About Me
Deep Community Roots for Better Advocacy
As a Portland area native, I am proud to live and practice in my hometown. I earned my BSN locally from Linfield University and my MSN PMHNP from Frontier Nursing University, a program I chose for its rigorous curriculum and strong emphasis on evidence-based practice. My lifelong connection to Portland, combined with extensive nursing and case management work at Providence St. Vincent, OHSU, and Portland Adventist, as well as my local clinical rotations, gives me a deep, firsthand familiarity with our region's resources. This allows me to ensure you get the support you need.
Clinical Expertise That Centers On Your Needs
My practice is backed by more than 14 years of diverse nursing experience across a variety of complex specialties, including cardiac, neurosurgery, labor and delivery, and emergency psychiatry. Additionally, I bring 11 years of experience as a Certified Case Manager (CCM) specializing in disability, behavioral health, and inpatient acute care. This background means I am uniquely equipped to help you manage the medical, emotional, and systemic challenges you are facing.
My Approach To Care
Today, I draw on this extensive medical background to provide holistic, patient-collaborative care. I use a combination of medication management, brief supportive therapy, deprescribing expertise, and Integrative Psychiatry to help you stabilize an overactive nervous system during high-stress periods, working alongside you to empower you through a new path forward.
My Story
My path into mental health began as a journey of personal survival and professional observation. By the time I was 28 years old, I had navigated several years of compounding grief that completely pulled the ground out from under me. While managing a difficult pregnancy, I suddenly lost my dad, who was my primary parent, protector, and best friend, to a massive heart attack. Just four days later, painful truths surfaced in my marriage while I was still grieving, and the foundation of the life I thought I was building no longer felt secure. I was left trying to figure out how to move forward emotionally, with a baby on the way. Two years later, before I could even catch my breath to rebuild, I received a cancer diagnosis that upended my sense of certainty and security, and ended my reproductive future.
I know what it can feel like when your usual coping skills stop working, when daily life feels overwhelming, and when hope feels far away. I also know that healing does not always happen quickly, but it is possible to find your way back.
Emerging from my own intense chapter, followed by years of working with patients and families in acute medical crises, changed the way I understood care. I watched people face unexpected upheaval and profound life disruptions, and I recognized a painful systemic gap. Healthcare and workplace systems can be efficient at processing the logistics of change. But the person living through it is often left alone with the emotional fallout, anxiety, and grief of a rewritten reality.
I chose psychiatry to step into that exact gap. My purpose is to meet people at the crossroads of major life stressors with integrative, compassionate care that helps them process the heavy lifting of change and find their footing again.
How My Clinical Journey Shaped My Care
My clinical foundation was built in high-pressure healthcare and corporate environments, giving me a deep understanding of how sudden change and major milestones impact human identity and stability. As a Cardiac Nurse at Providence St. Vincent and an Acute Care Case Manager at OHSU, I coordinated complex care across multiple ICU floors and supported critically ill patients and their families through the overwhelming psychological transitions of acute hospitalization.
As a Hospice Intake Nurse, I supported individuals and families through the delicate, emotional threshold of end-of-life care. As a Labor & Delivery nurse, I supported families through the full spectrum of birth. I held space for those enduring the devastating trauma of infant loss and emergency hysterectomies, while also celebrating the profound joy of birth and helping new parents manage the immediate challenges of parenthood before discharge.
Later, as a Nurse Case Manager for The Standard Insurance Company, I assessed disability and behavioral health conditions and saw firsthand how workplace pressure and medical leave can destabilize a person’s financial security and sense of self. Together, these experiences taught me how to support people when their health, identities, families, and careers are suddenly turned upside down.
My Philosophy
I believe that you are already equipped to heal. The problem isn’t that you lack resilience; it’s that the sheer volume of your current distress may be making that resilience difficult to access.
I view my role as helping you turn down that volume. Sometimes, the most compassionate way to do that is through medication. But I view prescriptions as one supportive part of your healing, not the entire answer.
The goal is not simply to manage symptoms. When appropriate, medication can help you weather a crisis and create breathing room, while I also pair it with integrative, practical support for your body, environment, and daily life.
By treating your whole system, my goal is to help build a steady foundation that supports your long-term healing. Together, we choose thoughtful, integrative tools that honor your autonomy, your lived experience, and your own capacity to heal.
What It Feels Like to Work With Me
My goal is for you to feel heard, seen, and understood. I bring a calm, judgment-free presence to our work, especially when life feels chaotic and your nervous system is on high alert. I am not easily rattled, and I do not meet panic with urgency. I respond with steady honesty, careful listening, and genuine care.
I use a gentle but direct approach. I will validate your experience without rushing past it, and when something needs to be said plainly, I aim to do that with kindness rather than harshness. My hope is that our sessions feel like a place where you can exhale, tell the truth, and feel supported as you move through the heavy parts of change.
People who work well with me tend to value honesty, warmth, humor, and a provider who gives them their full attention. I care deeply about helping you feel less alone, more grounded, and more confident that you can find your footing again.
The Human Behind the Clinician
Outside of my work, I’m drawn to quiet, creative practices that help me slow down and notice what is beautiful: photography, gardening, watercolor painting, travel, and beachcombing for sea glass along the Oregon and California coasts. I also share my life with my dachshund and actively support dachshund rescues. These parts of my life help me stay grounded, observant, and connected to small moments of beauty.
If You’re Still Reading This
My hope is that our work helps you recognize yourself again and feel a quiet sense of possibility about the life ahead.
My Credentials
Lisa Heredia, APRN, PMHNP-BC
Master of Science in Nursing, Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Frontier Nursing University, Versailles, Kentucky
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Linfield University, Portland, Oregon
Certified Case Manager (CCM)
14+ years of diverse nursing experience, including emergency psychiatry
11+ years of Case Management experience, with a concentration in short-term disability, long-term disability, behavioral health disability, and inpatient acute care
Cardiac Registered Nurse at Providence St. Vincent
Acute Care Registered Nurse Case Manager at OHSU
Hospice Intake Registered Nurse
Labor & Delivery, Recovery & Postpartum Registered Nurse
Nurse Case Manager for The Standard Insurance Company
Clinical approach includes medication management, brief supportive therapy, and Integrative Psychiatry
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please do not wait for an appointment. This practice is an outpatient facility and does not provide 24/7 emergency services. Please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, text HOME to 741741 to connect with the Crisis Text Line, call 911, or proceed to your nearest emergency room immediately.