Today we’d like to introduce you to Aimee Roberts-Serrato.
Hi Aimee, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up on a farm outside of Newberry, FL – just west of Gainesville. I graduated high school, failed out of college 3x because I was too lazy to go to class. Although, now looking back that was social anxiety. My parents told me they would no longer pay for college however, I was still expected to go to college. I ended up pregnant at 21, married at 21, and had a baby at 22. I worked a couple of jobs as a receptionist but realized I needed to go back to school to better help support my family. Many of the women in my family were nurses, my mom included. I did NOT want to be a nurse. I saw all the injuries my mom sustained working at the bedside (including neck surgery) and knew that was not the path I wanted. However, I couldn’t think of anything to study in school so nursing it was. I graduated from Santa Fe College in 2003 (when my daughter was 7) with my ASN as an RN and started working. I worked in the peri-operative setting from 2003-2016 – pre-admissions, pre-op, OR, and recovery room. I was always in Orthopedics and Plastic surgery, mainly breast cancer reconstruction. I always wanted to continue in school after my ASN but but daughter was in school and dancing and I wanted to be present in her life so school got put on the back burner. Once she became a teenager (and I went through a divorce and then met the love of my life) I went back to school. I got my BSN from FSCJ and then my Masters degree (as a Family Nurse Practitioner) from University of Cincinnati. I began working as a Nurse Practitioner at Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute (JOI). After I left JOI I worked for Medcor, a National company that provides occupational health and acute care to employees. I flew all over the country for them. I loved the travel but missed my husband. Then, COVID hit and I didn’t want to continue traveling so I resigned. A friend of mine, Megan Blevins, who I met when we worked together at JOI wanted to me to go back to school with her to obtain a certification in Psych/Mental health. I wasn’t ready to do that at the time because I still traveling for Medcor. I listened to her stories about how much she loved it that I finally decided to go back to school once again after I left Medcor. I graduated the year after her in 2022. Now, I am a dual board certified in Family and Psych/Mental health Nurse Practitioner.
My preceptor from my Psych program was Brian Beardsley. He is the founder/owner of Introspect Mental Health. He is an amazing provider and human. I loved his practice ethos and how he ran his practice and told him I wanted to work for him. I began working for him immediately after graduation and have been at Introspect Mental Health ever since.
I have also worked at Wekiva Springs Hospital and Tides Edge Detox while working at Introspect when building my practice. Working at Wekiva taught me a lot about inpatient mental health and it helped shape how I practice in the outpatient setting.
I finally found my passion! I absolutely love mental health, this is what should have been doing from the beginning! I work as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. I provide medication management and brief supportive therapy for mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, ADHD, and substance use disorders. I work very closely with my patients and include them in the decision making process in their treatment plan. I want them to have a say in what medications they take. I also love to teach so I teach my patients about their disorder(s), medications, nutrition, exercise, sunlight, and coping skills.
I am so disheartened that mental health continues to be so stigmatized. Mental health disorders are disorders of the brain, just like heart disease is a disorder of the heart or diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas. I try to get out into the community to talk about mental health to help reduce the stigma. We must all do better and increase awareness and talk about mental health to reduce the stigma. Individuals living with mental health disorders do not choose to feel the way they do—whether they are experiencing depression, anxiety, or struggling with substance use. Like anyone else, they desire understanding, acceptance, and the opportunity to live fulfilling and meaningful lives.
I am passionate about vulnerable communities such as people with Autism spectrum disorders, the elderly and the LGBTQIA community. I hate that they get overlooked, looked down upon, marginalized, undervalued, and treated as other.
When my daughter was a teenager she started abusing Xanax and became addicted. Those were terrible and frightening years. I felt helpless and stupid. I didn’t know how to help her. The problem was I didn’t know what our options were and didn’t know how to find them either. She finally got sober and has been for 10 years now. She is thriving! I am so proud of her! This is another reason I talk about mental health all the time to whoever will listen. I don’t want this to happen to others – not knowing how to get help.
Because of what our family went through I have more empathy, compassion, and understanding for my patients. I bring this to every patient I see.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course there have been challenges! Life is bumpy, filled with pot holes, hills and mountains to climb.
First, I got pregnant at 21, then married at 21, then had a baby at 22, then decided ‘oh yeah, I need to do something with my life’. Then, I went through a divorce, my daughter was addicted to Xanax as a teenager. Going to back to school at FSCJ for my BSN in my very late 30s, graduated from University of Cincinnati with my masters degree at 43 and then graduated with my post-masters certification in Psych/Mental Health from FSU at 48 all came with their own challenges.
Second, there were periods of time as a Family Nurse Practitioner that I couldn’t find a job because the Jacksonville area was saturated with Nurse Practitioners.
