Our Founder
Katherine Tharp, M.D.
Administrative Assistant
Chelsey Quijana
Experience and Approach:
Dr. Tharp realized early on in training the quality of the relationship she has with her patients mattered greatly with regard to treatment outcomes, more so than the severity of the illness or the medications prescribed. She places significant value on the relationships with her patients and is adept at helping them work through resistance and barriers that prevent them from having the best outcomes. As such, she adheres to a patient-centered approach, which means that she is sensitive to individual patient preferences, needs and values, ensuring those values are guiding all clinical decisions. Her goal is to empower patients to the point where she is no longer needed.
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She has experience working in many settings, including inpatient psychiatric units, psychiatric emergency departments, private hospitals, community mental health crisis centers and outpatient psychiatric clinics. She has extensive experience seeing patients in person as well as via telepsychiatry. Upon graduating from residency and prior to opening her private practice, she served four years in the United States Air Force, working in a large outpatient group practice as a staff psychiatrist before being promoted to Medical Director at that clinic, overseeing the clinical work of a large group of clinicians, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers. She has contributed to the field of psychiatry through training medical students, as well as psychiatry and family medicine residents.
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Passions and Interests:
Dr. Tharp and her husband co-founded a non-profit 501c3 after he arrived home from deployment in Kandahar, Afghanistan. While she is no longer active duty, she and her husband remain committed to serving the active duty military and veteran population, as well as their families. Their organization, Project Healing Heroes, is a passion project founded in 2016 that keeps them quite busy.
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Credentials:
Dr. Katherine Tharp is a physician who is Board Certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Her interest, curiosity, and love of people led her to initially pursue training to become a psychotherapist. She completed a master's degree in Counseling Psychology and quickly learned upon graduation that she desired the training and skills to better understand and treat the biological aspects of her client's problems in addition to the psychosocial aspects. This led her to pursue medicine at the age of 35 at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. She fell in love with psychiatry and never looked back. She completed psychiatry residency at Baylor Scott and White Healthcare in Temple, Texas. Throughout medical school and residency, she was recognized for her exemplary work. She was awarded the Excellence in Psychiatry Award, given to outstanding graduating medical students and residents, at both medical school and residency graduation ceremonies. She was also selected by vote of her peers to receive the Sanders Garg Award in 2015, that is given to one graduating medical student who has demonstrated resiliency in the face of adversity throughout training.
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Credentials:
Chelsey joined Balance Psychiatry & Wellness, PLLC, in February 2024 as a virtual assistant and has proved to be an integral part of the practice. She is the first point of contact for all new patients and understands the importance of making potential patients feel comfortable and cared for. She is quite adept at this. She was trained as a registered pharmacist in the Phillipines, bringing a wealth of knowledge in pharmacology and patient counseling. While Chelsey did phenomenally academically during her pharmacy program, she also excelled clinically and was recognized as a valued leader. Empathy and compassion come natural to her. She believes the heart of every team is only as good as the people behind it, and she works hard to better those around her. Her compassionate nature is evident in her experiences dealing with diverse patients during internships in community and hospital pharmacies and she has seamlessly integrated her wealth of experiences and wisdom into her role as a virtual healthcare assistant, ensuring that each patient interested in establishing care with Dr. Tharp is treated respectfully and with compassion from the very first encounter.
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Passions and Interests:
Chelsey enjoys spending time with her cherished friends, family and boyfriend. Beyond the professional arena, Chelsey's creativity shines through her participation in
pageantry, going to the beach, trying new food, learning new things, and always finds learning fascinating. She likes adventures very much.
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