AVIVA PSYCHOLOGY SERVICES

Dr. Urbano is a founding partner and the Clinical Director for Aviva Psychology Services. She is a dedicated clinician and caring soul who helps to build our team and bring our clinical vision to life. She supports our growing team with organizational development, clinical support, heart and humor.

Dr. Urbano is a licensed psychologist who specializes in helping adults of all identities to feel more secure in themselves, satisfied in their relationships, and resilient through uncertainty, change, and loss of all types (e.g. ambiguous loss like infertility, aging, a path not taken in life; concrete loss, like death, divorce/relationship endings, or job loss; and traumatic loss, like unexpected death, terminal medical diagnosis, stillborn birth, or medical termination of a wanted pregnancy). Dr. Urbano meets clients in the depths of their despair and deeply respects (and trusts) the strength, resilience and newfound freedom that emerge through grief.

Dr. Urbano believes we are both hurt and healed in the context of relationships, and she has an additional specialty area in relational health & interpersonal anxiety. She enjoys working with individuals who feel anxious, misunderstood, insecure, sensitive, and/or emotionally overwhelmed to increase comfort with themselves, their feelings and needs, and their relationships. She helps individuals, couples, and families to improve communication, develop healthier attachments, and better understand and change hurtful relational patterns. She explicitly welcomes gender and sexual diversity and those who identify as male who wish to do this work.

Finally, Dr. Urbano’s most recent area of focus and study is perinatal mental health. She is dedicated to working with both aspiring and current parents throughout the complex family planning and adjustment process, including grief and traumatic loss, coping with uncertainty and infertility, and adjustment to parenthood.

As an integrated psychodynamic and behavioral psychologist, Dr. Urbano uses a combination of structured therapy models (CBT, ACT, IFS, and Bader's Developmental Model of Couples Therapy) and psychodynamic processes to achieve desired change. Through a combination of both self-awareness and skill building, Dr. Urbano helps clients recognize their role in making desired changes, build strategies for healthier coping and relational functioning, and translate their needs and values into action to live more secure, satisfying and connected lives.

In addition to her training in behavioral and psychodynamic therapies, Dr. Urbano integrates systems thinking in all her therapy work. You will find that she:

• unwaveringly views you as a whole and capable person
• is warm and emotionally attuned
• welcomes all of you— including your anger and shame
• is active throughout the process
• provides and invites ongoing feedback
• views behavior as purposeful
• pays attention to your nervous system
• values your complex identity and views the familial, social, cultural, and systemic influences that shape you/us as central to our therapy work

She also utilizes Non-violent Communication (NVC) training to build competency identifying and expressing one’s needs with clarity and confidence, both in the context of the therapy process and in daily living. She has found NVC to be an enormously compassionate model, effective communication framework, and helpful interpersonal effectiveness skill.  

Dr. Urbano offers a compassionate, emotionally attuned, and honest therapy relationship to support both acceptance and desired change to live a more vibrant and fulfilling life.

Dr. Karthaus is a founding partner and the Business Manager for Aviva Psychology Services. Dr. Karthaus is a visionary and a phenomenal systems thinker. She is gifted at translating ideas into action, and at implementing efficient systems to optimize organizational functioning.

In her clinical role as a licensed psychologist, she provides individual therapy and career counseling. She focuses on working with diverse populations and has an expertise in working with individuals who struggle with anxiety, career challenges, and adjustment to parenting.

In practice, Dr. Karthaus works from a mindfulness-based perspective, integrating evidence-based interventions from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She is a registered yoga teacher, which informs her work in helping clients to cultivate intuitive strategies for managing the stress of daily life. Finally, as a counseling psychologist, Dr. Karthaus has a great deal of experience in helping clients find value and meaning in their careers. She offers both formal career-counseling sessions as well as integrates career counseling into individual psychotherapy sessions as it is relevant to clients’ needs.

As a behavioral therapist, Dr. Karthaus aims to help clients identify patterns of behavior and make active choices to move towards their values. She believes that much of the pain in life stems from avoidance. While avoidance of pain is a universal human experience, it often leads to moving away from values in an effort to feel less intensity. With this in mind, her approach to therapy involves (a) working with clients to understand the function of their behaviors (b) increase mindfulness skills and expand emotional awareness and (c) increase willingness to make the changes that would help them move towards a more valued life.

Dr. Banks is a warm and compassionate psychologist who is committed to providing a welcoming and safe space for clients to explore who they are and who they would like to become. She works with clients to develop insight into their feelings, beliefs, and values in order to better understand themselves and others. She also helps people identify what they want to be different so they can implement the change they desire. Underlying all of her work is a commitment to helping people feel seen, respected, and understood.