Fortunately for me, I had my husband. It must be said that I could not have have accomplished all that I have without him. Through all the tough times of not having a job, having to jump through all the hoops to get into school, all the tests, deadlines, papers, then imposter syndrome, building my practice at Introspect. He was there through it all – supporting me, encouraging me, letting me cry on his shoulder. He is amazing! He is the one who deserves the accolades.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Introspect Mental Health – is founded and owned by Brian Beardsley a Family and Psych/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Brian founded Introspect in 2021. There are 7 Nurse Practitioners: Brian Beardsley, Melissa Boyle, Melinda Braswell, Aimee Roberts-Serrato (myself), Megan Blevins, Kelly McShane, and Shazia Nackashi, 1 office manager: Kenia Gandarilla and 3 front desk ladies: Taelor Koo, Yarisis Natal, and Celia Anzardo currently.
We see all mental health disorders – Depression, Anxiety disorders, Bipolar disorder, PTSD, ADHD, Schizophrenia, Substance use disorders. We treat patients using medication management and brief supportive therapy. For our substance use patients we offer to treat with Suboxone, Sublocade, Brixadi for opiate use disorder, and Naltrexone and Vivitrol for opiate use and alcohol use disorders. We are open Monday through Thursday 9-5 and Friday 9-2. We see patients both in person and virtually.
Many of the providers are dual board certified – Family and Psych Mental Health.
As I mentioned – I see patients with all mental health disorders – depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, and substance use disorders. I use medications to treat these disorders and also provide brief supportive therapy. Additionally, I practice nutritional psychiatry. This is another method used to help improve mental health disorders by using food. A healthy diet rich in omega 3s, plants, protein, nuts, legumes can help mental health disorders by decreasing inflammation, improving gut health, improving any nutritional deficiencies, and improving stress response. I also love working with perimenopausal women. Perimenopause can cause or worsen mental health disorders. We women have estrogen receptors throughout our body and in perimenopause the lack of estrogen can cause a multitude of problems throughout the body. I like to work in tandem with Gynecologists to help improve mental health during menopause. Education is important in all visits but in perimenopause there is so much going on in the body with due to the lack of estrogen that there is a lot more to consider for women. We need more exercise but it’s weight lifting and cardio; we need a change in diet – more protein and fiber, less focus on calories, eliminating sugar, intermittent fasting, and supplements. I also really enjoy working with the vulnerable populations – Autism spectrum, LGBTQIA, and the elderly. There are so many other considerations with these populations. I truly care about each and every one of my patients and want them to live their best lives, be happy and healthy.
What sets us apart from others – we give our patients dedicated time and really listen to them and ask questions to get to the root of the problem. We include our patients in developing a treatment plan for them. We educate, educate, educate our patients on their disorder and medications and in brief supportive therapy to help teach them coping skills. Though we all see all mental health disorders some of us have niches. Brian Beardsley has extensive experience and knowledge in substance use. He is also the medical director at Design Recovery. Melissa Boyle is also a license massage therapist. This allows her to practice in a more holistic approach. Aimee Roberts-Serrato (myself) specializes in peri-menopause mental health, nutritional psychiatry, substance use. While I truly enjoy all of my patients I have a soft spot for my vulnerable populations: Elderly, Autism spectrum disorder patients and LGBTQIA patients. Megan Blevins specializes in perinatal mental health, ADHD and substance use. Kelly McShane specializes in substance use.
What are you most proud of – OUR PATIENTS! We love our patients! We think we have the best patients in Jacksonville. The amount of effort and hard work our patients put into themselves is truly inspiring. We are also proud of our team! We are truly a family as a well as co-workers. We all come together to celebrate and help each other. We, the team, are very proud to be working at Introspect for Brian. He is the reason we all are here. Our work environment is second to none. We all get along really well and work together really well. We work very hard to cultivate and maintain our relationships with each other.
One of the things I am planning to do more of is to commit to more community involvement and events, attend more expos to continue talking about mental health to help reduce the stigma, bring awareness and educate on options for help.
Blue Skies Mental Health – this is my private practice. It is not open for business yet. It is in Kalispell, Montana. When my husband retires (in 7 years) we will be moving to Kalispell. My goal is to open for business next year. When it does open I will see patients virtually all year and make trips to Kalispell 4x/year to see my patients in person as well. Initially, I will see patients with depression, anxiety disorders, Bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD in the first few years. Once we are fully moved I will see all mental health disorders to also include substance use and Schizophrenia. I will continue to work for Introspect but from Montana. I will come back to Florida 2-3x/year to see patients in office who want that so that I’m not always a face on a screen.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I am not a risk taker but living life is risky. I like to weigh my options, decide if the risk is worth the benefit. For example, going back to get my masters in Family as a Nurse Practitioner and then post-masters certificate in psych/mental health was risky but a calculated risk (according to my husband). I knew that I could go back to school and succeed in school and that I had plenty of time after school to make money to make it worth the time.
Pricing:
- Self pay initial visit $300
- Self pay follow up visits $130
- We take most major health insurance and Medicare
Contact Info:
- Website: https://introspectjax.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/introspectcares/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575099981745
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-roberts-serrato-5683b4b1/
