Holistic Healing: Rhonda Hodge's Approach to Mental Wellness and Neurodiversity

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The mental health landscape has fundamentally shifted, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Rhonda Hodge, founder of Harmony Psychiatric Services, offers a refreshing alternative to the conventional 15-minute medication check-ups that have dominated psychiatric care. With dual credentials as both a therapist and nurse practitioner, Hodge created her practice to treat patients holistically—combining medication management with therapy, movement, and nutrition support.

What sets Harmony apart is their commitment to treating humans, not just symptoms. Hodge poignantly shares how witnessing an over-medicated foster child inspired her career pivot: "I had to hold up her head because she was so over-medicated and I just knew that things needed to be done differently." This experience catalyzed her mission to create psychiatric care that truly sees the whole person. Her practice has evolved to include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for treatment-resistant depression, hiking groups, academic coaching, and executive functioning support.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Hodge discusses neurodiversity as a brain style rather than a disorder. She celebrates the engineers, entrepreneurs, and brilliant minds who think differently, while acknowledging the pandemic's role in revealing neurodiversity as people lost their ability to "mask" during isolation. Equally compelling is her transparent approach to provider wellness—creating flexible schedules that honor her team's personal lives—which directly translates to better patient care. As mental health needs continue to escalate nationwide, Harmony is expanding geographically while maintaining their person-centered philosophy. Perhaps most touching is Hodge's acknowledgment of how difficult seeking help can be: "That first call is actually really hard to make." Whether you're struggling personally or supporting someone who is, this conversation offers both practical guidance and deeply compassionate insights. Visit harmonypsychiatric.com to learn more about their innovative approach to mental wellness.

 https://harmonypsychiatric.com/

Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.

(00:24):
Where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
Today, I am joined bypsychologist alumni Rhonda Hodge
.
She is the founder of HarmonyPsychiatric Services and her
company focuses on treating youfor your mental health symptoms
by managing medication, exerciseand nutrition.
Her goal is to empower you onyour mental health journey.

(00:47):
So we're going to be talking toher about everything that she's
up to and what she'll be up toin the future.
Rhonda, thank you so much forjoining me.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Sure.
So I started my career as atherapist, and so that was my
first master's degree, and then,I would say, five or six years
into the field, I was workingmostly with foster kiddos and I
kind of defined my why as makingan adjustment into the medicine

(01:25):
piece, because I had one littlekiddo that I had to hold up her
head.
I'll never forget her face.
I had to hold up her headbecause she was so
over-medicated and I just knewthat things needed to be done a
little bit differently and Iwanted to help kind of create
some of that change.
Didn't really know exactly whatI was going to do, and that's
when I went into the medicineside of it.

(01:46):
So I'm I'm a DNP, I'm boardcertified in family, which is
essentially primary care, urgentcare, um, work in emergency
room can do a whole lot ofdifferent things.
It's the whole person.
And then I'm board certified inthe psychiatric piece, um.
So I opened up Harmony in 2015to create a practice that really

(02:09):
treated the patientholistically, looked at the
whole person, combined therapywith medication and sometimes in
seeing the same provider, andit's really blossomed into
something pretty beautiful formy patients and for us.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Okay, well, talk to the listeners about your company
you know.
Tell them how and why you gotthat started.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Sure.
So I opened up in 2015, again,just to do things a little bit
differently and because I hadthe background in both.
Oftentimes, when you're goinginto to get help and you are
looking for services, you'regoing to see a psychiatric
provider who you might see everythree months for a few minutes,
and I hope that model ischanging across the board.

(02:57):
But for the most part, themodel at the time was you'd see
your provider for 15 minutesevery three months and they
didn't know a ton about you, andthen you would see a therapist
separately, and I wanted to dothat differently.
We started to grow in 2019 andthen COVID hit and with the

(03:17):
crisis of COVID also came amental health crisis and from
there we have several nursepractitioners, we have
therapists, we have academiccoaches, executive functioning
coaches.
We're doing TMS, which istranscranial magnetic
stimulation, as an alternativetreatment to treatment resistant

(03:40):
depression, because after COVID, people were just really not
getting better and we needed tofind something different.
We do hiking groups, we domovement in our medicine.
We're not just addingmedication, just really
thoughtful in treating eachhuman being as they walk through
the door.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, well, let's talk about neurodiversity.
Why is neurodiversity for morea common brain style rather than
a disorder?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
executive functioning coaches who were the head of
school systems, and just thechange that we're seeing, where
we have lots of theories abouthow COVID made it more difficult
for our kiddos and our adultsto mask and to learn how to mask
which is something that'sreally common in neurodiversity
and why oftentimes it goesundiagnosed is because of the
mask and the roles that peoplelearn to play, and during COVID

(04:49):
that made it really difficult.
So we're seeing people raw andas they are and it's actually to
me it's a beautiful, reallybeautiful thing.
Our neurodiverse population arethere, are engineers, there are
entrepreneurs, there arebrilliant minds in the way that
it works, in the way that theirbrain works, and it's so neat to

