As a kid, I knew I wanted to be both an artist and a scientist. As a young adult, I pursued the artists’ way first. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I’ve found access to both.

While earning my BA in Religious Studies, I learned about the structural origins and disastrous outcomes of the modern American carceral state, both through a multidisciplinary academic lens, and as a volunteer creative arts facilitator at the local women’s correctional institution. I studied Taoist and Buddhist lineages, comparative mystical experience, neuroscience, and performing arts, and finished school with a fellowship to launch my career as a teaching artist.

For over a decade, I witnessed the healing potential of creative expression as I taught and toured music and movement, while working part time service and retail jobs. I grieved the prevalence of trauma and waded through my own. A diagnosis of chronic illness pushed me to obtain Medicaid coverage, and access to mental health services. A rapid succession of untimely deaths in my family radically shifted my priorities, and I pivoted from art to science.

While continuing my creative and spiritual work, I went back to school for nursing, with a dual interest in psychiatry and emergency settings. I worked as an RN in inpatient psychiatry at NYU Langone for many years, helping people stay safe during their most vulnerable times. I designed and implemented a series of nurse-led therapeutic groups, drawing on my teaching artist origins. Perhaps most importantly, I learned the multidisciplinary, collaborative treatment team model championed by our unit chief.

While working as an RN in inpatient psychiatry, I completed my Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner training. At the height of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, I created a pilot psychological first aid program with colleagues in the Integrative Health department. We deployed throughout the hospital providing support to colleagues and patients in crisis, and our rapid response team was soon adopted as standard practice.

As an NP, I pivoted from inpatient care to join psychiatric research teams at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU’s Center for Psychedelic Medicine. At the end of 2022, I left NYU to work full time in my private practice, dedicating myself to creating a safe, holistic environment for healing.

I have trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), relational psychodynamic psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Zen meditation (zazen), Qigong, psychedelic pharmacology and harm reduction, and completed a multi-year certificate program in Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) with Polaris Insight Center. I am currently pursuing certifications in Integrative Psychiatry and Integrative Women’s Health at the Integrative Psychiatry Institute.

Creative practice remains a vital part of my life, and I bring embodied expertise in supporting artists, scientists, and creatives in their work and healing. Along the way, I’ve learned that change is the only constant, suffering is pain without acceptance, and embracing interdependence is a prerequisite of healing.