Meet Our Team: A Q&A with Nick Gatten
Every impactful treatment journey is shaped by the people who make it possible. At BrightQuest, our clinicians, mentors, and team members combine clinical expertise with genuine dedication to supporting healing, growth, and renewed possibility.
Our Meet Our Team series offers a closer look at the individuals behind our work. Through these profiles, you’ll gain insight into their roles, what draws them to the mental health and recovery field, and the perspectives that inform how they support clients and families.
In this edition, we’re proud to spotlight Scheduling Coordinator Nick Gatten, who shares more about their role, their view of the recovery process, and what continues to inspire their commitment to this work.
Q: Tell us about your role! What do you do at BrightQuest and what do you love most about your job? What specialties or therapeutic approaches do you bring to your work?
A: My primary duty is the schedule for our support staff, but I tend to hold a lot of different things. I love that my job is future focused, I get to see the problems before they become an issue and problem solve.
Q: What is your “why?” What motivated or inspired you to be in this field?
A: My “why” is a few things but the big one is that I want to help people in treatment feel like people, not patients. I know how difficult it can be to feel connected in a community when you feel like a number rather than a human, and I want to be a space where people feel they can exist as themselves, in all the ways.
Q: In your opinion, what are the strengths at BrightQuest? What makes them unique?
A: In my experience, BrightQuest’s focus on relationality and community really help clients (and staff) to learn how to experience the world in a way that’s different than they have been. I think BrightQuest does a great job at giving clients a place to learn to be themselves and to manage the things that may trouble them.
Q: What makes you excited to be a part of the BrightQuest Team?
A: The staff and clients at BrightQuest are all the brightest and kindest people I have met. The staff work together in a way that’s unheard of in most places and the clients are vulnerable in a way that feels impossible to some people. The strength shown by everyone I come into contact with on a day-to-day basis is truly inspiring.
Q: What is your hope for the future of BrightQuest?
A: I hope that in the future BrightQuest can continue its mission to teach compassion and care.
Q: What do you wish more people knew about your profession?
A: I think a lot of people believe the mental health field is “taboo” or sometimes just used for “excusing bad behavior”, when everything we do applies to everyone in life. We all live in communities, with things that we struggle with and I wish that more people realized that it’s not just “therapy speak” but rather a way to better connect with yourself and your community.
Q: Is there a personal philosophy or guiding principle that shapes the way you approach care?
A: Personally, I just go with the “everything and everyone matters” philosophy. I think it’s important to help people realize, especially when they’ve thought the opposite for so long, that they do in fact matter, that the little things that build up and make the day hard matter to someone.