(05:12):
watch them in that theparticular you know.
Watch them.
I don't really like to put itunder that category, but watch
people with that diagnosis tojust embrace who they are and to
be able to come so alive ratherthan continuously feeling as if
they have to mask who they areto fit in, and then also helping
them find that balance too,because you're still in society,
you're still going to get alongwith people, you still got to

(05:33):
do all those things and justbeing really vulnerable and
allowing them to be vulnerable,to educate and understand that
this is just how your brainworks, and it's actually really
cool.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Well, I know in your bio you talk about how you
transparently run yourorganization and you focus on
provider wellness to improvepatient wellness.
So talk to the listeners aboutthat.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Sure.
So my providers know that theyare we're kind of corny.
I mean, even the patients knowthis.
They're part of the Harmonyfamily.
I sign everything to them thatway and they know that I really
do love them and care about themBefore our providers.
I'm not hiring anybody for acertain schedule.
I'm hiring the person andallowing them to create the

(06:22):
schedule that works best forthem, because that's what's most
important to me.
They can't show up for theirpatients if they know that
they're missing their kiddo'splay or it becomes so difficult
to them to rearrange theirschedule when something comes up
, or they know that they justdon't want to work on Fridays or

(06:42):
Thursdays or the day that theirhusband or wife or kiddo is
home and they want to be able tospend that time with them.
I want them to do it.
They have to be able to livetheir life.
The job that we do is sochallenging and it's so
difficult that the burnout isit's too high and if you can't
show up for your life, thenyou're not going to be able to

(07:03):
show up for your patients andour providers' lives are really
important to me and there havebeen times where I've done
little videos.
I do videos sometimes and allowmyself to be vulnerable with
the patients, and I do tell themthat if you're feeling
especially with COVID was goingon and everybody was being
hospitalized and there was justso much.
I just remind them that we wentthrough the process with them,

(07:25):
we went through COVID with themwhile we were supporting them
and the patients really likethat.
It's taken in a reallybeautiful way and I've had some
patients that you don't know howthat's going to be taken and
they show the providers the samegrace that they want to be
shown.
So it's actually again like afamily.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Well, speaking of COVID, talk about some of the
common mental health symptomsyou saw during COVID.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, well, we all underwent a collective trauma
absolutely, and trauma isunderlying most symptoms.
Now, most diagnosis Diagnosesdefinitely look different.
One of the biggest things thatI noticed is that people who
were dealing with depression andanxiety prior to COVID fared

(08:20):
sometimes not to overgeneralizefared sometimes better than
patients who had neverexperienced trauma or depression
or anxiety previously, becausethe other people had the tools,
they had the toolbox.
They knew what that feeling was, they knew how to identify it,
whereas people where this wasjust something that was

(08:40):
incredibly novel for them.
It was really, really scary,and so that was definitely
something that I noticed.
But I often compared in 2021,2022, 2023, I compared us to
trying to save people on theTitanic rather than actually
helping people to get better isthat we were just saving lives

(09:03):
for a number of years becausepeople were doing so poorly.
Our hospitals in New England,our Boston hospitals, children's
hospital there were hundreds ofkids boarding.
There were adults boardingbecause there weren't enough
mental health beds.
It was like nothing I've everexperienced in the 20 years in

(09:23):
mental health and I do feel likewe're starting to.
Mental health still looksdifferent, but we're starting to
be able to help people tothrive and not just survive.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, talk about why it's so important to treat the
whole person instead of just thesymptoms.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, one of the pieces that I really discuss a
lot with my providers is theimportance of their relationship
.
And if I don't know that, Iknow that Mary got laid off for
some reason, but I know she'sgoing to have another job, you
know along the way, because Iknow that about her and I know
that her husband's supportiveand I know that her kids are

(10:08):
also.
You know, ending school, it'sthe end of school.
I know all of these things aregoing up.
If I am not looking at her as awhole person, I might throw her
on some meds rather than saying, well, let's see, let's see,
let's talk about this, let'sbreak this down.
Let's look at you know what,when you were going to the gym,
that time you were starting tofeel better.

(10:30):
Let's just go for a walk, let'stalk it out.
I might still have her on somesort of medication or something
to help, but it's not going tolook the same as if I didn't
know all of those things abouther and I didn't know her really
in that intimate way to be ableto say, well, you know what?
Joe's always been really goodat this for you.
Why don't we?

(10:50):
Why don't we kind of figurethat out Because I'm looking at.
I want the medication that Iput into somebody's body to be
what they absolutely need.
I don't want it to be a blanket, I want it to be because I know
they really need thisbiochemical support.
And looking at them as a wholeperson means that I'm making

(11:11):
really smart or hopefully smartchoices for them, really
intentional.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
We'll talk about some of the alternative methods that
can be used to treat mentalhealth.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Do you mean, aside from with a provider?

