About Jessica
Jessica is an individual and family therapist in Boston, Massachusetts. Previously, Jessica worked as the Assistant Director of an in-home family therapy program serving hundreds of families around Boston. She has worked variously providing individual, group and family therapy as both a clinician and a clinical supervisor. Her passion for LGBTQ youth led her to the field of public health, where she translates her clinical experience into research, with an emphasis on transgender health.
Personal statement
I believe that all clients have the right to a therapist whose style and techniques work for them. Therapy should be a collaborative process, based on what you need. All clients have a right to say what works for them, and conversely, what does not. Therapists have a responsibility to make sure that the approaches we use are based in your needs, not the other way around. I know how hard it is to find a therapist who understands you for who you know yourself to be. I also know how hard it is to figure that out in the first place; for many of us it takes our whole lives to find language for who we are, and that is okay, too. Therapy should be a space where you can be whoever you need to be, in exactly whatever way you need. Let me worry about the rest.
Anti-oppressive stance
The context in which we live matters, and controls many of the factors that might influence our decision to seek help from a therapist. As Beverly Tatum once said, oppressive forces like racism and white supremacy are things we breathe in, day in and day out. Often, we may not even notice that we’re doing so. Whether or not we talk about them, they have a profound impact on our lives. I am committed to making space to talk about systems of oppression, and helping clients find ways to deconstruct and resist oppressive ideas.
Systemic
Adapted for therapy from general systems theory, a family systems approach sees people within their social context.
For many of us, long-standing tensions in our relationships, such as recurring arguments or frequent miscommunication are not the result of a single origin, and all people involved play a role in both resisting and maintaining these patterns. My job is to help identify and change these patterns so you and the people you love can live the lives you want to live.
Mind + Body
While for many clients, therapy is a place to talk and vent, explore and grieve, for others it is a tool with which to regain control over our bodies and our minds.
Clients who wish to do so may benefit from talking about the biology of emotional well-being and the effects of trauma on the body. Others might want to identity environmental triggers or collect biofeedback data like heart rate and sleep schedule. For some clients, looking together at health tracker data can provide vital clues to what’s happening in our body that’s effecting our emotional health.
Research
Jessica’s research has two primary foci: mass incarceration and transgender health. This section is currently in development but keep checking back.
For now, visit my code repository on github.
Clinical approach
With a Master of Clinical Social Work from Simmons College and a Master of Public Health from Boston University, Jessica uses a variety of tools from multiple disciplines in her work ranging from Narrative and Feminist therapy to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). As a family therapist, Jessica sees problems as existing within a social context and brings a systemic understanding to her work.