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Harborside Psych

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Therapy for Reading, MA

Therapy at Harborside is delivered by licensed clinicians who work with you to choose an approach that fits your life, not a fixed protocol applied to everyone. In Reading, that often means fitting sessions around a commute, a full workday, or a household running on two schedules at once, with care that happens by video rather than by adding another drive to your week.

Reading is a town of established neighborhoods, from the older housing near the center to the postwar streets further out, and a lot of working families for whom time is the scarcest resource. If you are reading this before you have made a call, you probably want to know how a first session actually goes before you commit to it. That is what the rest of this page covers.

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Therapy for people in Reading, MA

Harborside is based in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, and provides care to people across the state by video. For therapy, that means live, scheduled video sessions with a licensed clinician, the same conversation you would have in an office, without the office.

You need a private space, a stable internet connection, and a phone, tablet, or computer with a camera. Sessions typically run about 45 to 50 minutes. How often you meet depends on what you are working on and what you and your clinician decide together; weekly sessions are common at the start, with adjustments over time as needed.

If your care also involves medication, prescriptions are sent electronically to the pharmacy of your choice near Reading, and follow-up appointments are scheduled at whatever interval your prescriber recommends. Therapy and medication management can run alongside each other or on their own, depending on what you need.

How telehealth care actually works

Therapy at Harborside addresses a range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, mood changes, stress related to work or family life, grief, trauma, relationship difficulties, and disordered eating. Some people come in with a clear diagnosis they want support managing. Others come in because something feels off and they want help figuring out what that is. Both are reasonable reasons to book a first appointment.

Your clinician will talk with you about what is bringing you in, what you have already tried, and what you want out of the work, and build a plan from there rather than fitting you into a preset track.

What we treat

The first session is mostly conversation. Your clinician will ask about your current concerns, your history, and what has and has not helped in the past. You will talk about goals for the work together, and your clinician will explain what ongoing sessions might look like, including frequency and approach. There is no assumption that one visit will resolve things; it is the starting point for a plan that gets adjusted as you go.

You should leave the first appointment with a clearer sense of what happens next, not a finished answer. That is normal, and it is by design.

What the first appointment involves

Medication management and functional psychiatry at Harborside are performed by psychiatric nurse practitioners: Rachel Egan, RN PMHNP-BC, who is also clinical director, Emily Pardue, RN PMHNP-BC, and Kirstin Ritchie, RN PMHNP-BC. Each is qualified to evaluate, diagnose, and prescribe for mental health conditions. Full bios and credentials for each clinician are on the team page.

Therapy and eating disorder work are delivered by the licensed therapy team: Hannah Legesse, LICSW, Tori Mahoney, LMHC, Jacquelyn Duford, LCMHC ATR, and Lexie Carchedi, LCSW. Jacquelyn is also a registered art therapist, and clinicians on the team draw on a range of approaches suited to different concerns and different people.

Who our clinicians are

Harborside is a private-pay practice and does not bill insurance directly for appointments. Current fees for an initial appointment and for follow-up sessions are listed on the pricing page, and any questions about cost can be answered before you book anything.

What it costs

If you are ready to schedule, or you want to ask a question first, you can reach out through the Harborside website to set up an initial appointment. Sessions are held by video, so there is nothing to arrange beyond finding a quiet, private place to sit for the call. For people in Reading, that might mean a home office, a parked car during a lunch break, or a quiet room after the kids are down. It works the same way wherever you are.

You can learn more about the full range of options on the therapy services page, see how care is organized across the state on the Massachusetts telehealth page, or check the Inner Metro North region page for towns nearby. If anxiety is part of what brought you here, the anxiety treatment page goes into more detail on how that work is approached.

Getting started

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For mental health crisis support, call or text 988. Harborside does not provide emergency or after-hours care.

This page is educational and is not medical advice. It does not create a provider-patient relationship. For guidance on when to seek professional support for anxiety or depression, see the [CITATION: National Institute of Mental Health page on when to seek help for mental health concerns].

Reviewed by Hannah Legesse, LICSW. Last reviewed: {LAST_REVIEWED}.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is therapy with Harborside the same as seeing a psychiatrist?

No. Harborside’s therapists are licensed clinicians who provide psychotherapy, not psychiatric prescribers. Anyone who also wants medication management can be connected separately with one of Harborside’s psychiatric nurse practitioners.

Most clients meet weekly or every other week, depending on what’s agreed with the therapist during the first few sessions.

No. Harborside is a private-pay practice. Clients with out-of-network mental health benefits can request a superbill to submit to their insurer for possible reimbursement.

That’s a reasonable place to start. Many clients begin therapy without a specific problem in mind, and the first session is built around figuring that out together.

Yes. Finding the right therapist sometimes takes more than one try, and raising it is a normal part of the process, not something awkward.

No. Therapy is ongoing, scheduled care, not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For crisis support, call or text 988.

If you need help right now

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For mental health crisis support, call or text 988. Harborside Psychiatrics does not provide emergency or after-hours care.

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