I’m a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner with professional interests in ADHD, neurodevelopmental differences, women’s and children’s mental health, and the Pathologic Demand Avoidance (PDA) profile of autism. I’m especially drawn to work that recognizes how identity, systems, family roles, and lived experience shape mental health and wellbeing.
My approach is grounded in nursing and shaped by context. I draw from Transcultural Nursing Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), existential thought, and integrative psychiatry. At the center of my work is my identity as a nurse — a role I understand as a rare intersection of science, compassion, and service. I am not a physician. I am not a PA. I am a nurse practitoner, and to me, that is a sacred charge.
I bring both professional and personal insight to this work. I live with ADHD and am the parent of neurodivergent children. These experiences inform how I listen, how I think, and how I stay curious rather than prescriptive.
Before becoming a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, my background included ICU nursing, hospice care, psychiatric nursing, and service as a Mass Communications Specialist in the United States Navy. Across these roles, one principle remained consistent: people do best when they are understood, respected, and empowered.
Who Tends To Resonate With My Work
People who resonate with my work value nuance, lived experience, and context. They tend to be thoughtful, curious, and interested in approaches to mental health that move beyond surface-level explanations.
My perspective may be especially meaningful to individuals and organizations who value neurodiversity-affirming care, cultural humility, interdisciplinary collaboration, and strengths-based models of understanding human behavior.
Ongoing Work & Ideas
Alongside my clinical work, I am developing a theory of nursing rooted in Determinism. It is an evolving way of thinking about care that examines how predictable life forces, structural constraints, and personal strengths shape behavior, meaning, and mental health.
My thinking has been deeply influenced by the work of Dr. Madeleine Leininger, whose contributions transformed how healthcare understands culture and care. It is equally influenced by the work of Dr. Robert Sapolsky, the primatologist and neuroscientist affiliated with Stanford University. At some point in the future I anticipate returning to school and formally develop and publish this work.