About Nicole
Psychiatric care grounded in compassion, clinical depth, and social justice
I am a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, licensed social worker, and founder of Well Rooted Psychiatry. My work is grounded in the belief that people deserve psychiatric care that is clinically thoughtful, emotionally attuned, and responsive to the full context of their lives.
Many of the people I work with have spent years feeling misunderstood by healthcare systems, reduced to symptoms, or expected to separate their mental health from identity, trauma, neurodivergence, substance use, family history, culture, relationships, and survival. I created Well Rooted Psychiatry to offer something different: care that is collaborative, affirming, and rooted in respect for the whole person.
My goal is not to fit you into a predetermined script. My goal is to understand what has shaped you, what has helped you survive, what may no longer be working, and what kind of support can help you feel more steady, connected, and able to move forward.
Nicole Schwartz
(she/they)
MSN, CRNP, PMHNP- BC, LSW
This is “My Why”
My path to psychiatry has been shaped by care work, education, advocacy, and lived experience.
Before becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I worked across social work, nursing, and community midwifery. These roles taught me that meaningful care is never only technical. It is relational, contextual, embodied, and deeply affected by the systems people move through.
I do this work because I believe I have a responsibility to serve. Each of us carries gifts, skills, knowledge, and forms of privilege that can either be protected for ourselves or offered in service of something larger. For me, psychiatric care is one way I try to use what I have been given to support healing, reduce harm, and strengthen the communities around me.
This commitment has shaped my work for decades. Since 1997, I have been involved in advocacy related to LGBTQIA+ rights, first responders, housing insecurity, substance use and recovery, reproductive freedom, birth justice, and midwifery rights. This is not a seasonal value or a marketing statement. It is part of the foundation of my life and work.
My values are also shaped by a belief that healing is never only individual. Personal suffering is often connected to larger systems — including racism, poverty, stigma, gender-based harm, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, medical trauma, and other forms of disconnection and exclusion. Psychiatric care cannot fix those systems alone, but it can acknowledge the harm they cause and offer care that does not place all of the burden for healing on the individual.
At Well Rooted Psychiatry, I bring together clinical expertise, lived understanding, and a justice-oriented lens to offer care that is affirming, thoughtful, and grounded in dignity.
This work is not simply what I do. It is part of who I am: built to serve.
What care with me is like
Care with me is collaborative, direct, and individualized. I offer psychiatric evaluation, medication management, diagnostic assessment, and documentation support with attention to identity, nervous system patterns, trauma, substance use, recovery, neurodivergence, relationships, and the realities of daily life.
I will ask careful questions. I will explain what I am thinking. I will offer options, education, and recommendations. I will also make room for uncertainty, nuance, and your own sense of what feels right or wrong for your body and life.
Medication can be an important part of care, but it is not the whole of care. We will consider medication in the context of sleep, stress, trauma responses, sensory needs, substance use, hormones, relationships, environment, and the systems you are living within.
Who I work especially well with
I work especially well with adults who have felt unseen, dismissed, over-pathologized, or misunderstood in traditional healthcare spaces.
This may include people who are:
Queer, trans, or gender-expansive
Living with trauma, dissociation, anxiety, depression, mood symptoms, or burnout
Navigating substance use, recovery, ambivalence, or harm reduction
Questioning past diagnoses or seeking diagnostic clarity
Appearing capable on the outside while struggling internally
Neurodivergent, autistic, ADHD, or exploring neurodivergence later in life
Looking for psychiatric care that does not require them to shrink, mask, or over-explain themselves
You do not have to arrive with the “right” words, a clear diagnosis, or a polished version of your story. We can begin with where you are.
Credentials
Licenses & Certifications
Licensed Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner (CRNP) — Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Maryland
Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC)— American Nurses Credentialing Center
Licensed Social Worker (LSW)— Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Postgraduate Certificate in Perinatal Mental Health — Postpartum Stress Center
Academic Degrees
Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner — Herzing University
Master of Social Work (MSW)— University of Pennsylvania
Master Certificate in African Studies (MS)— University of Pennsylvania
Bachelor of Science in Psychology (BS)— Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Associate in Science of Nursing (ASN)— Excelsior University
