About Elise
Elise Boulay is a licensed clinical social worker (LICSW) based in Massachusetts. She has eight years of experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, addiction concerns, trauma, bipolar symptoms, and compassion fatigue. Elise takes a respectful and down-to-earth approach in sessions.
She listens first, then works with each person to build a plan that fits their needs. She pays attention to how her own background and biases may shape the work so the conversation stays honest and clear.
Background and approach
Her training includes a Doctor of Social Work and a Master of Social Work from Simmons University, and she uses that education to guide practical, evidence-based choices. She has worked with adults who have experienced complex trauma, people who use drugs, adults with disabilities, and older adults, which has informed how she responds to difficult situations.
Elise has particular experience with compassion fatigue from her role as a clinical manager, and she brings those lessons into sessions for people feeling burned out or overwhelmed. She focuses on straightforward skills and supports that can be used between meetings. Starting therapy can feel hard, and Elise aims to make the first steps easier.
She adapts conversations and plans to each person's pace and goals, and helps people find realistic ways to reduce anxiety and rebuild self-trust.
Approaches and online support for anxiety and stress
Elise uses practical, evidence-based techniques to help people cope with anxiety and related concerns. One common approach focuses on skills training - teaching breathing strategies, grounding exercises, and step-by-step behavior changes that reduce immediate stress and build tolerance for uncomfortable feelings. These tools are helpful for panic, high stress, and social anxiety triggers.Another frequent approach emphasizes trauma-responsive care. That means pacing conversations to avoid overwhelm, validating difficult experiences, and working on safety and stabilization before moving into deeper memories. This style supports people who have experienced complex trauma or repeated stressors.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match methods to their goals, needs, and preferences, adjusting plans as progress is made. Clients and the therapist decide together what feels most useful.
Online sessions can take place by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging, which makes it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video is useful for face-to-face work and skill coaching, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, and messaging or chat can support quick check-ins and brief tools between sessions. These options offer flexibility so people can keep therapy consistent even with changing schedules.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Also listed
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Massachusetts
- Languages
- English
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