Karel Winner DNP, PMHNP-BC

My path into healthcare began in England, where I trained in Podiatric Medicine before specializing in endocrinology, pediatrics, biomechanics, and kinesiology. After immigrating to the US, I retrained as a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, completing internships at UCSF, Sutter Health, and Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Over time, I developed expertise across general, breast, obstetric, gynecologic, pediatric, and vascular ultrasound. For close to a decade, I worked at SCVMC, California's largest county hospital, where I had the opportunity to care for some of the most vulnerable and underserved patients in the state. That experience quietly but fundamentally shifted my perspective, specifically, related to the systemic gaps in mental health access. I returned to school, earning my BSN and MSN at Alverno College, then completing a post-master's certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health at the University of Tennessee on a research scholarship. During that time, I collaborated with the Up & Up Foundation to help develop mental health services for communities without adequate access. I continued my graduate education at Vanderbilt University, where I completed a Post-Master's Certificate in Nurse Education and earned my Doctorate in Nursing Practice. My doctoral work focused on public and global health, specifically on the structural barriers that limit access to mental health services. I'm currently in the final two semesters of the Family Nurse Practitioner program at Vanderbilt, which will allow me to expand my scope of practice and deepen my work in integrative, functional, and holistic medicine with psychiatry and mental health at the center. Alongside that, I'm pursuing the Functional Medicine Certified Professional designation through the Institute for Functional Medicine, a certification grounded in root-cause medicine that aligns closely with how I already approach care. I'm also completing additional training in individual & couples sex therapy, addiction medicine, and holistic practice, areas where I consistently see unmet needs in the patients I work with. Clinically, my approach is intentionally multimodal. I integrate medication management with a range of evidence-based therapeutic modalities. I am Level 3 trained in Internal Family Systems through the IFS Institute, certified in BrainSpotting through the BSP Foundation, and trained in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy through IPI, which qualifies me as a Natural Medicine Provider. Each of these modalities serves a specific purpose in how I conceptualize and deliver care.