Bedside to Boardroom.
The PMHNP identity retreat.
For bedside-rooted nurses crossing into psych — RNs, FNPs, PNPs, adult-gero NPs — and for newly-credentialed PMHNPs stepping into their first role. Four days that hold the nervous system and the credentialing paperwork. You leave with the identity claimed, the contract questions answered, and a 90-day plan you actually believe in.
You are not just changing jobs.
You are becoming a new clinician.
The pivot from the bedside into psychiatry — whatever specialty you came from — is not a credentialing problem. It is an identity problem dressed up as one. The board exam is the easy part. The harder work is the one nobody warns you about: learning to sit in the prescribing chair without losing the part of you that knew how to be at the bedside.
This retreat exists for the four days in between. Four days to land the nervous system, claim the new role honestly, and walk out with the concrete pieces — credentialing, contracts, the first ninety days — already mapped.
The hardest part of becoming a PMHNP is not the prescribing. It is becoming the clinician who can.
Two thresholds.
One cohort.
Bedside to Boardroom holds two groups in the same room — and they are better together. The crossers learn from the steady. The steady remember why they crossed.
Bedside-rooted nurses stepping into psych — RNs, FNPs, PNPs, AGPCNPs/AGACNPs
You are mid-career, established in your patient population, and the pull toward psych will not quiet down. You have weighed the post-grad certificate, the second board exam, the cost of the change. This room is for the honest version of that decision.
New PMHNPs in their first prescribing role
You passed boards. The license arrived. And the impostor voice arrived right behind it. This room is for the first ninety days — what to prescribe, what to refuse, how to ask the questions a new prescriber is allowed to ask without losing the room.
Four days.
Four movements.
Not an agenda — an arc. About half identity and inner work, half concrete career architecture. The inner work is what makes the architecture stick.
Land
Arrive. Drop the role. Open with a small circle and the question underneath the career move. We do not start with paperwork. We start with the body.
Claim
The identity work. Who are you becoming as a prescriber. What you keep from the bedside. What is allowed to change. Held by a clinician who made the exact crossing.
Build
Credentialing without the gauntlet. Contract red flags. The first ninety days of a new PMHNP role. Concrete enough to take home, slow enough to absorb.
Return
Integration. Your ninety-day plan, written. A closing circle. You walk out with the decision claimed, the work mapped, and the small room of peers who saw you cross.
Inner work, real architecture, and genuine rest.
Tap each day to expand. Inner Build Restore
Day One · LandThursday · Arrival & opening
Arrival & settling Restore
Check-in, room, the slow walk that means the work has begun even before the work begins.
Opening circle: the question underneath Inner
The honest question that brought you here, named out loud, in a small room. Not the LinkedIn version. The real one.
Dinner & rest Restore
One shared meal. Then silence. Sleep matters here.
Day Two · ClaimFriday · Identity work
Regulation practice Restore
Movement or breath. The body has to come with us.
Who are you becoming Inner
The identity work. What you keep from the bedside. What the prescribing chair asks of you. What is allowed to grieve.
White space & bodywork Restore
Unscheduled. Rest, walk, or book a massage.
The impostor voice, honestly Inner
Where it comes from. What it is actually trying to protect. How to keep working with it in the room without letting it run the visit.
Day Three · BuildSaturday · The architecture
Credentialing without the gauntlet Build
The actual sequence — CAQH, NPI, payer panels, supervising agreements. What to do first. What to skip. What costs more in time than money.
Contract red flags Build
What to look for in your first PMHNP offer. RVU vs. salary. Productivity floors. Non-competes. What is negotiable and what is not.
White space Restore
The "I figured it out at lunch" hour.
The first ninety days Build
What to expect. What to refuse. How to ask the questions a new prescriber is allowed to ask.
Day Four · ReturnSunday · Integration & close
Your ninety-day plan, written Build
Translate the weekend into the first three months. Honest first moves, not aspirational ones.
Closing circle Inner
What you carry out. What you leave here. Who saw you cross.
Send-off & one last meal Restore
Then the slow drive home, the way it should be.
A small team that has made the crossing.
One lead clinician who has lived the path. One trauma-informed therapist for the inner work. One business advisor for the architecture. Nobody talks at you. The room does the work.
Dr. Shukairo "Shay" Baker, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, PMHNP-C, FNP-C, CNE, LCSW, LCAS
Doctorally prepared, double board-certified PMHNP (AANP and ANCC) and independently licensed clinical social worker. Founder of TheraPsych Institute. Crossed from FNP to PMHNP and now trains the clinicians coming up behind her.
Guest trauma-informed therapist
A licensed clinician who holds the identity and grief work alongside Dr. Baker. Named at registration so you know the room before you walk in.
Credentialing & contracts advisor
The person who walks you through the paperwork without making it feel like paperwork. Real-world, current to the cycle you are about to enter.
Inaugural cohort.
The first Bedside to Boardroom. Eight to fourteen clinicians. Held pricing for this cohort only.
- Four days of programming and the full curriculum
- 16 CE contact hours, accredited
- Lodging and meals on retreat
- Small-cohort facilitation (8–14 clinicians)
- Personalized ninety-day plan, written on retreat
- Six months of cohort continuation calls
A non-refundable deposit holds your place; the balance can be split into a payment plan. Full terms in your registration agreement.
Questions before you reserve.
I haven't finished my PMHNP post-grad yet. Am I too early?
No. About a third of the inaugural cohort will be in the middle of the post-grad certificate or considering it. The retreat holds the question, not just the answer. If anything, coming before the decision is locked in is the point.
I am two years into my first PMHNP role. Am I too late?
Also no. The early-career PMHNP voice — the impostor voice, the contract regret, the wondering whether you should have stayed at the bedside — is exactly the voice this retreat is built for. The room is designed to hold both ends of the crossing.
Will I get actual CE hours?
Yes. 16 accredited continuing education contact hours, applied to your license. CE certificate issued at the close of the retreat.
What is the venue?
A small residential property in the Carolinas, named to registered participants approximately ninety days before the retreat. Single-occupancy rooms when available. Dietary accommodations welcomed.
What if I need to cancel?
Your deposit secures your seat and is non-refundable — that is what lets us keep the cohort small and confirmed. Full cancellation terms and payment-plan options are in your registration agreement.
Other ways to cross with us.
PMHNP Foundations · the trainings track
If you want the curriculum without the residential format, the Foundations and Pivot trainings hold the same material across structured cohorts and self-paced study.
See all trainings →Credentialing to Collections
The architecture half of this retreat — credentialing, contracts, the first ninety days — held as a private consulting engagement when the timing of the retreat does not match yours.
See consulting →The crossing is real.
So is the room that holds it.
If the question of becoming a PMHNP has been with you for a while, this is the four days to bring it into the open. Reserve a seat. Or write us and tell us where you are on the question — we will be in touch about fit, dates, and the next cohort if this one is full.