Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Paré.
Hi Elizabeth, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been a registered nurse since 2015 and a psychiatric nurse practitioner since 2018. As I was getting started in my career, I worked in a couple of different settings and a couple of different locations while trying to figure my life out – where I belong, and all of that good stuff that takes way longer to figure out than we ever anticipate. I hate to continue giving Covid-19 so much air time, but it really put things into perspective for a lot of people, including me. I moved back down to Florida in 2021, (where I like to think I belong) and started a new job that seemed like “not my dream job, but better than the alternatives.” For reference, I wasn’t even sure what my dream job was at that time anyway. It only took a few months to recognize that the reality of the job didn’t quite align with the expectations that they had given me, and I was being expected to see upwards of 25 patients per day, some days nearly 30. No time to take deep breaths in between, no time to be with my patient while THEY take deep breaths because they’re going through something terribly difficult, no time to even eat a snack or go pee! I tried to keep up, jumped on my laptop to try to catch up on my documentation around the clock, and tried setting boundaries on how many patients I felt I could see without compromising the quality of care I was providing, which was unsuccessful. To be real, I was pretty much hating my life and kind of angry that I’d gone to school so long for something I felt so passionate about just to find myself so stuck.
I had no prior plan to ‘one day start my own practice’, it was not even on the radar. It felt too overwhelming. They don’t teach you any of that stuff in school. At a certain point while weighing out my options (including just throw away the whole nurse practitioner plan and find another career path), I decided that the intimidation and discomfort that I felt when thinking about starting my own practice was outweighed by the potential fulfillment and excitement of really being able to help people change their lives the way I really wanted to and knew I could. The only explanation I can offer for the evolution of the original plan (aka lack thereof) is God. I knew I loved humans, felt extremely passionate about mental health, wanted to channel the pain I’ve experienced in life into something positive and offer people something I desperately needed but didn’t have in my younger years, and that was it. Business-wise, I had no idea what I was doing. I’m ashamed to admit, I thought an ‘entrepreneur’ was someone who wanted to sound cool and fancy but really just didn’t have an actual job, and now I was one.
Cue many waves of “holy cow what was I thinking?, why did I think I could do this?, I’m going to fail, I’m never going to make it, I’m going to end up living under a bridge” and “I am kicking butt, this is so amazing, I’m so glad I did this, I’ve totally got this”, and so on and so forth. Things started picking up enough that I either needed to add more hours to my availability, go on a wait list, or hire someone to work with me. Knowing that I am one human with only a set allotment of hours in a day (and a set allotment of mental bandwidth!) I knew that continuing to add more and more availability wouldn’t be sustainable, and going on a waitlist just felt unhelpful to the people I wanted to serve, so that led to the start of building a team. I hired my first partner-in-crime, Kristen, and we continued to care hard for our patients, foster strong relationships with our community and the local mental health network, and always make it a priority to be true to ourselves and our mission – to ‘fight the stigma’, combatting the stuffiness of the field of psychiatry and the judgment of those working through mental health challenges (if we’re being real, most of us in one way or another) with deep authenticity and undying dedication. We’ve now grown to a team of six wonderful psychiatric nurse practitioners and three phenomenal administrative staff.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a lot of things, and truly a lot of positive and wonderful things, but ‘smooth road’ is not one of the ways I would describe it. Boy, have there been some struggles. If I had to identify the greatest challenges along the way, I would put them in two categories: ‘imposter syndrome’ and ‘struggle with boundaries.’ Imposter syndrome is nuts. It will really have you completely convinced that you’re incapable of doing something that you are already doing or have already done. Although they decrease in frequency as time goes on, even now (almost 5 years in), I still have moments of ‘do I really know what I’m doing or am I just lying to myself and fooling everybody else?’ I think many of us feel that way at some point in our careers. The additional, slightly more complex and difficult to digest layer of imposter syndrome for me comes with the field that I work in. ‘How can I help other people work through their struggles with mental health when my own mental health is such a mess? If I really knew what I was talking about, I would have my own ish together by now. If people knew what a mess I really am and how many mistakes I’ve made, they would think I was a fraud and never take me seriously. I don’t deserve to be in this position.’ Oh man, it’s brutal sometimes. For the record, I don’t truly believe any of those things. I still have those thoughts sometimes, but I know that I can be an active work in progress AND still be actively helping others. I know that I am fully capable of helping others along their mental health journey BECAUSE I understand many of the struggles firsthand.
The ‘struggle with boundaries’ realm of challenges could be it’s own dissertation, but I don’t think it needs to be. All I really need to say about it is that we can’t be everything, for everybody, all the time. I can’t, you can’t, nobody can. Sometimes as an entrepreneur/small business owner, you feel like you’ve gotta wear all the hats, every day, and in some ways you do. Healthcare professionals often fall into a pattern of seemingly obligatory ‘selflessness’ that ends up doing more harm than good. Boundaries are healthy. We should have them. We should respect when others have them. We should understand that we cannot pour from an empty cup, and that we do not need to abandon ourselves in order to care for others.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Every Rose Psychiatry?
We are a small psychiatry private practice consisting of a team of warm, caring, compassionate psychiatric nurse practitioners. We have two office locations – one in Tampa near Tampa International Airport, and one in Lutz right off of the Bearss Ave exit. We also offer telehealth. We accept nearly all commercial insurance. Our primary role is medication management for the treatment of a range of mental health disorders. We’re also now offering alternative treatments for treatment-resistant depression including TMS and esketamine. We work with ages 4 to 64 years old, and have providers on our team with various niches/specialties including but not limited to generational trauma, perinatal/postpartum maternal mental health, first responders, and pediatric mental health.
I believe that a big part of what sets us apart from others is the way we insist on being real people. We toss aside the notion that being ‘professional’ means you have to be stuffy, dry, and super serious. We think it’s okay to be playful, laugh, have fun. We think it’s okay to cry too. We strongly value accuracy, thoroughness and attention to detail, but we think it’s better to acknowledge if we’ve made a mistake and then make it right rather than to pretend we didn’t and move on. We extend that grace to each other, and to anyone we come into contact with. We have a culture that allows us to be the humans that we are, and I think it helps foster an environment where our patients feel the same way. We look at every single person as the whole person that they are, not as a diagnosis or an appointment on a calendar.
The thing that I’m the most proud of brand wise is my team. They ARE the brand. We’ve built such a solid group of people who share the same fiery passion, empathy, authenticity and whole-person approach to caring for others and it fills my heart to the brim when I think about it. What I’d love for readers to know is that if they are struggling with their mental health – it gets better. As it relates to our brand and services, we would be honored to be a part of their journey. If they need help but we aren’t exactly what they need, we have a strong network and directory of resources and we’re happy to guide them in the right direction. If they just simply have questions and aren’t sure where to start, no pressure, we’re happy to help even just with a conversation.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is the positive impact I believe we can have. People are suffering. People feel broken. I wish it weren’t the case, but it is. Despite how complex and challenging life can be, there are so many wonderful things to live for, and our goal is to help people not just ‘believe’ that but to experience it again – or maybe for the first time. When I hear about someone who was ready to give up and is now waking up before their alarm, picked up a new hobby like painting or gardening, and is actually enjoying their relationship again – that’s a big HECK YEAH! When I think about the fact that if we can be a part of helping one person get to that point, we can help so many more people get to that point – that’s a reason to wake up every morning and keep working hard on this dream.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.everyrosepsychiatry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/every.rose.psychiatry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveryRoseLLC/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethrosepsychiatry/
Image Credits
Holly Signore Photography
&
Blue Lily Photography
