Name: Meet Masha: The Full Interview
Uploaded: 2026-09-01T15:54:27-06:00
Duration: 3 min 18 s
Description: In this longer conversation, Masha shares how her own story led her to this work, how she holds unhurried sessions, and why she believes there is always hope.

In this longer conversation, Masha introduces herself: a board-certified psychiatric and family nurse practitioner who came to this field through her own struggles with mental health and her relationship with her daughter.

She talks about the people she tends to meet, those who have tried medications and years of therapy and still feel stuck, and about working differently. Her sessions run long and unhurried, most of them closer to an hour, because the conversation is the point.

Her message throughout is steady and plain. "What you're feeling is absolutely valid," she says, "and there's always hope." Facilitation with MycoMuse is distinct from medical, psychiatric, and psychotherapy services, and is open to adults 21 and older.

My name is Maria, some people know me as Masha, and I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I am also a family nurse practitioner, and I came to psychiatry through my own struggles with mental health, as well as my struggles with my relationship with my daughter. And I do what I do to really help others find a better way of connecting with their loved ones, but also to help them with mental disorders that they might be suffering from.

I applied to a family nurse practitioner's school with a letter where I described my own struggles with an eating disorder growing up as a teenager, and I did not realize that psychiatry was something that was actually meant for me. I went through the school, I started to work with people from all backgrounds, especially immigrants and underprivileged people. And time and again, I noticed that people suffered from physical illnesses that they did not attribute to their mental health, and really the root causes of their physical or somatic expressions were mental health issues. I decided that I needed to know more about mental health and how to treat it, so I went back to school and specialized in psychiatry because of that. Little did I know that in return, I would get a better relationship with my daughter, with myself, and really heal some other issues that I had suffered with myself.

I have patients who sometimes feel stuck. They have tried everything, they have tried multiple medications, they have tried therapy sometimes for years, and nothing helps, and they feel exhausted, they feel stuck. And to them, I want to say: it is valid. What you are feeling is absolutely valid, and there is always hope. There are always other ways of addressing things like depression and anxiety and OCD, and just feeling off. There are other ways, including supplements, including lifestyle modifications, including getting outside of your possibly toxic environment, and potentially a psychedelic-assisted therapy as well.

So my approach is a little bit different from other psychiatric providers, in the sense that I do not rush my appointments. My appointments usually take longer than an average psychiatric appointment. My follow-ups are usually 20 to 30 minutes, and it is really a short appointment. Most of my appointments are closer to an hour, so 50 minutes, and my intakes are closer to 90 minutes, so they are definitely longer and unrushed. I wish people knew that no matter where they are at in their healing journey, healing is possible, that there is a way to get better, there is always hope.