Therapists in Middlesex County, MA

I am a licensed therapist who works with individuals and couples of all ages and various presenting concerns. I work with individuals with mental health challenges, addictive behavior, or life-transitional issues (e.g. beginning high school/college, launching into adulthood, managing relationships, grief/loss, etc.). I help couples get to a place of connection where each partner feels heard, understood, and loved by the other. No matter what circumstances led us to where we are today, I believe that we all have the potential to be happy and content.

I provide trauma-informed therapy for individuals with anxiety, low self esteem, and Highly Sensitive People. Through our work, you will feel more comfortable with your emotions, strengthen your mind-body connection, and gain clarity about what you want and need. We will bring a focus to your strengths, resilience, and adaptiveness, helping you feel more empowered and connected to yourself. These internal resources will create more ease in navigating life situations and relationships while providing you with relief and healing.

I have over a decade of experience in the field, focusing primarily on an approach called harm reduction. Harm Reduction is a grassroots movement that started among people who were at risk for HIV and HepC (queer people, people who use drugs, sex workers). This approach impacts the work I do with all people. It is an approach to behavioral change that emphasizes meeting you where you are without judgement while moving you towards your goals. My work is also trauma informed, works with your mind and body, relational, and informed by social justice and systems of power, privilege, and oppression.

I am an experienced psychotherapist and Certified Group Psychotherapist working with individuals, couples and groups. I hold a PhD in biochemistry, which informs my work in psychotherapy by integrating current research in neuroscience into my treatment approach. I am trained in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), an emotionally focused therapy heavily informed by neuroscience that focuses on how we can heal in relationship what was harmed in relationship. My broader training consists of proactive cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness techniques, stress reduction strategies, and communication tools.

Hello and welcome! Do you feel stuck - maybe in a difficult relationship with someone important or in a complicated relationship with yourself? Does it seem as if you will never become unstuck? Are anxiety, depression, self-defeating behavior or relationship issues standing between you and your happiness or personal goals? My aim is to help you begin healing as quickly as possible, even when the issues are long-standing. Together, we will explore the present and seek out transformational processes, rather than focus on the past or simply relive old wounds as a more traditional approach might.

I welcome your courage in sharing your challenges with me and believe that we can work together using evidence-based therapy to create change. Our relationship matters to me and I will check in with you frequently about our work. I bring respect, empathy, humor, and authenticity (I'm a real person!) to the therapy room. I often work with OCD, anxiety, substance use, shame, perfectionism, body image, eating issues, depression, trauma/PTSD, relationship issues and parenting. I am an experienced IFS and AEDP therapist. I also use mindfulness, ACT, CBT and DBT heavily in my practice. I am a certified and experienced couples' therapist.

For over 25 years I have helped adults, couples, teens and children find ways to manage anxiety, depression and trauma in order to achieve an increased capacity for enjoyment in relationships and life. I strive to create a safe environment, where taking risks to connect with emotions leads to increased insight and motivation to change. I take an active approach to help clients achieve their goals and resolve their problems. When treating children, I work closely with parents, providing careful guidance about how to help their child develop and thrive.

I am a well known, respected psychologist and sex therapist with a national and international reputation, AASECT certified since 1996. Clinically, I am warm, innovative, active, and effective. Multiple certifications in types of therapy, including EMDR, Sensorimotor therapy for trauma. Training in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, hypnosis, and AEDP for couples. Author of 3 commercially published books, I have been cited by my peers in the literature on sexuality and relationships since 1992. You will know if I am right for you in one session, promise! See website for a wealth of information and articles. SexSmart.com

I work with clients from a relational perspective based on the attachment model. In the past 25 years, I have worked extensively with adult clients individually or as a couple to work through depression, anxiety, and other mental health illnesses due to the relational trauma with their significant others. We will work together to process through old relationship patterns related to mental illness, rebuild a secure attachment experience, and build a new working model for your life. Our work together is to transform traumatic experiences into a fulfilled and satisfying life.

