ANA Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation® Spotlight: José González-Soto, DNP, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, LMHC
Published
Nurse finds healing and a fresh start through his connections with others
As Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Schweitzer once wrote about the importance of human connection, “Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.”
For #healthynurse Dr. José González-Soto, human connection has had a tremendous impact on his education, career, and well-being. He is a doctorally prepared, bilingual addiction and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and licensed mental health counselor. He spent more than a decade working in behavioral health, addiction recovery, neuroscience, counseling, and trauma-informed care.
Dedication to Community
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. González-Soto volunteered in his community, immersing himself in service work and mission trips abroad. His experiences serving and connecting with underrepresented people inspired him to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
“Navigating life from the margins — whether due to poverty, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, or other facets of identity — often carries added layers of invisible weight,” he says.
This awareness led him to become an advocate for health equity, cultural humility, and safe workspaces for his patients and coworkers.
Experiencing Trauma and Moral Injury as a Health Care Professional
In over a decade of nursing, Dr. González-Soto saw firsthand the highs and lows of supporting people in critical moments. He witnessed and experienced workplace violence and unsafe work environments. He also confronted systemic shortcomings that affected his patients, his coworkers, and himself. These experiences helped him understand the challenges of burnout and moral injury, sparking greater compassion — as well as self-compassion.
“I know what it’s like to feel trapped by inherited generational trauma, traditions, culture, ethnicity, religion, social context, and the moral distress caused by systemic shortcomings in health care,” he says. “As no two journeys through these experiences look exactly alike, honoring those differences invites deeper self-awareness and compassion for others.”
The Impact of Fellowship
Throughout his Doctoral education as a Nurse Practitioner at The University of Alabama, he was encouraged by a peer to apply to the American Nurses Association’s Minority Fellowship Program (MFP). He shared how, genuinely connecting with trusted peers, support systems, and mental health professionals who understand health care moral distress has been a powerful tool for his healing.
“Participating in a small healing and talking circle with my MFP fellows began restoring my inner compass. I voiced the weight I’d been carrying — my grief and loss of direction — in a space that honored and respected my story.” He shared how that solidarity reduced his isolation and facilitated healing when others held his experience with understanding and mutual care.
For Dr. González‑Soto, the connections he found in the healing circle and the MFP were a lifeline. “I had a safe space to be entirely myself,” he says. “When others held and respected my story, I stopped carrying it alone.” The culturally responsive mentorship, practical support, and tools he received through the program helped him set boundaries, rebuild resilience, and chart his own path. Being heard in that circle was the first step toward restoring his inner compass and sense of direction.
Forging His Own Path
Dr. González-Soto acknowledges the unique challenges he faced as a health care healer. “We continue hoping things will change, we endure and ‘lean in’ because leaving can feel like betraying our mission,” he says. “But there comes a point when enduring isn’t bravery; it’s self‑abandonment. Letting go is hard, but it’s not quitting. It’s choosing your life and your values. It’s the radical act of reclaiming your story, refusing to let others define your worth, and realigning with your inner compass.”
For Dr. González-Soto, this realization led him to seek a new way to help others while honoring his personal values. “My story is mine to write,” he says. “I embrace the lessons, reintegrate the parts that were silenced, and build a path that reflects what I value and who I truly am; not who I was told to be.”
Helping Others Navigate a New Path
Dr. González-Soto understood that by sharing his story, he could both heal himself and empower others to reclaim their value and well-being. This offers people a safe space to reauthor their lives and connect with others who understand.
“I see now that resilience does not mean we must tolerate the intolerable,” he says. “It means honoring when something hurts — when there’s misalignment between our values and the realities we’re forced to navigate — and permitting ourselves to choose differently.”
Reclaiming and Reintegrating Wellness
He recently launched the Reclaim & Reauthor™ Wellness Institute, where he serves as a coach and mentor to help people overcome moral stress and burnout. Rooted in narrative healing and empowerment, the Institute invites people to reclaim both their personal and professional well-being.
He also plans to launch ReIntegrate™ Mental Health & Counseling, a practice founded on the belief that healing isn't about becoming someone new. Instead, it’s about reclaiming and reintegrating parts of us that have been silenced, fragmented, or exiled by trauma, stigma, or life’s disruptions.
Dr. González-Soto’s new private practice will provide mental health and psychiatry services, counseling, and addiction recovery care.
“Pain may shape our paths in ways we didn’t expect,” he says. “Healing lets us shape the direction we take.”
José González-Soto, DNP, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, LMHC, is a bilingual Addiction and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, an alumnus of the MFP at the American Nurses Association, and founder of Reclaim & Reauthor™ Wellness Institute and ReIntegrate™ Mental Health & Counseling.
Have you forged a new path towards wellness? Share your #healthynurse story with us in the comments!
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Blog #healthynurse Spotlight
10/14/2025 2:46pm CDT
The #healthynurse Spotlight is a shout out to nurses who are making changes in their lives to improve their health and wellness. You can too! Read their stories for inspiration here.
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