In over 20 years as a nurse practitioner, I’ve cared for patients of all ages and in a variety of settings. My experience includes infants, pediatrics, teens, transitioning-age/college-age youth, and adults of all ages including seniors. The psychiatric needs of adolescents and transitioning-aged youth hold special interest to me, as does providing psychiatric care to special needs patients and their families.
I earned my Pediatric Nurse Practitioner certification from UCSF in 1999 and worked with incarcerated teens in San Mateo County. In 2002 I joined Stanford Children’s Hospital providing specialized care to children with severe neurologic and developmental deficits. In 2013, I earned my Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from SF State. As an FNP, I managed medication for adults with opioid use disorder while also providing behavioral medication support to Regional Center (special needs) clients through BHRS, San Mateo County. After retiring from Stanford in 2018, I devoted my practice entirely to psychiatry. I earned my PMHNP certificate from Fresno State and joined the team at Cowell Student Health Center at UCSC providing medication management for students with anxiety and depression. At the same time, I continued to serve the special needs population in San Mateo County.
My goal as a provider is to always give my best advice, whether that involves starting medication, staying on it, or getting off it. Together, we form a team – and our goal as teammates is to find an intervention you are genuinely interested in doing because it makes you feel better. Perhaps this collaborative approach could be helpful to you or a loved one in addressing the range of issues impeding personal growth and/or achieving life satisfaction.