Experience with the places where medicine, loss, meaning, and mental health meet.
More than two decades in palliative care continue to shape how I listen, how I think about suffering, and how I understand the possibility of meaning even during difficult chapters of life.
Robert Smeltz, NP, PMHNP, ACHPN
I am a board-certified psychiatric and palliative care nurse practitioner. I have worked as a palliative care nurse practitioner for more than 20 years and now bring that clinical experience into psychiatric care and therapy.
My years in palliative care taught me that the end of life can be a very special time. It can be painful, uncertain, and deeply challenging, but it can also bring extraordinary clarity about relationships, priorities, meaning, and what it means to truly live.
I work with older adults, people facing serious illness, and people experiencing grief or loss. I also welcome adults who are not seriously ill but who want a thoughtful place to examine fears about death, aging, uncertainty, or the limits of life—and to ask whether facing those fears could make room for a freer, richer life.
My approach
Therapy with me is collaborative and reflective. I will not impose a particular philosophy about life or death. Instead, we can examine what you are experiencing, what you fear, what you value, and what you want more of in the life you have now.
I also treat depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorders, including symptoms that arise in the context of illness, caregiving, aging, bereavement, retirement, or other major transitions.