Dr. Banks works with adults with a variety of concerns, including anxiety, grief, career concerns, relationship concerns, racial trauma, and adjustment concerns. Her areas of focus include working with women, young adults, and individuals from marginalized communities. Dr. Banks attends to both individual and systemic factors that impact her clients’ lives and assists people in growing and changing in ways that are consistent with their values.

Dr. Banks uses strength-based, multicultural, and interpersonal approaches in her work. She works with clients to identify and examine patterns in their thoughts, feelings, behaviors and relationships to promote insight and growth. Dr. Banks also incorporates cognitive-behavioral and emotion-focused interventions in her work. Dr. Banks’ work is rooted in an attention to the ways that relationships shape and affect us, cultural humility, and an acknowledgement of each person’s unique strengths and potential for resilience, healing and change.

Dr. Remen is a dedicated and seasoned psychologist who has been in practice for over twenty-five years. She is LGBTQ affirming and welcomes clients from diverse backgrounds. She has extensive experience treating highly sensitive adults whose emotional needs were often unmet in childhood. Dr. Remen is attuned to the inherent challenges and rewards of being a highly sensitive person. She is passionate about helping people understand and self-validate their emotional experiences while also developing a powerful repertoire of skills to cope with the challenges of living in a complex world.

Dr. Remen holds the perspective that all people have great inner strength and wisdom, qualities that may be hard to access due to their life circumstances and histories. Her warm and accepting manner enables her clients to feel connected and safe as they explore such issues as painful emotions, trauma, and life stress. With curiosity and sensitivity, she assists her clients to access their innate inner resources to experience a profound sense of well-being.

Dr. Remen’s approach to treatment is integrative. She has had extensive training and experience in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These mindfulness-based behavioral therapies have been studied widely and offer powerful strategies for managing emotions, tolerating distress, resisting impulses, and improving relationships. As a long-time meditator, Dr. Remen has personally experienced the positive effects of mindfulness in her own life. She is dedicated to sharing this effective means of reducing stress and increasing her clients’ capacity for experiencing meaning and joy.

Dr. Remen is also a Level 1 trained IFS therapist. IFS has a growing evidence base and is recognized internationally as a powerful treatment modality. IFS proposes that all human beings have, at their core, the capacity for profound healing, as well as different protective parts of their personalities that may manifest as symptoms such as anxiety, anger, and undesirable habits. By assisting her clients to connect compassionately with their parts, Dr. Remen guides them to apply their innate healing capacity to resolve these intense and habitual reactions and to feel unstuck. Successful IFS therapy enables clients to live full, flexible, authentic lives.

Dr. Remen believes that close collaboration with her clients is an essential ingredient for successful psychotherapy. She views candid, ongoing feedback from clients about how treatment is progressing as essential to their satisfaction and success.

Dr. Martin-Tousignant is a warm and compassionate psychologist with a focus in women’s mental health and specific expertise in perinatal mental health and parenting.  She additionally supports women experiencing FOO difficulties/trauma, relational difficulties, grief and loss, and life transitions to improve coping and resilience. She is committed to creating a safe place where clients feel seen and heard while providing support and empowerment on their parenthood journey and through other life transitions and family challenges.

Dr. Martin-Tousignant specializes in working with women and parents experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety, processing a traumatic birth or NICU experience, or struggling with the loss of a pregnancy or infant. She also helps with challenges associated with parenting young children, adjusting to other significant life changes, and dealing with family trauma.

Dr. Martin-Tousignant is an integrative psychologist with additional training in perinatal and infant mental health, including the completion of Seleni’s Maternal Mental Health Intensive on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and grief and loss.  She uses emotion-focused, empowerment, and trauma-informed approaches in her work to help clients become more aware, make productive use of their emotions, understand the complexities of their relationships, and learn how past experiences influence current functioning. She also incorporates cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness interventions to improve coping.  Dr. Martin-Tousignant builds therapeutic relationships through her core values of compassion, authenticity, curiosity, and humor.

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Brittni is a dynamic admin team member who brings creativity, warmth and enthusiasm to our administrative operations. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2019 and quickly fostered an interest in mental and behavioral health after being a special education teacher in Springfield. She is interested in pursuing a graduate degree in mental health counseling or psychology and hopes to make a positive impact in the field as a future clinician.

Dr. Solar is a genuine and warm psychologist who partners with clients to explore patterns, clarify values, and make progress towards living an authentic and fulfilling life.  She welcomes adult clients of diverse experiences, backgrounds, and identities, and she approaches her work through a social contextual lens.

