Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
About Me
Welcome to my practice. I’m a UCSF-trained, board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner (PMHNP). I have over 10 years’ experience providing psychiatric evaluation and medication management in the public and private sectors, including inpatient and outpatient settings.
Board Certification & Education
I'm board-certified as a psychiatric nurse practitioner by ANCC (2014-present). I completed my BA at Seattle University in 2002, my RN training at UCSF in 2011 and my psychiatric nurse practitioner program at UCSF in 2014.
Experience
Prior to opening my private practice, I worked for eight years at a UCSF mental health clinic with an LGBTQ+ and HIV focus, in a collaborative and wrap-around care model. Many of my patients at this clinic had early life trauma related to their LGBTQ+ identities. Prior to that, I worked in San Mateo, providing psychiatric treatment to people with complex medical conditions. There I treated patients with depression, anxiety, OCD, and ADHD. In a previous position, at a mental health clinic in Oakland, I cared for people with complex conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and PTSD.
In my professional life prior to being a psych NP, I worked in a variety of healthcare roles and settings. I was charge nurse in an acute psychiatric unit, staff nurse in an a community clinic, nursing assistant in a skilled nursing facility, health educator for a large health organization, and case manager in a mental health clinic.
Working across a wide range of diagnoses and acuity levels has allowed me to sharpen my expertise in clinical assessment and treatment. It has also trained me to catch details that, with a less comprehensive background, I might have missed. My experience has prepared me to collaborate effectively with all members of a healthcare team, which I see as essential to supporting a patient's well-being as a whole person.
I find that it’s rarely ideal to use psychiatric medication as a stand-alone treatment, so I coordinate my patients' care with providers in other areas of healing and wellness. These areas include individual and couples psychotherapy, exercise programs, nutrition counseling, primary and specialty medical care, and Eastern medicine.