journey especially for treatment resistant depression, bipolar, addiction and trauma. He also collaborates on difficult cases.
I offer my patients:
Psychiatric evaluations, options for treatment, second opinions, and a starting point to build an effective road to healing
Medication as an option (if appropriate), not the only option
Options for treatment resistant depression or bipolar
Referrals to therapists or collaboration with your current therapist
Psychotherapy
Consultation in advanced care planning
Interesting Fact About Me
I created a game helping families to talk about their wishes in sickness, aging and death. It includes a deck of question cards and an element of fun that infuses laughter and joy into difficult conversations while deepening our connection with one another. It’s called Elephant in the Room.
Do You Like Podcasts?
Dr. Heacock hosts an incredible podcast worth every minute called Back From The Abyss where he explores powerfully moving stories of hope and healing along with explorations of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and psychedelics.