As a clinical health psychologist, Dr. Solar has a deep appreciation for the connection between emotional and physical health.  Her areas of focus include depression, anxiety, adjustment, identity development, work-life balance, and chronic stress. Dr. Solar has specialized training and expertise in helping clients to adapt to, cope with, and manage health issues and chronic illness.  She provides interventions for a range of health-related concerns including health anxiety, diabetes, sleep issues, health behavior changes, cardiovascular disease, smoking cessation, rare medical illnesses, and degenerative conditions.  

Dr. Solar’s approach integrates evidence-based therapies including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Narrative Therapy to best fit each client’s individual strengths, needs, and goals.  She aims to provide an open and affirming space to explore experiences with compassion and curiosity where clients feel empowered to create enduring change.   She values open and honest communication, flexibility, creativity, and humor.

Dr. Cumes is a warm and perceptive psychologist who believes that by listening carefully, she can help clients identify the circumstances that are leading them to feel stuck or overwhelmed and find a path to move forward. Her clients are often individuals facing difficult life transitions or are struggling with depressed mood, loss, relationship difficulties, anxiety, or other challenges. She appreciates people of all genders and identities, and builds therapy relationships that are authentic, anchored in acceptance and that often include a little gentle humor. Dr. Cumes believes that the human experience can be unavoidably challenging, but that there are many ways to ease pain and sustain hope. She works with clients’ strengths and values to help them move their lives in the direction they want. In addition, she has an expertise in helping parents, caregivers or loved ones of individuals who are questioning their gender identity or identify as nonbinary or transgender, increase their understanding and explore ways to offer support.

Dr. Cumes has found that her range of clinical experience and training leads to a therapeutic approach where certain techniques apply better to some people than others. This has given her the flexibility to draw elements from the various established methods that are considered helpful. She is always collaborative and responsive to feedback. Her focus is often interpersonal, on how we try to fulfill our needs and the roles of our relationships. She recognizes that sometimes we need tools to manage high levels of stress in order to move forward. When appropriate, she uses behavioral and cognitive behavioral approaches (CBT) to recognize how we are stuck in unhelpful patterns and observe and shift them to bring about lasting change. She finds that the skills found in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) can also help us manage distress, improve communication and ultimately develop a more satisfying and balanced emotional life. Dr. Cumes also supports and encourages mindfulness because it offers a different way to experience the aspects of life that are truly beyond our control. Finally, she has speciality training in EMDR, a treatment to help process traumatic events. Dr. Cumes will draw from her diverse clinical training and experience to best meet your needs throughout the therapy process while always attending to  the therapy relationship with care, openness, and compassion.

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Gretta contributes to the daily functioning and growth of Aviva through their administrative work. They provide caring and responsive support to our clients and clinical team. Gretta earned a Bachelor's degree in sociology from Smith College and is dedicated to processes of healing and integration that will equip individuals with the necessary tools to meet the challenges of our time.

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Dr. McMorran is a warm and skillful psychologist with expertise treating depression, anxiety disorders, complex trauma, and trauma-related disorders. She has completed extensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness/acceptance-based, transdiagnostic and psychodynamic approaches.

Dr. McMorran enjoys working with adults of all ages who are diverse in their identities, backgrounds, and perspectives, and she is committed to multicultural training and competence. She highly values the insights, growth and improved emotional stability engendered by mindfulness practices, and welcomes the opportunity to help clients explore and develop mindfulness skills.

Dr. McMorran uses an integrative approach that incorporates CBT, ACT, mindfulness-based and psychodynamic techniques, allowing her to tailor treatment to the unique needs of each person. Through this integrative approach, clients can expect both short-term symptom improvement and long-term growth in accordance with their goals for therapy. Dr. McMorran views her role as supporting and guiding active collaboration between therapist and client, with the understanding that a trusting and open therapeutic relationship is the foundation of effective psychotherapy. Her core therapy values include genuineness, compassion, and an open-minded curiosity, which enable her to connect deeply with clients in the service of their self-understanding and whole well-being.

Dr. Dietmann is a warm and compassionate psychologist who specializes in treating individuals with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, and interpersonal problems.  She enjoys working with young adults around identity development, adjustment to life and role transitions, navigating relationships, and stress management.  Dr. Dietmann also has extensive experience providing support and coaching to parents of school-aged children who are hoping to integrate more balance and self-care into their daily lives.  She is passionate about building genuine relationships with her clients and creating a safe, supportive environment to identify and reach their therapy goals.