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, so I always talk.
I mean, I always do talk aboutdiet and exercise and I I do
talk about how you can.
If you move your body you canchange your thought.
But that's you know.
That's something easy to say,but if you're dealing with
depression and anxiety,sometimes just getting up and
walking to the refrigerator toget yourself something to eat
can feel like too much.
If you have ADHD and anxiety,any of those things can feel

(11:56):
like an absolute mountain.
And that's when we start doingsome of the movement with our
patients while they're with usand when they're in sessions.
Whether it be going for a walk,whether it be meeting on the
rail trail to chat, whether wejust show them little movements
with their body to get themthere.
It's not as hard for everybodyto do that, but I would say a

(12:18):
vast majority of people.
It really is a huge struggle.
So it's a lot of that hurdlehelp to get them started.
For those other people then weit's programs like Orange Theory
, intentional programs where youhave to walk in and have that
accountability and and go and doit and finish, finish it for

(12:40):
the day.
Those are also super helpfuland beyond that, I also have to
use the toolbox that works forthem, a general toolbox of tools
that we learned when we weregoing to school that would work.
They don't work for everypatient and we need to find what
works for them so that whenthey're in those positions of

(13:01):
feeling despair or feelingreally anxious that they're not
pulling from a toolbox thatreally isn't meant for them
anxious that they're not pullingfrom a toolbox that really
isn't meant for them.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Okay, Well, tell us about any current upcoming
projects that you're working onthat listeners need to be aware
of.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
So we are definitely looking at some expansion.
I did just open up a satellitelocation in Portsmouth because
Portsmouth is the seacoast isthe seacoast of you know, it's
in New Hampshire, butMassachusetts, new Hampshire,
maine because I was having a lotof patients that were coming to
us and driving an hour, twohours for treatment, and so I

(13:43):
brought TMS, which is thetranscranial magnetic
stimulation, to the seacoast andnow I'm putting providers in
those locations.
But what we're noticing iswe're having people call from
around the US for appointments.
So we're doing a lot oflicensing in other states we
have.
We are expanding our academicprogramming.

(14:05):
The reason that we did that wasbecause of COVID.
Essentially, therapists andpsychiatric providers were
needing to become you teachers,essentially, and teachers were
needing to become mental healthproviders, and so we have this
middle programming now foradults as well, because adults

(14:27):
were definitely feeling likethey were getting stuck too and
a lot of those symptoms ofneurodiversity and ADHD were
really rearing their head andmaking people feel really lost.
So we have some academicprogramming, executive
functioning life coach as well,that I kind of call them like
our middleman between theoutside world and us to really

(14:49):
help them to stabilize theirlife while we're really working
on helping their symptoms getbetter.
So there's a.
We have a lot of groups coming,some summer camp options for
kiddos.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
We just really want to treat the whole person rather
than just talking about theirmeds.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Okay, what's the contact info so listeners can
keep up with everything thatyou're up to?
So the best way would bethrough wwwharmonypsychiatriccom
.
There's a contact me form thereand those all go directly to me
and I can chat.
I can send people in in theright direction when they're
looking for help, becausesometimes it's really hard.

(15:36):
Those first calls are actuallyreally hard to make and if we're
not available in your area, Ican help do some research which
I've done a couple times forpeople to make those first calls
and to get them set up with alike-minded practice in their
area.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Okay, we'll close this out with some final
thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to touch on, that you
would like to talk about, or anyfinal thoughts you have for the
listeners and also throw outthat website again.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
I think it's really important to know that we
recognize we as providers, asprofessionals, recognize just
generally across the board, notjust Harmony that it's really
hard to make that first phonecall.
So a lot of places do have likethe contact me forms or through
email.
Sometimes that is easier and Ican't stress just like with the
exercise piece, I can't stressthat enough too for family
members who are like why aren'tthey just getting help?
It is so hard and debilitatingsometimes to just make that

(16:45):
first step that that hurdle helpthat body doubling, we call it,
where you are just sitting withthem while they do it can be
the difference for them.
And using those forms andhonestly, just telling people
who are struggling like leaninto yourself, just the swans, I
promise it will be worth it.
And honestly just tellingpeople who are struggling like
lean into yourself, just theswans, I promise it will be
worth it.

(17:06):
And again, it'swwwharmonypsychiatriccom.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, so be sure to check
out everything that Rhonda andher company is up to.
If you or somebody else youknow are needing mental health
services, please contact her orcontact your local providers.
Follow rate review.
Share this episode to as manypeople as possible.
Follow us on your favoritepodcast platform.
Visit wwwcurveball337.com formore information on the Living

(17:36):
the Dream with Curveball podcast.
Thank you for listening andsupporting the show and, rhonda,
thank you for all that you'redoing in regards to mental
health and thank you for joiningme.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
And thank you for doing this show.
I wish you all the best, thankyou.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.