Hi! I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and have experience working in two major Boston-area hospitals with individuals navigating severe and persistent mental illness of all adult ages, and in perinatal/maternal health. I have interest and experience working with individuals who are navigating anxiety, depression, adjustment and general life stressors, and I specialize in grief and loss.
I currently work as a hospital-based social worker supporting patients experiencing pregnancy loss at any gestational age and supporting families through the incredibly devastating experience of losing a pregnancy or newborn. I am extremely passionate about reproductive healthcare and abortion care, as my work supports individuals who are receiving abortion care in Boston. With my professional experience so far, I believe that I offer a wide variety of perspectives and insights that can be utilized to help meet diverse needs and goals, while continuing to learn and grow as a clinician with each client that I meet.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
During our first few sessions, I will focus on getting to know you, your identified supports/family, important aspects of your life to you, goals that you have, discuss the assessments that you completed prior to your first session (anxiety and depression screen and intake form). We will start to identify where you would like to start based off of what brought you to therapy, prioritize the goals that you have identified and start our work slowly together. Often times the beginning of therapy can feel slow, it is important to build trust and safety so true therapeutic work can happen!
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
With my experience with grief and loss, combined with my experience in acute and severe mental health, I am a strong supporter in following the pace of the client, while also finding opportunities to use our positive therapeutic relationship to challenge the clients that I work with in a way that is compassionate and supportive. This balance is a critical skill that I have had opportunity to hone through my work. My hope is to guide and support you through this time in your life, and work to put myself out of a job as our hope is that you will gain the skills for you to move forward in your life without therapy as an additional support. And whatever this pace looks like for you, is ok! I also find that some humor mixed into the work is important, and necessary!
About Meghan Dellorco
Appointments
Virtual
My treatment methods
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a widely used intervention that supports identifying thoughts, feelings, thought pathways and behavior patterns, and how these are impacting the multitude of ways that we engage with our lives. Identifying thoughts and behaviors that are maladaptive and do not serve us in bolstering healthy coping methods is imperative in beginning the reparative work. Often in this treatment, specific homework is involved in between sessions that will be utilized in the following session in order to keep moving forward in the treatment. I find that homework and noting when thoughts/behaviors arise for you in your day to day lives, this helps our sessions to be more fruitful and connected to your reality, and helps to support new patterns of thinking and behaviors.
Grief Therapy
I specialize in grief and loss therapy and treatment through my experience working in maternal health and perinatal mental health. Providing safe and supportive space to honor the emotions related to your grief and the loss that you have experienced is necessary to move forward to healing. Grief work is often sitting with the uncomfortable and painful thoughts and emotions, and identifying how you want to integrate this loss and grief in your life and story moving forward. Often, identifying ways to honor and memorialize that feel meaningful to you is another aspect of this work, as well as identifying and implementing important boundaries that will be supportive and protective for you. Grief and loss treatment is not linear, as is most mental health treatment, and grace and compassion for yourself through this process is incredibly important.
Attachment-based
Identifying how you connect with others, reflecting on your relationships in childhood as you recall them and how these relationships have evolved over time as attachment begins from the moment we are born. Reflecting on how you engage in relationships, either friendships, colleagues, romantic partners or spouses, as well as identifying how you share and receive love and care, and engage in and resolve conflict. Do you feel like you relate more to feeling confident and secure in your relationships? Do you feel like you experience a fear of abandonment or rejection? Do you feel like you are very independent and more often rely on yourself rather than others? Understanding these aspects of us can help support resolution in attachment bonds that started from the very beginning of our lives, and what we can do to support where our attachment style may impact our relationships and engagements with the world in a way that doesn't serve us or align with our goals. This treatment is a kind of intervention that can be interwoven from session to session, and throughout long-term treatment.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is another kind of intervention that can be utilized throughout treatment when goals are being identified, action steps are being created, and understanding where you feel like you stand in terms of moving forward with your goals. Have you identified a behavior that you engage in that you think is harmful or maladaptive? Have others in your life shared their thoughts about behavior that they identify is harmful or adaptive, and are you in agreement with this? Have you been thinking about taking steps to adjust this behavior or do you feel as though you aren't quite ready for this? Understanding where you are in terms of change is motivational interviewing to it's core. Often times, this treatment is used within substance use focused work, but I believe that this treatment can be generalized to many behaviors and coping methods that may not support or serve us.
Strength-Based
Strength-based treatment is a treatment intervention that I use in every session and I think it is so important and foundational to building trust and safety within a therapeutic partnership. Identifying the strengths of the client, observed by the clinician and also what the client believes about themselves, is a necessary part of treatment as it fosters a strong relationship, and also enhances empowerment and belief in themselves. This foundation of a strong client-clinician relationship will be so important to allow for safe space for the client to be challenged and encouraged to push through painful and difficult aspects of their experiences, while maintaining the feelings of security and safety.
