Our Story
Paperflower is another name for a Boungavillea.
This is a beautiful, brightly colored plant that continues to thrive in the harshest conditions of the desert -- showing a level of resilience that people with trauma and mental health concerns often
show (without realizing it).
Paperflower Psychiatry, LLC was launched in October 2020.
Maria had been previously working at a community mental health agency and attempted to make negotiations to match the income of her male nurse practitioner coworker. Negotiations went south, human resources and the chief financial officer laughed at her request. She was already distraught at being burnt out from seeing a huge amount of patients in a short period of time. She was tired of being treated poorly by leadership, and not being able to advocate or create quality care for her patients. She was disgusted by case workers and intake specialists who were actively transphobic and homophobic, refusing to use patient's pronouns and chosen names. She was done with being looked at as a cash cow to make money for people who gave no fucks about the patients.
At this point, she said "fuck it" and quit on the spot. If places like that could be corrupt as fuck and thrive, what would hold us back from having a practice that could be better? That could provide better quality care. That could OPENLY support the LGBTQIA+ population and fight health disparities. That could only hire on providers who give a fuck. That could put access to care before money. She registered for an LLC, designed her own website and started the practice that very weekend.
Jon Frank was already scheduled to precept by then.. so he ended up training with Maria throughout the launch of the practice. He was asked to join the team upon graduation. From there, we've just been growing.
Read the article about the launch of the practice here.
