Lavender Spectrum Health

11/09/2025

✨ Happy Nurse Practitioner Week! ✨

At Lavender Spectrum Health, we’re proud to celebrate the NPs who make our model of slow, relationship-centered, neurodiversity-affirming care possible.

Our NPs provide:
• 60-minute new-patient visits + 30-minute follow-ups
• Trauma-informed primary care
• Gender-affirming hormone therapy & surgical support with letters and referrals
• Inclusive sexual & reproductive health
• Chronic illness + wellness care
• Mental health medication management
• Sensory-friendly, HAES-aligned care for all bodies

Thank you to our incredible NP team for caring deeply, advocating fiercely, and building a safer healthcare experience for our community. 💜
We see you. We appreciate you. We couldn’t do this without you.

11/08/2025

Innovations in IUD Insertion at Lavender Spectrum Health

At Lavender Spectrum Health, we are committed to delivering inclusive, compassionate, high-quality reproductive care that aligns with our mission to serve underserved and gender-diverse communities. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we will now be offering the Carevix® cervical stabilizer during IUD insertions.

🔹 Traditionally during IUD insertions a tenaculum (a small clamp) is used to hold the cervix in place — for many patients this causes pain and bleeding.
🔹 Carevix® instead uses gentle suction technology to stabilize the cervix without piercing or grasping.
🔹 Clinical data suggest that this suction-based approach can reduce pain during IUD insertion by more than 70% and bleeding by more than 80%.
🔹 What this means for our patients: fewer barriers to accessing long-acting contraception, a more comfortable and dignified experience, and care that respects the needs of people who may have avoided IUDs due to fear of pain or previous trauma.

💬 We know that for many individuals — including trans, non-binary, gender-diverse folks, and people with complex health or anatomy histories — reproductive procedures can feel especially anxiety-provoking. By bringing in innovations like Carevix®, we’re raising the standard of care in a way that aligns with our core values of autonomy, respect, and dignity.

If you’re interested in learning more about this offering — whether you’re a patient, community partner, or referral source — we’d love to connect. Together, we will continue to build a practice where everyone receives the thoughtful, affirming care they deserve.

11/04/2025

We are thrilled to announce Nurse Practitioner Mattie will be joining us in December 2025!

Martha “Mattie” Geisheker (she/her), RN, MSN, ANP-C is a board-certified Adult Nurse Practitioner with over 20 years of experience providing compassionate, evidence-based care across primary care, reproductive health, urgent care, emergency medicine, and veteran trauma recovery settings. She earned both her BSN and MSN from Oregon Health & Science University, completing dual training in Adult and Women’s Health nurse-practitioner tracks. Her clinical background includes serving veterans living with PTSD and complex trauma, supporting individuals across the lifespan with chronic and acute conditions, and delivering full-spectrum gynecologic care, including menopause support, contraceptive management, pelvic health, and trauma-informed reproductive care

Mattie’s approach to care centers on deep listening, patient autonomy, and being fully present with each person she serves. Growing up in a family of ten siblings taught her early that listening is powerful—an ethos that continues to guide her practice today. She is deeply committed to health equity and brings experience working with LGBTQ+ communities, neurodivergent patients, individuals living with trauma, and culturally diverse communities, including service within the Navajo Nation

With a strong belief in the dignity and agency of every person, she strives to create a welcoming, collaborative, and affirming healthcare experience rooted in respect, curiosity, and shared decision-making.

Outside the clinic, Mattie finds grounding in nature and practices a pantheistic connection to the world—seeing the sacred in everyday life and especially in the outdoors. She enjoys time with family and friends, cooking as a meditative practice, and exploring the Pacific Northwest. Mattie is honored to join Lavender Spectrum Health in providing accessible, relationship-based care that uplifts identity, fosters safety, and meets each patient with presence and compassion.

11/02/2025

Many people with a uterus spend years quietly managing ADHD through structure, grit, masking, and perfectionism.

