GD psych to keep expanding in RR and NM

RIO RANCHO — GD Psych Services celebrated another opening April 1 with a ribbon cutting at the company’s location near the corner of Southern Boulevard and NM 528.

Dr. Stacey Goldstein-Dwyer, president and CEO, now has five Rio Rancho locations out of nine total locations. All are in New Mexico with the exception of a New Hampshire location.

“So actually, this grand opening is for several of our locations because we didn’t get to do one for all of our spots,” she said.

There are more locations Goldstein-Dwyer plans to open, and she said she would keep expanding. One of the opening locations is located behind Latitudes next to L&L Hawaiian BBQ and Big Brothers Bricks on NM 528. Additionally, the state of New Mexico gave the practice a grant to open up a practice in Los Lunas and “we found a building and we’re just about to do construction,” Goldstein-Dwyer said.

All locations offer the same services, including therapy for couples, adults and children; evaluations; and medication management, according to Goldstein-Dwyer. She said she chose Rio Rancho for most of her locations because she lives in the city.

“We grew exponentially in 2020, and we needed locations and, of course, I live here. I just want to stay here,” she said.

When she first started, she wanted to have all her services in one building but couldn’t. “The goal is in a couple of years to bring all of our Rio Rancho locations together into one cohesive building, but that’s kind of why we have so many locations here,” she said. “There’s just a lot more need or requests for Rio Rancho, if you believe it or not,” she said.

She said there has been an increase in need since the COVID pandemic, attributing it to isolation.

“That’s the reason I grew so big, so fast, really. We were sharing in a building right across from the police station on Quantum Road. Very nice building, but they have other businesses in there. So, as a business would leave, I would take that office because we were already starting to grow, but I only had, like, four providers at that time,” she explained. “Then COVID happened and, literally, March 2020, we are growing out of our space very quickly.”

That need was the catalyst for her many locations, three of which opened in 2020.

But Goldstein-Dwyer said people are also growing more comfortable with the idea of getting therapy.

“I think it’s getting better and less stigmatizing,” she said.” But there are a lot of people are afraid to say, ‘Hey, I need help,’ or, ‘Hey, I just need somebody to talk to who’s not my wife, my spouse, my friend or loved one.’”

Now people are content in saying they got the help they needed, she added. She said it has become the “good, cool” thing to do. Therapy, she explained, has been stereotyped in entertainment media in the past and people often have no real idea what therapy is like.

“They don’t know what it’s supposed to be. They see it on TV, and you’ve got a couch, and you lie down on the couch and talk to the provider, and sometimes it’s a Freudian provider, so they have their back to you. Or like Sopranos relationship,” she said. “And so they have a lot of misconceived notions or misperceptions on what therapy is supposed to look like.”

She said in reality there are different modalities to receive service from a provider. GD Psych has art therapy, music therapy, equine psychotherapy and much more. “So when people come in, it’s about making sure that they understand what the expectations are, like making sure that both have the same expectation letting them know how therapy is going to go versus, ‘Let’s just throw you into the water, and you got to try it out and figure it out for yourself’,” she said.

One of the main groups she helps at GD Psych are the first responder and military communities, and this hits close to home for her because she is a retired Army captain.

“I was a psychologist in the Army. That means a lot to me, and my brother is a fireman, so I really want to support our military and our first responders,” Goldstein-Dwyer said.

The psych service has crisis lines and other contact information for those in service to get an appointment “within 30 seconds.”

“We want to make sure that they get the treatment they need,” Goldstein-Dwyer said. We have enough providers where there’s always a cancellation, but sometimes, if there isn’t, we will cancel somebody else to get a military person in there and get seen and stabilized. Our mission to our community is everyone, but I have a special love for first responders and the military.”

Goldstein-Dwyer’s heart also lies with the autistic community, whether they are diagnosed or not.

“We have a lot of autistic folks who don’t have the diagnosis, don’t have the treatment they need, are misunderstood, and we are certainly a place to stop at for support in every way possible,” she said.

For more information, visit gdpsychservices.com.