Prof. Elaine Walker

Prof. Elaine Walker offers thoughtful, creative counseling designed to help people build on their existing strengths and address whatever is keeping them from a more satisfying, fulfilling life.

She holds a Master of Arts degree and is a licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts (license number 3917). Prof. Walker provides care in Massachusetts and also meets with clients through tele-therapy, either online or by phone.

Before focusing on private practice and teaching, she spent 25 years as the director of a Fountain House model clubhouse, supporting adults with serious and persistent mental illnesses, and she retired from that role a few years ago. She now teaches as a senior adjunct at Cambridge College, guiding graduate students as they develop the clinical skills needed to become effective therapists. Alongside her academic work she maintains a small private practice and provides psychotherapy to individuals throughout the week.

Prof. Walker raised two daughters as a single mother, and as parenting responsibilities changed she found more time for art, reading, and gardening. She describes her essential purpose as creating a better world one person at a time by listening closely, considering the most helpful approaches for each individual, and taking practical steps to support change.

She adapts her approach to each client, drawing on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, person-centered methods, existential ideas, motivational interviewing, and Adlerian principles. People come to her with concerns about relationships, mood and motivation, fears and anxiety, loneliness and loss, or a general dissatisfaction with life that can be difficult to name.

Prof. Walker aims to understand each person thoroughly and to work collaboratively to facilitate meaningful change.