Exploring Life & Business with Erik Larson of Larson Mental Health

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erik Larson.

Hi Erik , so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a Colorado native and have lived here for most of my life. After high school, I attended CSU in Fort Collins and got a degree in Anthropology. After graduation, I moved back to the Denver area with my then-girlfriend, now wife, Sarah. We have a long history; we went to the same preschool and became friends in high school. After she graduated from Columbia University in NYC, she moved back to Denver, where we crossed paths again, and started dating.

After working a couple different jobs, I decided to go back to school to become a nurse. I got my BSN in 2004 and began working as an RN in 2005. I worked for several years at Craig Hospital and Swedish Medical Center, during which time, Sarah and I got married and we built our family of four wonderful children.

In 2011, I received a scholarship from the army to attend nurse practitioner school at the CU Anschutz campus. I graduated in 2013 and was commissioned as a healthcare officer in the army, where I would work as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner treating soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle. We moved the whole family to Washington during that time and moved back to Denver after my 3-year commitment to the army was finished.

Upon moving back to Denver, I worked in community mental health for a time before Sarah convinced me to try working for myself. She’s an attorney and has owned several successful businesses. We opened Larson Mental Health in early 2018 with locations in Denver and Boulder and me as the only treatment provider. Sarah’s business acumen led to us steadily expand the practice to the point where we now have offices in Denver, Boulder, Highlands Ranch, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs. We have 20 employees, 13 of whom are nurse practitioners. We provide mental health treatment and psychiatric medication management to people throughout the front range, as well as Wyoming.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The healthcare industry is a complicated mass of frequently changing regulations, financial interests, insurance companies, and shareholders. We always need to be aware of changes in this environment, including new treatments and medications, and keeping our training and continuing education and clinical skills up to date.

In 2020, the pandemic caused widespread upheaval in healthcare, amplified for our practice by the fact that we had just begun to expand and hire new personnel at the end of 2019. Over one weekend in March 2020, as the world was locking down, we had to manage the rapid transition from all our patient interactions happening in person, to becoming a primarily telehealth practice. At the same time, we had hired several new nurse practitioners. Although telehealth had existed prior to the pandemic, it was relatively uncommon. Most healthcare workers and patients had little to no exposure to telehealth, and navigating that process was a constant learning experience. Throughout the pandemic, we never stopped providing in person treatment when appropriate, and now offer access both in person and via telehealth.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Larson Mental Health?
Larson Mental Health is a trusted mental healthcare provider offering diagnostic evaluations, evidence-based treatment, and medication management to patients of all ages. Our highly trained team of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners provides in-person and telehealth 90-minute consultations to properly diagnose patients and ensure you get the care you need in the best possible format.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
My all-time favorite book is probably The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey. I’ve also recently been reading a lot of work by Stephen Graham Jones, who happens to be a professor at CU Boulder. His most recent book The Buffalo Hunter Hunter (not a typo), is great.

As far as podcasts go, I enjoy listening to history. Sarah got me started listening to The Rest is History. It’s a fantastic podcast by two British historians who delve into such a wide range of world history, I’m constantly learning about people, places, and events that I never realized would be so fascinating. However, if you really want a deep dive into a subject, it’s hard to beat Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. From Genghis Kahn to the nuclear arms race, his podcast series can be a marathon, some single episodes are five or six hours long, but they’re so interesting I can hardly wait for the next ones to be released.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.larsonmentalhealth.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/larsonmentalhealth
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/larson-mental-health/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@larsonmentalhealth5160
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/larson-mental-health-denver

Image Credits
Sarah Lurie