Alex Dodson, PMHNP-BC

Culturally Informed Psychiatric Care

Alex Dodson is a board-certified Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC) at CARMAhealth, trained to treat depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, substance use disorders, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and the full range of behavioral and mental health challenges. He has worked across acute and outpatient settings, with a primary focus on mental health in addiction and complex care for individuals with learning and intellectual disabilities.

His early work in healthcare centered on children and adolescents with neurological conditions and on research nursing in pharmacological treatments for thought disorders. Before joining CARMAhealth, Alex worked with foster families and group homes serving individuals with dually diagnosed psychiatric and intellectual conditions, and through telehealth he reached communities across Texas often without ready access to psychiatric services. Today he also serves an incarcerated population in West Texas, and counts his work with veterans facing co-occurring PTSD and chemical dependency among his most meaningful at CARMAhealth.

Formerly a cultural anthropologist, Alex studied the ethnomusicology of West Africa and taught in the Peace Corps in Bangladesh, later returning there for doctoral research on cultural change among ethnic minority communities. He earned his Master of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas at Austin and holds board certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, alongside a PhD and MA in anthropology from UT Austin and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Above all, Alex's approach to psychiatric care is highly individualized. He works from a biopsychosocial model grounded in a strong therapeutic alliance, favoring a person-centered, collaborative process over rigid diagnostic categories. He sees his role as an expert guide in shared decision-making, helping each patient build the self-efficacy to take an active part in their own mental health.