The Calling I Never Expected

Honestly, becoming a Psychiatric Mental Health provider was never part of my five-year plan. By background and training, I was an ICU nurse. I trained on nearly every medical device imaginable—from dialysis machines to balloon pumps to ventricular assist devices. I trained other nurses on managing fresh open-heart patients.

Then COVID happened.

People have mixed reactions when COVID is brought up. Some say it was fake. Others believe it was engineered. Still others view it simply as a pandemic. I’m not here to weigh in on those opinions. I was in the trenches, caring for five to six ICU patients at a time when the normal ratio was one to two. We managed symptoms, cared for patients and their families, and isolated from our own loved ones because we were so unsure of what we were dealing with.

And the cracks began to form.

It was like pressure bearing down on a slab of concrete. At first, everything held together. We managed. But as the pressure continued, cracks began to form in people’s lives, their health, and the way they thought and functioned. During that time, I realized those cracks had been there all along—it was simply the added pressure that made them visible.

For a long time, people have struggled with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and countless other conditions, yet we often hid those struggles or treated them as shameful. It made me realize how far we had come in treating physical illness while simultaneously neglecting mental health.

Through a series of experiences and interventions, God showed me that I needed to walk a different path than the one I had planned. A path that involved bringing wellness, healing, and support to fractured minds and hearts. I realized I was being called into a space I had never previously considered.

Now, with compassion and curiosity, I strive to bring holistic care into the mental health space.