PA Mindset Matters

Season 2 Reflection: Highlights from Psych PA Institute, Guest Stories, and What’s Next

Hosts Mercedes Dodge and Jessica Spissinger of PA Mindset Matters reflect on wrapping their second season, highlighting interviews largely recorded at the inaugural PA Institute collaboration between Psych Congress and AAPA and previewing its return in early December in Orlando. They discuss their mission to connect psychiatric PAs and share standout guest takeaways. They note psych PA presence at AAPA, announce next season starting fall 2026 focusing on substance use, invite guests via pamindset.com, and thank APAP and supporters while sharing slide access through membership.

Caring Beyond Diagnosis: Humanity, Intellectual Disability, and the Heart of Psychiatry I Jo A. Hughes DMSc, PA-C, CAQ-Psychiatry

In medicine, it’s easy to focus on diagnoses, treatment plans, and checklists.
But some of the most meaningful moments in care happen when we pause long enough to see the person beyond them.
In this episode of Mindset Matters, we sit down with a leader in psychiatry to explore what it truly means to care for patients with intellectual and developmental differences—and how these experiences reshape the way we practice medicine as a whole.
This conversation goes beyond career paths. It’s about humanity in care—and the responsibility we carry as clinicians to approach patients with curiosity, compassion, and respect for their lived experience.
We explore:
Caring for patients with intellectual disabilities in a system not always built for them
Shifting from a diagnosis-driven model to a person-centered approach
How psychiatry deepens our understanding of behavior, communication, and connection
What these patients teach us about presence, patience, and meaning in medicine
This episode is a reminder that some of the most impactful care we provide doesn’t come from having the right answer—
It comes from being willing to see, listen, and understand more deeply.
Whether you work in psychiatry or another specialty, this conversation will challenge you to think differently about what it means to truly care for your patients.
 

Mini Mindset: Menopause & Mental Health—Recognizing Hormonal Drivers Behind Mood Symptoms

In this Mini Mindset episode, we explore the often-overlooked connection between menopause, perimenopause, and mental health.
Many women present with symptoms that look like depression or anxiety—but what if the underlying driver is hormonal?
We discuss:
The clinical overlap between mood disorders and perimenopause
Why some patients experience partial response to SSRIs
The role of sleep disruption, vasomotor symptoms, and estrogen fluctuations
How to differentiate brain fog vs ADHD vs mood disorders
Practical treatment considerations, including SNRIs and collaborative care with OB-GYN
We also highlight insights from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) and why clinicians need a broader lens when treating midlife patients.
This is a conversation about curiosity, validation, and better care for women in transition.

From Life to Lessons: Ava Smith's Path in Psychiatry

In this episode of The Mindset Matters, psychiatric PAs Mercedes Dodge and Jessica Spissinger interview Ava, a psych PA and clinical assistant professor at Texas A&M, about her transition from emergency psychiatry to outpatient academic practice. She reflects on working across 13 Houston-area hospitals, the lack of continuity in emergency care, and how her mother’s mental illness shaped her path into psychiatry later in life. Ava discusses her current role—primarily adult outpatient care with teaching responsibilities—along with PA advocacy, job-search strategies, and prescribing challenges in Texas. She also shares favorite resources and wellness habits like puzzles and Peloton.

Embracing Summertime Mood Challenges: Reverse SAD Explained

In this episode of PA Mindset Matters Mini Mindset, hosts Jessica Spissinger and Mercedes Dodge review the third and final seasonal onset mood disorder discussing “reverse seasonal affective disorder,” or summer-onset depression. They note it’s less common than winter-onset SAD (about 0.5–2.5% vs. 5–10%) and can be missed because summer is assumed to be a season which most people enjoy. However, for those who struggle with summer depression, it may present atypically with agitation, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, appetite loss, and weight loss, sometimes resembling anxiety or manic irritability, and is linked to prolonged daylight, humidity, heat, and circadian disruption (including spring time change). They emphasize planning ahead, screening for seasonal patterns over at least two years, and prioritizing environmental management (dimming evening light, reducing screens, blue-light blockers, blackout curtains, temperature control, avoiding the “indoor trap,” and timing outdoor activity). We review psychotropic, lifestyle and treatment planning approaches.

