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Harborside Psych

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Therapy for Westwood, MA

Westwood runs on routine. Youth sports schedules, commuter rail timetables into Boston, town meeting nights, the rhythm of a place where a lot of families have put down roots and expect to stay. Therapy has to fit around that life, not replace it. Harborside’s licensed clinicians work with each client to choose an approach that fits the person rather than a fixed protocol, delivered by video, on a schedule built around the week you actually have.

An honest answer about what a session involves, how often you meet, and what it costs tends to matter more here than a polished sales pitch. So that is how we have written this page.

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Therapy for people in Westwood, MA

People come to therapy for a range of reasons: a stretch of anxiety that will not settle, a mood that has flattened out, a relationship or a life transition that feels harder than it should, or a pattern with food or body image that has started to take up too much room. Some people already know what they want to work on. Others just know something feels off and want help figuring out what that is.

Harborside works with adults and, depending on the clinician, adolescents, across Westwood and the surrounding towns. Care is delivered by telehealth, so you meet with your clinician from wherever you have privacy and a stable connection, without adding a commute to an already full week.

How telehealth care actually works

Harborside is based at 411 Main St, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, and delivers care by video across the state. For a Westwood resident, that means your therapist is a screen away, not a drive away.

Sessions happen through a secure video platform. You need a phone, tablet, or computer with a camera, a private space, and an internet connection steady enough to hold a video call. There is no special software to buy and nothing to install ahead of time beyond following a link.

A typical therapy session runs about 45 minutes. How often you meet depends on what you are working on and what your clinician recommends: weekly is common at the start, with many people spacing out sessions as things stabilize. If medication is part of your care, prescriptions are sent electronically to a pharmacy near you in Westwood or wherever is most convenient, and follow-up appointments with a prescriber are typically shorter than the initial evaluation.

What we treat

Harborside’s therapy team works with anxiety, depression, mood swings, trauma-related symptoms, grief, life transitions, relationship stress, and eating disorders, among other concerns. Sessions might use talk therapy, structured skills work, or, with Jacquelyn Duford, art therapy as part of the approach. The goal is a plan shaped around what you are actually dealing with, not a template applied to everyone who walks in with a similar diagnosis.

If you are not sure whether what you are experiencing fits neatly into a category, that is a normal place to start. Part of the first few sessions is figuring that out together.

What the first appointment involves

The first appointment is longer than a regular session and focuses on understanding your history, your current symptoms, and what you are hoping to get out of care. Your clinician will ask about your background, any previous treatment, and what has and has not worked before. By the end, you should have a general sense of the plan: what kind of work you will be doing together and how often you will meet.

There is no obligation to have everything figured out before that first call. Bringing a rough sense of what is not working is enough to start.

Who our clinicians are

Medication management and functional psychiatry at Harborside are performed by psychiatric nurse practitioners Rachel Egan, RN PMHNP-BC, who is also Harborside’s clinical director, along with 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 of them are on the team page.

Therapy and eating disorder care are delivered by Harborside’s licensed therapy team: Hannah Legesse, LICSW; Tori Mahoney, LMHC; Jacquelyn Duford, LCMHC, ATR; and Lexie Carchedi, LCSW. Between them, the team brings training in talk therapy, trauma-informed care, eating disorder treatment, and registered art therapy. When you get matched with a clinician, it is based on what you need and what fits your schedule.

What it costs

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. If you have questions about cost, you can get them answered before anything is booked.

Getting started

Getting started with Harborside typically begins with a short call or an online form to share basic background and what you are looking for help with. From there, you are matched with a clinician and scheduled for an initial appointment. If you are in Westwood and thinking about therapy, you can look through the therapy services page or the Massachusetts telehealth page for more on how care works across the state, or the South Metro Boston region page for towns near Westwood that Harborside also works with.

If anxiety is a big piece of what brought you here, the anxiety treatment page goes into more detail on how that work is approached.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is therapy with Harborside the same as seeing a psychiatrist?

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 choosing a mental health provider, the [CITATION: National Institute of Mental Health, or SAMHSA, page on finding help and choosing a therapist] offers general background.

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

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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