Therapists for college students near Northeastern University

I am a psychologist in private practice in Somerville, MA. I am also licensed the the State of Maine. I am currently working with clients both virtually and in my Davis Square office. Many of my clients come for therapy when they facing a challenging life circumstance or transition. Often they have noticed patterns in their relationships and other aspect of life that they would like to understand and change. In addition to addressing issues such as stress, anxiety and mood concerns, my clients are often interested in exploring underlying causes of symptoms so they can feel more satisfied in their lives and relationships. Please feel free to call or email me if you would like to discuss psychotherapy.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

You feel anxious and it’s hard to shut your brain off. People tell you to relax, but it’s not that easy for you. You’ve worked hard to get where you are, but it’s hard to sit back and enjoy it. Your standards for yourself feel too high, and you question how long you can keep this up. You tend to doubt yourself and your abilities and look to other people to reassure you. It’s hard to take up space, feel confident, and speak your truth. You want to feel present in your life and like you’re able to love and appreciate yourself just as you are. You want to feel confident, courageous, and like you are able to advocate for yourself. You want to feel happy, calm, and at peace with your life, your relationships, and your career. I specialize in working with young adults with anxiety, people-pleasing tendencies, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism to build self-confidence and live a life they love. A better future is possible, and I'm here to help you create it. I can’t wait to hear from you, send me an email or call me to schedule a free phone consultation.

My therapeutic approach centers on developing agency, working through uncertainty, and attending to how identity and context shape experience. I work from a psychodynamic relational framework, integrating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. My treatment approach focuses on patterns in thoughts, relationships, and decision-making, with the goal of achieving a deeper self-understanding alongside symptom relief. I use what emerges in the therapeutic relationship, including discomfort, as meaningful data, while balancing structure and exploration to support both insight and practical change. I work with adults of all ages navigating mood disorders (depression, bipolar disorder), anxiety, identity conflict, persistent relational patterns, life transitions, college adjustment, high internal pressure, and insomnia. I also have expertise working with individuals from immigrant families and clients navigating bicultural identities. I am an Asian American clinician with Korean heritage and consider how race, culture, identity, and background shape experience and the therapeutic relationship. I trained at Penn Outpatient Psychiatry, working with diverse adult populations across levels of acuity in a hospital-based, trauma-informed, relational, and psychodynamic setting.

I specialize in diagnosing and treating mental health and substance use disorders, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and ADHD. I am especially passionate about advocating for patients and helping them feel seen, heard, and supported throughout their mental health journey. I believe everyone deserves compassionate, respectful care where their voice matters. Mental healthcare can be life-changing when people feel genuinely supported. I incorporate evidence-based therapy modalities such as CBT, DBT, ACT, exposure therapy, and motivational interviewing. These approaches help build coping skills, change unhelpful thought patterns, regulate emotions, and increase motivation for behavior change, improving overall functioning and treatment outcomes. Outside of work, I unwind by spending quality time with my family, watching sitcoms, and listening to music. I also prioritize taking vacations and time away to recharge, which helps me maintain balance and return to work refreshed and present for my patients.

Therapy is a deeply personal and vulnerable process that requires trust to flourish. I strive to create a safe, accepting, and collaborative space for you to come as you are, using the therapeutic relationship and attunement to foster trust. I tailor treatment to your unique needs and treatment goals using a compassionate, trauma-informed lens, drawing from a psychodynamic orientation, integrated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and mindfulness-based approaches. I support adults navigating anxiety disorders, mood disorders, loneliness, grief, loss, complex trauma, identity development, relational / attachment-based issues, and life transitions. I also have extensive experience working with individuals of diverse backgrounds, including non-citizen and LGBTQ populations. My experience growing up as a Latina between the U.S and abroad has strengthened my curiosity for those whose lived experiences differ from my own. It has cultivated a deep empathy and desire to honor the richness of their stories in therapy. I prioritize creating a space for all parts of the self to be seen and understood.

Welcome I'm Melissa and I'm so glad you landed here! I work with young adults who are feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges—whether it’s relationship struggles, a constant worry loop that you can't get out of, low mood, struggles with food and body image, or difficulty with change. If you're reading this, you might be feeling out of balance or disconnected from what’s meaningful to you. Maybe you’re not sure what’s meaningful right now. You could be stuck in old patterns that no longer serve you, unsure about your next steps, or just know something feels "off" without being able to explain why. Or maybe you just need a safe space to explore it all. Whatever you're experiencing, it’s all valid—and it’s all welcome here.

Join me in a collaborative focus on your mental health, designed to build resilience, improve the quality of life, and increase self-acceptance. I work with adults and young adults in individual psychotherapy on a short or long-term basis. I have a background in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Acceptance Commitment Therapy. I treat a range of presenting concerns, including relationship stress, life transitions, depression, anxiety, and trauma. I have experience in college mental health, early intervention in mental illness, and family therapy. I have a special interest in issues of diversity and inclusion, and exploring an individual’s unique relationship to a variety of their own personal intersecting identities.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Bernice Ruiz has over 18 years of dedicated service to children, youth, and families as an educator then mental health therapist. Her treatment approach is tailored to each clients' unique needs with a focus on depression, anxiety, relationship issues and school related-issues. She’s collaborated in delivering national suicide-prevention programming and has supported incarcerated mothers after release. As a first generation Haitian-American, she has a particular interest in supporting international students and other first/second-generation students address the stressors of navigating the education system.