I'm a licensed clinical social worker and certified coach and believe that at our core, we are resilient and possess the strength and power needed to live our best lives. But sometimes we need help. Life may present us with curve balls and feel bumpy and hard at times. Whether you’re feeling stuck in your personal life or professionally, l am here to partner with you to find clarity and a sense of relief. My work draws on Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), trauma theory (EMDR) and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

You may be seeking therapy to ease the pain of depression, anxiety, trauma or loss; or because you are struggling with relationship and other interpersonal issues. Maybe something just does not “feel right,” preventing you from moving forward. Perhaps, you are challenged by existential questions and wish to explore your identity or find greater meaning in your life. What is causing you pain or holding you back may be a known challenge or problem, or an unexamined part of yourself that causes you to feel stuck. Whatever brings you here, you already possess the courage to seek help and the hope that your life can be better.

The poet David Whyte writes, "Let my history then be a gate unfastened to a new life and not a barrier to my becoming. Let me find the ghosts and histories and barely imagined future of this world, and let me now have the innocence to grow just as well in shadow or light." Coming to therapy can help release you from the confining narratives of your history and help you discover a future you might not have previously imagined. I will work with you to hear from your pain and how that pain might be speaking to you.

In Person and Online Sessions Available. Each of us wants more from life and from ourselves, but often we get in our own way. Usually, this is when people seek psychotherapy. From our very first meeting, we will focus on clarifying your concerns and addressing the emotional blocks that interfere with your happiness and sense of purpose. Through a collaborative, emotionally engaged process, we will work together to achieve your goals. Whether your struggles are of a recent or longstanding nature, I am committed to helping promote the changes and well-being you seek.

People often relate to emotions as obstacles. Research shows emotions can give us valuable information to help guide our actions and to make good decisions. To make use of emotions, we must learn how to identify them, to experience them without becoming too overwhelmed, and to transform emotions that are not useful. I believe this type of learning happens most effectively in the context of a trusting relationship, and that a good psychotherapy relationship can provide an excellent opportunity for this. I help people learn how to relate to their emotions in ways that can be life-enhancing, rather than frightening or overwhelming.

As an EMDR consultant, I enjoy using EMDR therapy to help individuals identify and process memories which cause nightmares, stress and negative self beliefs. By using an adjunctive and/or brief treatment model, I work with clients to select which specific target memories to work with for EMDR therapy. I propose working with a brief treatment model, selecting 1-2 memories to process in a fixed number of sessions ranging from 4-12 to focus in on clearing a negative experience and building resources to use in future scenarios. By screening and planning together, this approach gives a focused experience in how EMDR treatment works.

Our lives can be overwhelming and painful at times and we can struggle to cope in a healthy way. Therapy is a place to gain support and to honor and heal our relationship with all parts of ourselves. I use warmth, compassion and humor to build therapeutic relationships and believe this connection is the foundation of the work I do with clients. I know that within each individual are the qualities needed to find more ease and peace and experience the freedom of being truly at home within yourself.

I am fully certified in two evidence based therapies1) EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and 2) IFS or Internal Family Systems Therapy. In a very SAFE manner, they can be VERY effective. I emphasize the word SAFE because NOTHING is ever discussed unless YOU are comfortable discussing it. You're "the boss" as to what we cover/discuss in therapy.

In my 30+ years of experience as a therapist, clinical supervisor, researcher, educator and writer on complex trauma, I have come to believe that we are shaped as much by the good things that went missing from our lives as the bad things that happened to us. My clients have often endured severe abuse, neglect, oppression, and other forms of life adversity. They have learned to cope and survive in ways that get misunderstood and misdiagnosed, and that can cause profound stigma, shame and social rejection. Their courage and resilience inspires awe. Finding a therapist who can see and accept all parts of them is one key to recovery.

I am a warm, direct transparent therapist who believes we are all wired to self right & heal given safe & optimum circumstances. I seek to undo aloneness, nurture vitality & create circumstances for positive change in a relational & experiential way with attention to the body. I am particularly interested in people trying to cope with trauma & early attachment issues and with young adults who are struggling.