A little about me

Nearly everyone in my family is a teacher, but I knew at an early age that teaching in front of a classroom was not for me. My parents would talk about classroom management and how to recognize when different students were understanding new concepts, and this seemed overwhelming. I wanted to be good at what I did, so teaching was out.

I worked in IT for the first 10 years of my career, but it deeply unrewarding. After my wife finished med school, I contacted a career counselor. All of his tests came back saying I should be a teacher or a psychologist. I did some informational interviews and volunteered at a now closed non-profit called Crisis Connection, a 24×7 emergency phone line service. I loved it. I went back to school and became a psychologist.

One of my passions is mental health evaluations. My mother is a retired elementary school special education teacher. She would talk about how students would be sent to her classroom for acting out. Through working with these students, she often found they were suffering from ADHD or Dyslexia and had been suffering in a classroom for years and no one had ever noticed. I want to be someone who helps children, teens and adults would otherwise be in that situation. I want them to know they are not lazy or dumb or bad. Their brain just works a little bit differently and that is ok and here are some things we can do to help.

Today I work for Allina Health Monday - Thursday and I operate David Nathan, PsyD PLLC on Fridays.