Lauren Merrell

PMHNP, DNP

Lauren Merrell is a board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner who specializes in treating adults (18+) with depression, anxiety, and ADHD. In addition, she's particularly experienced treating LGBTQIA+ patients and providing gender-affirming psychiatric care.

Lauren often combines psychodynamic psychotherapy with medication management. This holistic style of treatment allows patients to address psychological and biochemical components of care in the same appointment. Lauren's approach to care centers on warmth, directness, and attentiveness; with the goal being to instill hope, find the lowest effective medication dose, and collaboratively make decisions with patients.

Lauren began her career in mental health in 2010 working in psychiatric research with patients who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). During that time, she developed a passion for this population and now also maintains a small panel of patients with I/DD who experience mental illness. Lauren graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a BS in Child Studies. She went on to obtain a BS in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Oregon Health & Science University.