No One Heals Alone, and No One Builds Alone

Finding Her Way to Psychology

Dr. Nathilee Caldeira arrived at Brooklyn College as a business management and finance major and she left as a psychology major who went on to complete her doctorate in clinical psychology. The pivot came during her sophomore year, she volunteered at Camp Ramapo in upstate New York, a residential summer camp that serves children who were affected by social, emotional, or learning challenges. Staff didn't clock out; they lived on site alongside the campers. She changed her major when she got back to Brooklyn.

But this change of major wasn't totally out of the blue. Prior to graduate school, she spent years as a case manager at nonprofits serving people who were unhoused or recently housed and living with mental health and substance-use challenges. It gave her an unfiltered view of New York City's systems, and it permanently shaped how she understands her own field. She elaborates, "My experience working in the New York City shelter system showed me how the social environment can limit access to help and change long-term outcomes. Someone with a mental health condition who is unhoused will often face much more difficult circumstances than someone with stable housing and similar symptoms."

A Talent Incubator Inside of a Group Practice

Dr. Caldeira grew up in Guyana and moved to the United States at 19. Her clinical psychology program at Adelphi University was excellent…but also expensive, and the student loans that followed shaped her future plans. Her plan had been to go back to Guyana and do service work there. Instead, a colleague pointed out that her growing waitlist was really an argument for opening a group practice.   

In 2014, she opened Let's Talk Psychological Wellness,(opens in a new tab) an NYC-based practice founded on the belief that every person deserves compassionate, evidence-based mental health care without stigma. Her practice includes licensed clinical psychologists, mental health counselors, and clinical social workers and has evolved to offer comprehensive psychological testing, primarily for ADHD and autism spectrum disorders.

Somewhere in the first few years, her practice became something else, too. Most therapists finish training as strong clinicians and receive no business education whatsoever. She decided her practice would help to close that gap, operating as a training practice and, effectively, a small business incubator. 

I want people to know that knowledge should not be gatekept. Therapists can begin with no business experience and still learn quickly enough to build a successful solo or group practice.

The Backend Behind Intentional Growth

In 2019, Dr. Caldeira was running payroll through ADP, but was actively looking to switch providers and offer comprehensive benefits to her team. She researched PEOs without initially knowing exactly what a PEO was, and found Justworks. What pleased her initially was the comprehensive and consistent support, but the icing on the cake were the impressive benefits offerings. She notes that in New York, many group practices don't offer benefits at the level Justworks can offer.

Paid family leave and short-term disability have been especially valuable for therapists starting families…the great benefits are not to be underestimated.

For a practice that continually grows and shifts as it harbors talent, moving from 18 therapists to 38 and back to 14 across two licensed states and a third for telehealth, the stability that Justworks can offer is what enables her to continue her mission and help her community.

There's a shared premise here. Her clinical view is that people do better when there's infrastructure and community holding them up. Justworks was built on a version of the same idea: that small businesses grow with more confidence when the essential systems and the human support are simply there.

Nobody Does It Alone

Digital therapy platforms and a reliance on AI tools are growing in popularity, and she compares the moment to the early internet, with open questions around privacy, data storage, and regulation. Her strategy is characteristically local, going back to the referral relationships in the community that grew her practice, instead of reliance on disconnected or infrequent support.

I hope we move away from overemphasizing independence. We value hard work, but nobody accomplishes meaningful things entirely alone. There are always people and communities helping in the background.

Meanwhile, her practice is hiring again, and she's training the next cohort of clinicians toward licensure, while still finding time to give back to the community she values. For over a decade she has volunteered, and sits on on the board of directors, at Blossom Inc. which provides trauma focused psychotherapy to children who have experienced interpersonal violence and trauma in Guyana, She also sits on the board of Inviolate Initiative which provides low-cost psychological assessments for people seeking asylum.

None of that good work happens if she's reconciling payroll on a Sunday night or stressing about compliance. With Justworks carrying payroll, benefits, and multi-state compliance, her hours go where only she can spend them: with clients, with the clinicians she's training, and in the rooms that need her unique voice at the table.