Author of The Mental Wellness Diet - Justin Bethoney with Guest Host Valerie Pope

https://www.justinbethoneynp.com


JUSTIN'S PROFESSIONAL PROGRESSION
My professional journey began prior to me entering nurse practitioner school. I didn't realize it at the time, but my undergraduate education would set me on a path of service. I attended Villanova University. My original aim was to obtain a degree in business. However, the school's core values of social justice and service of others pushed me in a different direction. My professors offered me a broader perspective on the world. Further, the volunteer opportunities I joined during college helped clarify my purpose in life—to teach and help others. Right out of college, I worked “on the front lines” in several direct care positions. I took several jobs working with children experiencing emotional disturbance and other mental health issues. During this time, I gained exposure to what it can be like for children and their families to have to cope with mental illness. The work placed me in special education classrooms, with families in their homes, and pediatric hospital units. These experiences then motivated me to pursue higher education so that I could better serve children, adults, and families in need.

After completing the nurse practitioner program at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in 2011, I began my career treating children and adults with mental illness in the Boston area. In 2015, I moved to California. After five years, I made the move with my family up to Bend, Oregon. Over the first 10 years of practice, I took on prescriber positions at a variety of clinics and practices. From weight loss camps, to homelessness clinics, to residential centers for individuals with intellectual disability and Autism, to an inpatient unit for adolescents, to outpatient practices in both affluent and under-served areas, I broadened my clinical perspective by treating individuals with challenges in all aspects and stages of life.

In treating patients as a psychiatric prescriber for the past several years, I have seen the merits of psychiatric medications. I have also witnessed their limitations. I learned that there should be much more to treatment than quick diagnosis and hastily prescribed medications. I came to understand that progress can be restricted with a medication-only approach. In my current treatment for common psychiatric problems like anxious thoughts, depressed moods, and scattered thinking, a search for the underlying roots of illness takes priority.

In addition, over the past few years, I dedicated time to learning more about the connections between the mind and body. Most of my study has been in the field of functional medicine, which views the patient as a unique individual and searches for underlying physical and emotional imbalances that contribute to illness. In my current practice, I incorporate conventional and functional medicine perspectives and address each individual as a whole person.

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