More Than the Patient: How Psychiatry PAs Impact Entire Families

In this episode of PA Mindset Matters, hosts Mercedes Dodge, PA-C and Jessica Spissinger, PA-C connect with psychiatric physician assistant Jasprina Ming, DMS, MPAS, PA-C at Psych Congress to discuss pathways into psychiatry, the mental health workforce shortage, and the broader impact of psychiatric care.
Jasprina shares how growing up with a mother with mental illness shaped her perspective, emphasizing that treating one patient often means supporting an entire family and community while helping reduce stigma around mental health.
She also discusses her clinical approach to depression, anxiety, and ADHD, highlighting the importance of both psychopharmacology and psychotherapy in outpatient care.
Her career journey includes transitioning from a registered vascular technologist (RVT), where she performed vascular ultrasounds, to becoming a PA to be more involved in the full continuum of patient care. Despite being told that opportunities for PAs in psychiatry were limited in her area, she pursued the field through dedicated training and mentorship.
The conversation also explores the realities of practicing psychiatry, including maintaining boundaries, avoiding burnout, and staying present outside of work. She shares practical strategies such as completing documentation during the workday and intentionally disconnecting after clinic to be fully present with family.
This episode highlights the human side of psychiatric care and reinforces that mental health is health, and that every clinician plays a role in recognizing and supporting it.

The Collaborative Shift: Breaking Down Healthcare Barriers | Mini Mindset Series

Mental health doesn’t live in one clinic—it shows up everywhere.
In this Mini Mindset episode of PA Mindset Matters, Mercedes Dodge, PA-C and Jessica Spissinger, PA-C take a closer look at collaborative care and why integrating behavioral health across specialties is essential for improving patient outcomes and reducing provider burnout.
From primary care to pediatrics to specialty clinics, behavioral health is already present—but too often, care is delivered in silos. In this episode, we explore how shifting toward a team-based, integrated model can help close gaps in care, reduce fragmentation, and support more comprehensive, patient-centered treatment.
Whether you’re in psychiatry, primary care, or any specialty managing complex patients, this episode offers practical insight into how collaborative care can be applied in real-world settings.

From Military Service to Mental Health Advocacy: Edward Traverso's Story

In this episode of The PA Mindset Matters, hosts Mercedes Dodge and Jessica Spissinger interview Edward Traverso about how his military deployment shaped his commitment to mental health. Edward describes discovering the PA profession, working on an adult inpatient involuntary unit, and completing a one-year psychiatry PA residency at the VA in Houston partnered with Baylor. Now practicing addiction psychiatry at New Start Clinic in Washington and Oregon, he emphasizes the role of substances in mental health, the importance of empathy and motivational interviewing, and building a non-paternalistic therapeutic alliance. He shares resources like The Carlat Report, NEI, and PCSS training, discusses diversifying roles to reduce burnout, and highlights interests including correctional psychiatry and interventional psychiatry. Edward’s path is a story of service, purpose, and redefining what it means to practice patient-centered care.

Mini-Mindset: Spring-Onset Mania--Understanding Seasonal Patterns in Bipolar Disorder

In this Mini Mindset episode of PA Mindset Matters, Jessica Spissinger and Mercedes Dodge discuss spring-onset mania as a seasonal pattern in bipolar disorder. Seasonal patterns require a consistent relationship with a specific time of year for at least two years, with manic episodes most often peaking in spring and autumn. They review manic symptoms using the DIGFAST mnemonic and distinguish hypomania from mania by duration, functional impairment, and possible psychosis.
The episode explores potential mechanisms including increased light exposure, circadian rhythm disruption, melatonin changes, dopamine variation, and genetic clock-gene vulnerability.
Treatment emphasizes acuity-based management, including mood stabilizers and antipsychotics for acute mania, with ECT for severe cases, and prevention strategies such as consistent sleep schedules, reduced evening light exposure, dark therapy, and blue-light–blocking glasses. The hosts also discuss a calendar-based prevention approach around the spring daylight-saving time change and share additional resources at pamindset.com.

How One Psychiatric PA Combines AI, Psychiatry & Music to Help Patients

Psychiatric PA Serah Sulaiman, MPAS, PA-C joins PA Mindset Matters to discuss pediatric mental health, emotional dysregulation, and Partial Hospitalization (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient (IOP) treatment programs.
In this episode, hosts Mercedes Dodge, PA-C and Jessica Spissinger, PA-C explore Serah’s path from teaching to psychiatry and her work supporting high-acuity youth transitioning from inpatient care, residential programs, or periods of school disruption back into daily life.
We discuss emotional dysregulation, interdisciplinary collaboration in behavioral health, and the role of creative outlets—like music and art—in helping patients develop healthier coping skills.
Serah also completed the CLINAQ Fellowship through Morehouse School of Medicine, where she explored innovative approaches to emotional dysregulation.
Outside of clinical practice, she creates music under the name Xyla (on TikTok), using songwriting to connect with others around mental health.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform.🌐 Read the blog recap at www.PAMindset.com