Calmed, NP in Psychology celebrated its one-year anniversary on Friday, April 11, as the Massapequa Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for the occasion at her storefront at 511 Ocean Ave in Massapequa.
Jessica Loftus, the owner of Calmed, said she helps some 300 people, with regularly scheduled meetings depending on her clients’needs.
According to her company’s website, Loftus specializes in medication management, supportive psychotherapy, anxiety, depression, insomnia and mood disorders.
Loftus’ practice accepts insurance from the following companies: Aetna, Cigna, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Oxford, Oscar, United Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Loftus was born in East Meadow and is now a Massapequa resident. She studied criminal justice at St. John’s University and then realized that she enjoyed working in hospitals. Loftus said she earned her master’s degree from John Jay University and then honed in on wanting to do psychotherapy.
Loftus had worked at Zucker Hillside Hospital for roughly 10 years where she helped patients navigate their mental health challenges. She said that despite the rewarding nature of hospital work, she felt a growing desire to connect more deeply with her patients and community, which led her to open a private practice.
“I found myself yearning for a setting where I could offer more individualized attention and build lasting relationships with my patients,” she said. “The constraints of a hospital environment sometimes made it difficult to provide the level of personalized care that I believe is essential for effective mental health treatment.”
Loftus began helping people out of her home while still working at the hospital before opening Calmed. She said the Massapequa location opened during the first week of April 2024.
“I think that a lot of times people struggle with their mental health in silence because they feel they can just push through it, but mental health is just like any other medical condition and you can’t always wish it away,” Loftus said.
She said the job is rewarding as she gets to help people take control of their lives and better themselves.
Appointments with Loftus can be made from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday on Calmed’s website.
