Cassandra Duarte, LMHC

Biography

I am a licensed mental health counselor with a 14-year clinical background as an Assistant Clinical Director working with adolescents and families in an intensive locked residential setting on the grounds of Tewksbury State Hospital Campus. My expertise, foundation, and passion for work has been developed in a congregate care setting while treating a variety of diagnoses combined with cognitively limited, developmentally delayed patients stepping down from extensive periods of psychiatric hospitalization in need for stabilization. Clinically, I have significant experience working with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety, depression, intellectual disabilities, PTSD, trauma, and much more. I also specialize in working with adolescents and adults. I am familiar with the mental health system, accessing needs, joining with agencies, and finding ways for families and children to succeed for a better quality of life after periods of crisis.
My viewpoint and practice clinically, is based upon building on a client’s strengths, understanding barriers in the way of their goals, identifying maladaptive thought patterns, utilizing problem-solving techniques, and developing self-care skills to improve their overall functioning. I have experience facilitating family, couples, and group therapies. I truly enjoy family therapy and using a systemic approach. Clinically, my belief is that the journey for the client is not one they make alone, but with their clinician helping to lead them with empathy, consistency, persistence, and compassion. I always will find a way to work with all of my patients through a patient-centered approach with plenty of room for narrative perspectives in treatment. My therapy space is always open to all cultures, beliefs, values, genders. My priority in therapy is to provide a safe space to promote trust by learning from one-another, and feeling supported in the most vulnerable moments.

I am dedicated to helping others experience whatever it is that they are going through, while stopping to remind them how open they can be to improvements that will lead to a better quality of life with work and commitment to themselves. I am dedicated to helping adolescents, latency-age children, families, couples and adults learn how to build a healthier relationship with themselves and improve their overall functioning.

My work focuses on targeting stressors, negative habits, and ineffective thought patterns and beliefs. My therapeutic style can be described as adaptive, eclectic, and draws upon several different frameworks, including but not limited to CBT, DBT, expressive art, play therapies, as well psychoeducation. Clients have described my style as fun, wholesome, warm, caring, real-talk, honest, effective and supportive.

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