Karen Chen, CRNP

Karen (Yang) Chen, CRNP is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specializing in medication management for a variety of mental health disorders in adolescents (ages 18 and older) and adults, including depression, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, PMDD, bipolar disorder, and more. Ms. Chen offers a warm, empathic, non-judgmental, and collaborative treatment approach. Her philosophy is that using psychotherapy, coping skills, and healthy lifestyle choices combined with psychiatric medications often result in the best treatment outcomes. She offers medication management, therapy, or a combination of the two. If you are only seeking medication management, she can work closely with your therapist to ensure continuity of care.

COLLEGE, NURSING SCHOOL, MASTERS IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING AND BOARD CERTIFICATION TO PRESCRIBE PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS, AND RESIDENCY:

Karen Chen, CRNP received her first Bachelors of Science degree in Clinical Psychology, graduating magna cum laude from Tufts University. This background in clinical psychology and additional training in various therapeutic modalities allows her to incorporate therapy with medication management to create a more holistic treatment approach. Ms. Chen then graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, and later summa cum laude with a Masters of Science in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Chen has a strong research background and incorporates evidence-based treatments into her practice. Before nursing school, she worked in clinical research at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Home Base Program, a mental health clinic for veterans and their families. Her research on PTSD, anxiety disorders, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) culminated in numerous publications, symposium presentations, and poster presentations at both national and international professional conferences. She also has experience working as a Mental Health Specialist at the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders unit at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

After graduating as a nurse practitioner, she was accepted into one of the few psychiatric nurse practitioner residency programs available in the nation, at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC. This extra training allowed her to work in diverse clinical settings including outpatient psychiatry, inpatient psychiatry, psychiatric emergency department, consult liaison psychiatry, and substance use disorder clinic.

POST-RESIDENCY APPOINTMENTS & ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS:

• American Psychiatric Nurses Association Board of Directors Scholar
• Appointed Clinical and Simulation Instructor at The University of Pennsylvania
• Licensed as Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
• Board Certified in Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Nursing
• Licensed to prescribe psychiatric medications: Psychopharmacologist
• Proficient in Mandarin Chinese, but patients must speak some English.