I enjoy working with students during this time of transition in their lives. Away from home, students must learn to structure their time to study and embark on a social life. This is a good opportunity to develop self-awareness and discover which relationships are best for them. Most of my clients are creative: writers, musicians, actors, artists, photography, and film. Many are introverts and/or highly sensitive people. I help them embrace their introversion as a gift rather than a liability.

Therapy serves as an opportunity to be curious – to explore the patterns and narratives we carry, repeat, and, at times, feel bound by. Through gentle curiosity, we create space for healing and give ourselves the opportunity to blossom into more authentic versions of ourselves. My therapeutic approach is grounded in psychodynamic and attachment theories. With compassion and warmth, I listen closely to the unique story of your life, honoring the experiences that have shaped how you relate to yourself and others. Together, we will untangle these experiences and cultivate hope that life can improve in ways that feel deeply meaningful. I offer individual psychotherapy to adults and older adults with a variety of presenting concerns including anxiety, depression, grief, bereavement, trauma, relational difficulties, and identity exploration. Importantly, I strive to remain mindful of the nuanced ways our identities shape our experiences and influence how we move through the world. I have specialized training in geropsychology and am passionate about helping adults navigate the complexities of aging, later-in-life transitions, caregiving, existential concerns, and ageism. My experience also includes working in college counseling centers, memory disorder clinics, community mental health, and with veterans.

I love what I do after 29 years and have worked in a wide range of settings with a wide range of people. Building a strong rapport with clients is essential and I focus on putting you at ease by being attentive, warm, and validating. I practice as a therapist and a life coach. I have a great deal of experience working with young adults. They are my favorite people. I commonly treat depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, AD/HD and with those in early recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. I help people to manage trauma, loss, divorce of parents, difficulty with parents/siblings, boundary violations and more. I've also worked with athletes to improve athletic performance, with students to improve academic performance and with musicians, artists and actors to manage anxiety, stage fright and a range od phobias. Feel free to be in touch for a 15 minute consultation.

I am a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor with over 5 years of experience in inpatient and outpatient services. I received holistic training and earned my Clinical Mental Health Counseling Masters at Lesley University, Cambridge. I provide client-centered, individual therapy, a humanistic approach. Students and clients may be in need of support to address the following: decrease stress and anxiety, increase access to self-expression, learn self-regulation skills, improve sleep, learn boundary-setting skills, or address difficulties with functioning in any life domain. I work to facilitate self-exploration, integration, and healing of the emotions and the mind, which affect the body and energy levels. My practice is via telehealth.

Dr. Kazuko Montgomery earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Antioch University New England. She also holds a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the Saint Michael’s College. She has extensive experience working with diverse populations, as an individual and family psychotherapist and conducting neuropsychological, cognitive, and psychological assessments. She provides counseling for depression, anxiety, and ADHD and its related executive function challenges. Dr. Montgomery’s training includes University of Vermont counseling center. She integrates many theories and approaches in order to meet the unique needs of her clients, including but not limited, cognitive behavioral therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and executive function coaching among others. Dr. Montgomery was born and raised in Japan and understands the struggles and impacts of immigration/multicultural/social adjustment issues.

I'm available to support students who may feel overwhelmed, stressed, or uncertain about the path ahead. Whether you're dealing with anxiety, adjusting to college life, struggling with self-doubt, or navigating relationships, I offer a safe, non-judgmental space to explore your thoughts and feelings. The students I work best with are those who feel like they’re juggling a lot—academic pressure, personal expectations, and social challenges—but who also want to grow, find balance, and build confidence. Many of my clients are learning to manage stress, cope with feelings of isolation, or figure out how to communicate better in their relationships. My approach is collaborative, and I focus on helping you find practical tools that fit into your life. Therapy doesn’t have to be intimidating; together, we’ll work at your pace to help you feel more grounded and in control. I’m here to listen, offer guidance, and support you as you navigate this chapter of your life.

Despite years of self work and therapy, is something still not right? Can you feel it in your body that your nervous system is not functioning in the way that you need? Working together I can help reacquaint yourself with your body and it's signals, learn how to listen to it's cues, care for the nervous system and whole self. We can discover the root of your suffering and find ways through it, so you feel more calm and more engaged. We may also use EMDR to reprocess traumatic experiences. EMDR helps facilitate conditions that allow your body and brain's natural ability to heal to prevail. Do you feel like others in the world are suffering more than you, that you shouldn’t ask for more? I will help you work through these doubts and hesitations to discover how you can truly live a life that is aligned with who you are, guilt-free. It's possible for you to live more in the present and feel empowered in your life. Our work will help you feel more connected to yourself, the people in your life and the world around you. You will better understand your life experiences, stresses and anxieties to learn to live with all parts of who you are in better harmony.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

I think of this work as a combination of life coaching and therapy. We will focus on your day to day life challenges, noticing the patterns that lead to success as well as those patterns that get in your way. While doing this we can strengthen and celebrate what is working, become aware of patterns that are not working and create new patterns resulting in a better life. In my practice we can do both in-person and/or Telehealth. If we are to meet in-person I like to meet you where you are at literally and figuratively. I do not see people in an office. In my time as a clinician I have learned that some of the best work is done on a walk or a drive, while at a coffee shop or some other cool place that you know. Give me a call and see if I feel like a good fit.

Intercultural Psychological Services is a group practice of multicultural, multilingual, therapists led by clinical psychologist Elizabeth A. Willems, PsyD. We are highly-trained and offer psychological services including therapy, consulting, assessment, as well as training opportunities for psychology graduate students. We hail from Mexico and the USA. We virtually serve clients located across the globe.