Then menopause arrives — and suddenly the systems that held everything together… don’t.

This isn’t “just hormones,” aging, or stress.
🧠 Estrogen plays a major role in dopamine & norepinephrine regulation — the same neurotransmitters involved in ADHD.

So when estrogen declines, ADHD symptoms that were once manageable can become overwhelming:
• More executive dysfunction
• More emotional sensitivity
• More exhaustion
• Less ability to “push through”

✨ Menopause doesn’t cause ADHD — but it often reveals it.

If this is you: you aren’t failing.
Your brain is asking to be understood.

You deserve support, not self-blame.

💜 At Lavender Spectrum Health, we approach midlife neurodivergence with curiosity, validation, and comprehensive hormone-informed primary care.

Save this post & share with someone who may need to hear it.

Read more on our website: https://www.lavenderspectrumhealth.com/for-patients/services/menopause-neurodivergence







*P

10/31/2025

With SNAP benefits expiring soon, we’ve collected some local resources for Clark County. The most comprehensive list we’ve found is on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouverwa/s/deFA2PvGuT

10/31/2025

Reposting a reddit post on clark county food resources!

Clark County Food Resources

Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouverwa/s/C9jU4j2dEc

With SNAP benefits not being paid in November, [56,603 members](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CBR53011WAA647NCEN) of our community will be affected. I put together this list for us who have extra to give and those who need these resources. Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming up so this is going to be a tough time for those who are struggling. Feel free to leave your additional resources.

Edit to add: as I was putting this together a post by u/advrose popped by and they put together a much [bigger list here](https://thereinventionco.notion.site/clarkcountyfoodaccess?v=25799944047781108635000c1ae6789d)

2nd edit: I made a new post on [where to find a hot meal](https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouverwa/comments/1ojr3ql/where_to_find_snap_meals/) around town

**Clark County Food Bank** \- our biggest resource for food distribution. They help distribute 10 million pounds of food and partner with over 50 nonprofits to feed nearly 150,000 people across the county. Their volunteer program need a variety of skills from sorting, packing, to delivering food. They need farm volunteers at Heritage Farm, educators at their various projects, and even admin help.

Clark County food bank provides a food resource finder here: [https://www.clarkcountyfoodbank.org/foodfinder](https://www.clarkcountyfoodbank.org/foodfinder)

[FISH of Vancouver](https://fishvancouver.org/) (and [Orchards](https://fishoforchards.org/))- provides pantry and fresh grocery items

[One Life Food Pantry](https://www.welcometoonelife.com/) \- food pantry, nutrition education, homeless care, and giving garden

[Share](https://sharevancouver.org/) \- hot meals, housing programs

[Community Kitchen ](https://www.thekitchenwa.org/)- food pantry

[St. Vincent de Paul ](https://www.svdpvancouverusa.org/)- food pantry, clothing service, rent/utility assistance, Christmas help

[North County Food Bank](https://nccfoodbank.org/) \- food boxes and life skills

[Martha's Pantry](https://marthaspantry.org/) \- food and household item assistance focusing on the HIV/AIDS community. Food assistance is open to everyone

[Clark County ACS ](https://clarkcountyacs.com/)- food boxes and clothing service

[Lewis River Mobile Food Bank](https://lewisrivermobilefoodbank.org/) \- food pantry in La Center and Yacolt

[Amboy Emergency Food Bank](https://washingtonfoodpantry.org/food-bank/amboy-emergency-food-bank/) \- food pantry

[Refuel Washougal](https://www.refuelwashougal.org/) \- hot meals every Friday from 4-6pm, school lunch program for kdis

[Urban Abundance](https://www.urbanabundance.org/) \- harvest, share, and donate fruit from publicly owned and backyard orchards. If you have fruit trees going to waste, volunteers will come glean your trees.

