States Covered: AK, DC, DE, OR, WA

Working in Mental Health is a second career for me. My first career was as a songwriter. I jokingly say that really means that I had a lot of jobs as I pursued a career as a songwriter. It’s a joke with a long thread of truth tying it together. One of those jobs was working as a tutor. I got a call one day that a student of mine was involved in a traumatic event. Suddenly everything looked different. The color seemed to drain from the world and my vision narrowed. I was peering at a world through these lenses that I couldn’t remove, no matter how hard I tried.

I found some comfort in my writing, and I thought about a time in the future when I could make a living as a writer. When that came to be, I would be able to put this chapter behind me, I would be able to move on. And I did have some success as a writer. For a while, I was even able to do it full time. So I was a writer…until I wasn’t. At that point, I was forced to acknowledge that the path I thought I would always walk, was not my path moving forward. The world looked different again.

I’m often asked how you move from being a songwriter to being a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Two words-story and connection. I was drawn to writing when the words of other writers came to life. It was part of the reason I wanted to be a writer - to in turn connect with others in a meaningful way.

When we have our first visit, we’ll talk about a lot. But mainly you’ll share your story. It’s likely that your story, at least partially, will be a story you never thought you’d tell. And I’ll try to encourage you to maybe one day believe, again, that even though your story isn’t good in this moment - good stories still exist - maybe even for you.

-Brent