Therapy & Support Groups

Group Psychotherapy and Support Groups

Please Read: Changes to Our Behavioral Health Practice

Fenway Health’s Behavioral Health (BH) Department would like to share some updates about the way we are able to care for the important needs of our community.

As noted in a recent Boston Globe article, there is a long wait for primary health care and health services throughout the state. This is the result of extremely high demand – fueled in no small part by the COVID-19 pandemic – coupled with a shortage of medical and behavioral health clinicians.

Fenway Health has been significantly impacted by these constraints, with our Behavioral Health team currently facing a 50% shortage in staffed positions. This has led to a significant wait list for our services.

Given these challenges, we have made the difficult decision to take steps to ensure resources are available to better meet the needs of our patients and more quickly move people off the Behavioral Health wait list into care.

We will be capping sessions for all Fenway BH patients at 12 visits. We understand that this may be shorter than many clients would prefer. However, research shows that short-term, strengths-based interventions can be equally or more effective than longer-term models. This cap will significantly reduce our waiting list, allowing more folks who are experiencing behavioral health crises to receive 3+ months of care. At the end of the 12 sessions, we will provide referrals and resources to help find a new provider. We encourage you to discuss this with your Fenway BH provider.

All BH patients 18 years or older need to also have a Primary Care Physician at Fenway. This has been our longstanding policy for most of our adult patients and will allow us to ensure that all clients have access to the most comprehensive care across their entire patient experience. It will also make for better communication between BH providers and medical teams for a smoother patient-centered care plan. This change brings Fenway in line with the standards for most community health centers.

Out-of-state patients can no longer access virtual appointments and will need to meet with their provider in person. This is due to state licensure laws. Fenway Health is not licensed to provide services outside of Massachusetts, and pandemic exceptions to these regulations have expired.

We understand that these changes may be upsetting for some patients. They are unfortunately necessary given our current staffing and resource challenges. We do believe that ultimately, these changes will allow us to provide services to many more people in our community who are in desperate need of behavioral health care.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and for allowing us to be your health care home. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please email Monique Willett or Frank Fleming at information@fenwayhealth.org.

Model of Psychotherapy

Fenway Health’s Behavioral Health team operates under an Episodic Model of care. Episodic care refers to time limited treatment that encourages an individual to actively engage in therapy through dynamic movement. The focus of this movement through care is the building of skills and finding solutions. This works well for those with clear goals and high motivation.

The arc of treatment is made up of three phases:

Beginning phase
Middle phase
Graduation phase

Beginning Phase

The beginning phase is focused on identifying clear goals of treatment. As such, treatment planning is essential because it helps the patient and provider focus care in a way that supports clear goals, movement, and resolution. In this phase, the provider works with the client to identify 1–3 areas of focus, noting that not all issues an individual comes to therapy with may be resolved within an episode.

The provider outlines structure and mapping around the treatment experience, which includes the setting of a graduation goal in order to optimize sessions and time between sessions. The provider may begin treatment planning with the client by asking clear questions about their goals for care.

Middle Phase

The middle phase focuses on learning and implementing skills through a strengths-based approach. This evidenced based approach builds on an individual’s unique strengths and knowledge that they bring with them as experts in their own lives.  As behavioral health providers, our responsibility is to support clients as they build skills, increase self-understanding, and conclude each episode of care with confidence in their ability to actively engage in living.

Graduation Phase

We actively support individuals to ready themselves for graduation by using active engagement in sessions and skills practice between sessions. We support and encourage our patients to increase their proficiency, confidence and test the sustainability of their efforts in order to create readiness to conclude their episode of care and return to their active living. We believe that doing intentional termination work is an essential part of therapy as often, individuals do not get to experience planned conclusions of relationships. At the time of graduation, folks are educated about their ability to return for a future episode of care if or when they need it.

Groups & Waitlist Requests are on hold

While we are working to navigate changes within our system, our group programming has been placed on hold. If you do not see a previously offered group on this page, we hope to be able to offer it again soon. All programming below is still available for you to attend. We are not adding individuals to our existing waitlists.

Please check back in the future, as we will update accordingly.

Fenway Health offers a variety of short-term, skill-based psychotherapy groups and support groups. Years of research demonstrates that group therapy can be just as effective as individual therapy, and in many instances, even more effective. Group psychotherapy is reimbursed by most insurance plans. Our groups promote active engagement, skill building, and improved self-understanding that leads to successful graduation from the group experience.

Our short-term, skill-based groups typically run for 10 to 16 weeks and are designed to empower you with knowledge, teach you concrete skills and offer you support
Our non-skills-based psychotherapy groups are also designed to help foster engagement to enhance functioning while you work on achieving your personalized treatment goals.
Our no cost drop-in support groups are not psychotherapy groups, but are designed to provide supportive discussions, education, and to foster a sense of mutual-aid, belonging, and camaraderie among participants. Some of these groups are run outside of the Behavioral Health Department, through partners in other areas of Fenway Health.
Our groups may meet virtually via Zoom and/or in person. We invite you to communicate with the Monique Willett, LICSW – Interim Co-Director of Behavioral Health, 857.313.6799, to get more information about the group's meeting space.

Interpretation Services Servicios de interpretación Serviços de interpretação 口译服务 Sèvis Entèpretasyon

Interpretation Services Servicios de interpretación Serviços de interpretação 口译服务 Sèvis Entèpretasyon