[Vancouver Free Fridge Project](https://vancouverfreefridgeproject.weebly.com/) \- 24/7 fridge and pantry access

[Cougar Food Pantry](https://studentaffairs.vancouver.wsu.edu/cougar-food-pantry) \- food assistance for students attending WSU

[Woodland Action Center](https://www.woodlandaction.org/) \- food pantry and household item assistanceg a

Explore this post and more from the vancouverwa community

10/28/2025

We’re hiring for a full-time on-site nurse practitioner at Lavender Spectrum Health to provide primary care, gender affirming care, and sexual/reproductive care as part of our multidisciplinary team! We offer competitive wages $65-$80 per hour and benefits. Link to job posting below!

https://www.lavenderspectrumhealth.com/career-opportunities

10/20/2025

We support at Lavender Spectrum Health as part of our commitment to community care and mutual aid! We have a donation bin in our lobby which anyone can drop off donations during business hours 9am-6pm Mondays through Saturdays. 💜

10/20/2025

Rethinking Crisis Response: Why Community Care Must Come Before 911 💜

Too often, when someone is in a mental health crisis, the default response is to call 911 or send them to the ER. While these systems can be lifesaving in true emergencies, they can also be traumatizing — especially for people who have experienced police violence, psychiatric holds, or medical environments that lack trauma-informed care.

At Lavender Spectrum Health, we believe there is a better first step.

Our Mental Health Emergency Policy emphasizes community-based interventions: safety planning, engaging trusted relationships, and direct referrals to Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) or Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) before escalation to emergency services whenever safely possible.

When a patient shares suicidal thoughts or acute distress, our team first focuses on:
🌱 Collaborative safety planning — identifying reasons for living, coping strategies, and safe environments.
🌱 Connection, not control — engaging family, friends, or peer supports with consent to help with safety planning
🌱 Warm hand-offs to crisis stabilization units or IOP/PHP programs that provide structure and care without coercion.

This approach honors autonomy and reduces unnecessary trauma while still prioritizing safety. It recognizes that mental health crises are not crimes — they are human experiences that deserve compassion and continuity of care.

We envision a system where people in crisis are met first by clinicians, peers, or community partners — not police lights.

10/17/2025

What It Means to Provide Neurodivergent-Affirming Care

At Lavender Spectrum Health, we believe that neurodivergent-affirming care starts with a simple but radical premise: patients know themselves best.

Healthcare environments often unintentionally reinforce ableism by expecting patients to mask, communicate, or process information in neurotypical ways. Affirming care means creating space for authenticity, communication differences, and sensory needs rather than trying to “fix” them.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Using clear, direct, and predictable communication
- Avoiding ambiguity and receiving clarifying questions with humility
- Redirecting tangential answers to questions with patience and kindness
- Offering sensory-friendly exam rooms and other clinic spaces
- Respecting differences in eye contact and not forcing eye contact
- Respecting differences in verbal and nonverbal communication, including non-speaking individuals
- Offering flexible communication and scheduling options such as via portal or text for those who prefer not to use phones
- Understanding the executive function burden in different care plan options and offering choices that require less executive function
- Breaking down steps in plans of care into smaller steps when requested and summarizing action items
- Valuing stimming, fidgeting, or silence as normal self-regulation
- Centering autonomy—collaborating with patients, not dictating to them

Neurodiversity-affirming care isn’t a trend—it’s healthcare equity. By adapting our systems for accessibility, we don’t just serve neurodivergent patients better—we serve everyone better.

If you’re a healthcare provider or organization ready to make your practice more inclusive, our team offers consulting.

Learn more about our approach: www.LavenderSpectrumHealth.com

***r ***r

You Know You Best

10/05/2025

We’re excited to announce we’re now offering same day appointments for our established patients! To request a same day appointment, please request it on the portal or contact the office. We are looking forward to being able to meet the need for same day care. ❤️‍🩹🩺

Approval is subject to insurance verification, provider availability, review of appropriateness of the request, and the cancellation policy still applies.