Skip to main content

Harborside Psych

New Clients
Contact us
(508) 876-3448

Functional Psychiatry for Littleton, MA

A traditional psychiatric work-up starts and often stops with symptoms: what you feel, how long you have felt it, what to try next. Functional psychiatry asks a different first question. It looks at the whole person, including diet, sleep, gut health, hormones, and nutrient status, and uses targeted testing to check for underlying deficiencies or physiological concerns that may be contributing to how someone thinks and feels. In a town like Littleton, where many households are juggling long commutes, demanding jobs, and school-age kids with their own packed schedules, that whole-person view often makes more sense to parents than a diagnosis-and-prescription conversation alone.

Littleton families searching for this kind of care tend to be doing it for a teenager whose mood or focus has shifted, or for themselves, after months of feeling like standard treatment addressed the surface but not the underlying pattern. Functional psychiatry does not replace medication management or therapy. It sits alongside them, adding a layer of physiological information to the clinical picture.

Find a Clinician

Functional Psychiatry for people in Littleton, MA

Harborside is based in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, and delivers care by video to patients across the state, including Littleton. You do not travel to an office. You need a private space, a reliable internet connection, and a computer or smartphone with a camera. Sessions happen through a secure telehealth platform, and the link is sent ahead of your appointment.

An initial evaluation runs longer than a routine follow-up, generally 60 to 90 minutes, because it covers your history, current symptoms, and whether functional testing makes sense as a next step. If lab work is ordered, you receive instructions for a local lab or an at-home collection kit, depending on the panel. Follow-up appointments are typically 20 to 30 minutes and are scheduled based on your treatment plan, often every 4 to 8 weeks once things are stable, more frequently at the start. If a medication is prescribed, it is sent electronically to the pharmacy of your choice near Littleton, the same as any other prescription.

Everything is done over video. There is no waiting room, no drive to a nearby town, and no need to take a half day off work for a 20-minute check-in.

How telehealth care actually works

Functional psychiatry at Harborside is used alongside standard evaluation and treatment for concerns such as persistent low mood, anxiety, brain fog, fatigue that does not respond to sleep, attention and focus difficulties, and mood symptoms that seem tied to hormonal shifts or gut issues. It can also be a useful add-on for people who have tried medication or therapy before and want to understand whether something physiological, like a nutrient deficiency or a thyroid issue, is part of the picture. It is not a stand-alone treatment for severe or acute psychiatric symptoms, and it is not a substitute for emergency care.

What we treat

The first visit is a conversation, not a battery of tests handed to you on arrival. Your clinician asks about your mental health history, physical health, sleep, diet, stress, and any symptoms that feel connected to your mood or focus but do not fit neatly into a standard diagnosis. From there, the clinician decides with you whether functional lab testing is appropriate, and if so, which panels make sense. Results are reviewed together at a follow-up appointment, and any treatment plan, whether that includes medication, supplementation, referrals, or therapy, is built around what the full picture shows.

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 the practice’s 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, and each brings the functional lens into how they order testing and interpret results. Full bios and credentials for each clinician are on the team page.

Therapy and eating disorder work at Harborside are delivered by the licensed therapy team: Hannah Legesse, LICSW, Tori Mahoney, LMHC, Jacquelyn Duford, LCMHC ATR, and Lexie Carchedi, LCSW. Depending on what your evaluation shows, a clinician may recommend therapy alongside functional psychiatry, and the two teams coordinate on shared patients.

Who our clinicians are

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

What it costs

If you are in Littleton and want to know whether functional psychiatry fits what you or a family member is dealing with, the first step is scheduling an initial evaluation. You can review the functional psychiatry service page for more on how the approach works, or check the Massachusetts telehealth page for details on care across the state. Families elsewhere in the region can also see how this fits into broader care on the MetroWest, MA page. If anxiety is the primary concern, the anxiety treatment page has more detail on that specific approach.

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. Any treatment decision should be made with a qualified clinician who knows your full history.

Reviewed by Rachel Egan, RN PMHNP-BC, Clinical Director. Last reviewed: {LAST_REVIEWED}.

Contact Us

Frequently Asked Questions

Is functional psychiatry the same as functional medicine?

No. It’s psychiatric care from a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner that also reviews lab work and lifestyle factors, not a separate functional medicine practice.

No. Whether labs make sense is decided together at the first visit, based on your history and symptoms.

Bring it to your first appointment. Existing results can often be used instead of repeating tests.

No. Labs are typically billed separately by the lab itself and may be partly covered by insurance depending on the plan.

Yes. It’s meant to work alongside an existing therapist or primary care provider, not replace them.

Functional psychiatry includes the same prescribing and monitoring, plus a review of physical health factors like sleep, nutrition, and lab markers.

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.

Contact Us