Annie Henderson, DNP, PMHNP-BC, brings over 25 years of healthcare experience and a rare combination of clinical depth, psychiatric expertise, and a genuine commitment to root-cause medicine. As a Doctor of Nursing Practice and ANCC board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Annie joined Serenity Health Care Center to expand the practice’s capacity for comprehensive, integrative mental health care — and to serve as the clinical lead for medication management and deprescribing through the TaperClinic.
Annie’s path into mental health was forged in the trenches of healthcare. After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Carroll-Columbia College of Nursing in 2000, she spent years working across diverse clinical settings — witnessing firsthand how profoundly mental health shapes every aspect of a person’s physical well-being. That insight became a calling. She pursued her advanced training with purpose, accumulating eight years of hands-on experience in both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings before completing her Doctor of Nursing Practice at Rush University in 2023.
What sets Annie apart is not only her clinical training — it is her philosophy. She believes the most meaningful psychiatric care begins with truly knowing a person: their biology, their history, their environment, and their goals. Annie creates a warm, judgment-free space where patients feel seen and heard, and where the goal is never simply to manage symptoms — it is to understand what is driving them.
A Functional Approach to Psychiatry
Annie is currently completing a year-long functional psychiatry fellowship — an intensive, clinically focused program that examines the biological, nutritional, hormonal, genetic, environmental, and psychosocial roots of psychiatric conditions. This training is reshaping how she approaches every patient encounter.
Functional psychiatry does not replace conventional care — it elevates it. Annie integrates evidence-based psychiatric medicine with advanced testing to identify and correct the underlying biochemical imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, hormonal disruptions, and systemic factors that conventional psychiatry rarely investigates. For patients who have tried medication after medication without ever feeling truly well, this approach can be transformative.
