I’ve been a Masters-prepared nurse practitioner since 2007, having attended Emory University in Atlanta as a Helene Fuld Service Learning Fellow for my Bachelors and Masters in Nursing. I am double board-certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a family nurse practitioner and a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner. My psychiatric nurse practitioner training included studying under the lead psychologist with the Trauma Recovery Program at the Louisville VA, and another semester training with psychiatric nurse practitioners and a psychiatric clinical pharmacologist/addiction specialist at the VA. It was through the dedicated, compassionate, mission-driven preceptors I had at the VA that I realized working with trauma (both “Big T” and “little t” trauma) was where my passion lay. I've cultivated a strong network of trauma-informed mental health practitioners to collaborate and consult with to help better support my clients and I'm always seeking knew knowledge.
Trauma-informed. Creative. Compassionate. Collaborative. Prior to opening Bliss Progressive Psychiatry, I worked as the lead clinician at a specialty mental health clinic here in Louisville. Among my primary responsibilities in this role was thoroughly assessing patients to determine whether IV ketamine treatment was safe and appropriate for them, collaborating with their referring providers, therapists, and families during their course of treatment, and following up on their response to treatment. I have independently undertaken specialized, intensive training in ketamine use in mental health, including ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) with Jennifer Montjoy, PhD, whose dissertation was entitled, “Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP): Clinical outcomes and self-transcendence in depression and chronic PTSD." Additionally, I have attended an intensive, advanced training for trauma-informed psychedelic care with Elemental Psychedelics in Fort Collins, Colorado, and I completed a certificate program in Psychedelic Therapy and Integration (PTI) with Fluence in December 2023 and earned MAPS/Lykos certification for MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD in January 2024.
