At OptiMind, you will find medication expertise combined with targeted psychotherapy to help you achieve balance.

Nurse Practitioner.
Nurse-Midwife.
Teacher.
Writer.
Adoptive Parent.
Tarot enthusiast.
Comedian Wanna-be.

🌿 Why I Do This Work

My path to becoming an integrative psychiatric nurse practitioner didn’t begin with textbooks or clinical protocols. It began with a moment of stillness—and one very scared man.

I was a brand-new nursing assistant on a cardiac unit, wide-eyed and eager to learn everything about medicine. I wanted action. Procedures. Diagnoses. Interventions. So when one of my first assignments was simply to sit quietly with a man struggling to breathe, I didn’t expect it to be memorable.

He was anxious, short of breath, and asked me to stay. So I did—no machines, no medications, no heroic gestures. Just presence. His breathing eased. After about an hour, he squeezed my hand and said, “Thank you.”
I was stunned—because I hadn’t done anything.

But that moment stuck with me. It was the first time I saw the quiet power of “being with” instead of always “doing to.”

And over the years—as a paramedic, cardiac tech, nurse, and now psychiatric NP—I’ve seen this truth play out again and again:

Sometimes, what heals us most isn’t found in a prescription pad or a lab result.
It’s in being truly seen. In being met, not managed.

That’s the philosophy behind OptiMind Mental Health & Wellness: evidence-based care that honors your story, your body, and your inner capacity to heal. Yes, we can talk meds. But we’ll also talk meaning, embodiment, trauma, hormones, creativity, and what joy looks like now.

Because healing isn’t just clinical. It’s relational. And you don’t have to do it alone.

Lisa in 1995

“Nature alone cures…what nursing has to do…is put the patietn in the best condition for nature to act upon them. ”
— Florence Nightingale

My Credentials

Bachelor of Arts, University of Michgan
Certificate in Nursing, Yale University School of Nursing
Masters in Nursing, Yale University School of Nursing
Post-Masters in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, Frontier School of Nursing

Member, American Psychiatric Nurses Association
Member, American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Member, American Academy of Nurse-Midwives

National Board Certification, Nurse-Midwife
National Board Certification, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
Certified Holistic Health Coach, Institute of Integrative Nutrition
Certified Brain Health Coach, Amen Clinics
Certificate in Guided Health Nursing, Johns Hopkins
Certified Lactation Counselor
Certified Birth Educator
Certified Reiki Level 1

Additional education in aromatherapy, plant medicine, psychedelics, trauma, Precision Medicine, Integrative Psychiatry, hormonal evaluation

As a provider of psychiatric services, I recognize that psychiatric practices
have a history of prejudice and discrimination
and that personal privilege and bias impact the therapeutic process.

I am committed to continual education, reflection, and self-examination