Welcome, I'm Nicole

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I'm a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who specializes in ADHD, LGBTQ+ care, anxiety, insomnia, and navigating big life changes. I treat the whole person, not just the diagnosis, blending traditional psychiatry with integrative tools like supplements, sleep strategies, and small, sustainable lifestyle changes, delivered by someone who'd rather laugh with you than lecture you.

My path here wasn't a straight line and has been informed both by my personal and professional experience. Before psychiatry, I worked in intensive care and then in an inpatient hospice unit. In the ICU, we tracked vital signs closely and rarely asked how patients were feeling, nor followed up with their mental health after major surgeries. I continually watched mental health get pushed aside which led me to specifically further pursue psychiatry.

Additionally, personally, I also spent years with undiagnosed ADHD, anxiety, depression, a hard road to getting sober, and a lot of fumbling in the dark before anything made sense. It wasn't until I became a PMHNP and started treating young women who sounded exactly like me that I finally recognized my own ADHD.

All of these experiences, in many ways, taught me more than any textbook, and showed me that I wanted psychiatric care to be done differently. Today, I help people, especially those managing ADHD, anxiety, or the chaos of a major life transition, find their way back to feeling like themselves. 

I know what it feels like to be told to just try harder. I know what it means to finally have someone actually listen.  I believe in partnership over prescription, whole-person care, and the kind of progress that happens one honest conversation at a time. And that is eventually what led me to start my own practice today.


MY CREDENTIALS

  • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)

  • Master of Science in Nursing, University of Pennsylvania

  • Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Drexel University

  • Background in Neuro ICU and inpatient hospice care

  • NEI Master Psychopharmacology Program

  • IPI Integrative Psychiatry Certification Program

  • Training in CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia)

What I Believe

  • Your brain chemistry can lie to you.

    I hear "I don't want to alter my brain chemistry" a lot, and I get it. But when your brain is telling you you're worthless, it isn't a reliable narrator, and you're allowed to do something about it.

  • The relationship is as important as the medicine.

    I want to be someone you can say anything to. In school, self-disclosure was treated like the devil. Used well, I think it's one of the most powerful tools I have.

  • Psychiatry is part experiment, and I'll say so.

    You'll hear me say, "I'm not sure this will work, but I think it's worth a shot." Then we track it together and adjust.

  • Traditional and integrative care aren't rivals.

    Done right, they make each other better.

The Human Behind the Clinician

When I'm not in session, here are a few things you’ll find me doing or that I love.

I'm basically a grandma. Knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, quilting, and most recently needle felting. I also love bingo.

Close-up of hands knitting with multicolored yarn, with a blurred background of a wrapped yarn ball.

I'm a DIYer. I do most things around the house myself, and I was thrilled to finally have a garage for my tools.

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I climb every week. It's what finally got a lifelong exercise-hater moving, and I've made great friends at the gym. I've even run a 5K and a 8K.

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I'm a mom to a four-year-old. He's a delight and a hurricane, sometimes in the same minute.

I've taken up hiking since we moved, and dragged my husband and son along a few times.

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Ask me what I'm playing. Video games count as a legitimate topic here.

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A woman sitting on a rock formation in a desert landscape with rocky terrain, red cliffs, and a blue sky with a few white clouds.

I believe self-care isn't a bubble bath and a scented candle. It's making actual room in your life for the things that light you up.

I volunteer, selfishly. Animal shelter, a lion sanctuary, and back in Philly I was a zoo docent. I only do it because I get to snuggle puppies and hang out with lions.

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If You're Still Reading This...

I want you to know:

You don't have to have the right words yet.

You don't have to be sure that it’s ADHD, or anxiety, or something else entirely.

You just have to show up.

And I'll meet you there, with humor, honesty, zero judgment, and together we will figure out a plan that fully supports you to feel like yourself again.