Dr. Dietmann utilizes an integrative therapy approach and recognizes that each client has unique strengths, past experiences that have shaped them, and desired areas for growth.  Dr. Dietmann incorporates techniques from relational, psychodynamic, attachment, and cognitive behavioral therapies to help clients build insight and self-awareness into their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and increase their ability to cope with uncomfortable emotions and stressors as they arise.  Dr. Dietmann supports clients as they explore the impact of past experiences on their current functioning and works collaboratively with clients to develop a repertoire of healthy coping skills.

Dr. Akoury is a warm and present psychologist who helps clients balance acceptance and change in their life journeys. She builds a welcoming and collaborative space where clients can safely explore challenging emotions and work towards their goals. In her prior training, she has focused on working with adults in the midst of challenging life transitions. Whether her clients are adjusting to a new stage of life or building a new sense of identity, Dr. Akoury welcomes the opportunity to help.

Dr. Akoury provides individual and group therapy for adults with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, and acculturation difficulties. She has experience working with indigenous, immigrant, and marginalized individuals to build empowerment from a cultural humility lens. Dr. Akoury is also extensively trained in evidence-based treatments to improve individuals’ relationship with their body, food, and self-image. She has authored numerous publications on the influence of culture and society on women’s relationships with their bodies, self-esteem, and food.

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Dr. Akoury is an integrative psychologist who is trained in both culturally-immersed therapy, which acknowledges the influence of race, culture, and identity on clients’ lived experiences, and in evidence-based therapies, including Dialectical-BehavioralTherapy (DBT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). With a sense of collaboration and discovery, she helps clients untangle their thoughts and feelings in order to move forward with increased freedom, stability, and clarity. Dr. Akoury believes that change comes from increased awareness and works with clients to build mindfulness, explore their values, set healthy boundaries, and catch and replace unhelpful thinking patterns. 

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Dr. Wu is a warm, hopeful psychologist who is dedicated to improving adults’ well-being by understanding their experiences, identifying their values and needs, and improving their security in relationships. He enjoys a collaborative therapy process with adults of diverse, intersecting identities and backgrounds, and he prioritizes working within clients’ frames of reference to reach their goals.

Dr. Wu provides individual and group therapy, treating a range of issues such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, academic and career challenges, adjustment challenges, dating and relationships, men’s concerns, Asian American mental health, and identity development. He specializes in working with the young adult population and with those experiencing difficult life transitions. His therapeutic approach builds on clients’ existing strengths, explores current concerns while considering the impact of past experiences, and increases skills for self-awareness, coping, communication, and values-driven behavioral changes.

Dr. Wu’s approach to psychotherapy is integrative, tailored to clients, and strengths-focused. It is informed primarily by relational, emotion-focused, CBT, and ACT approaches, and incorporates mindfulness and DBT skills. This process encourages holistic awareness and acceptance of the many aspects of ourselves, empowering individuals to better understand self and others, and to more confidently define next steps. He provides a supportive therapeutic space characterized by patience, compassion, flexibility, and curiosity. He values authentic communication and invites feedback in the therapeutic relationship.

Dr. Magin is a warm and open psychologist who enjoys helping clients gain meaning and purpose by living their lives in line with their values. She collaboratively works with clients to determine how the coping skills they developed to address life stressors have helped them to survive and adapt, yet sometimes do not serve them well in the present. It can be difficult to examine what is not working in our lives and to experience feelings we have tried to avoid. Dr. Magin helps clients make space for uncomfortable emotions by providing a warm and safe environment. 

Dr. Magin works with adult patients with a variety of issues, including anxiety and mood disorders, life transitions, interpersonal problems, trauma, and grief. Dr. Magin has a particular emphasis in reproductive mental health to help patients with mood and anxiety disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period. She also helps with challenges in the transition to parenthood and with processing grief related to infertility, pregnancy loss, and infant loss.

Dr. Magin works from an integrative approach incorporating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and mindfulness. Dr. Magin takes a holistic approach to therapy with an awareness of the mind-body connection.  She collaborates with clients to transform their narratives by focusing on how adversity has shaped them as well as how it can lead to personal growth. Within a safe therapeutic space, clients are empowered to reflect on how their stories impact their health and identity. She helps clients examine the multitude of factors in their lives that contribute to the decision to come to therapy and to the development of their identity. Dr. Magin’s values of authenticity, curiosity, and hope guide her collaborative work with clients to achieve desired change. 

Dr. Burton is a warm and empathetic psychologist who enjoys working collaboratively with clients to identify their goals and values and to work toward meaningful change. At times, we can feel stuck in unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaving, or feel held back by our doubts and fears. Dr. Burton provides a welcoming space to examine these experiences and build upon clients’ strengths and skills to help them live the lives they want. She is dedicated to understanding clients’ unique backgrounds, identities, and experiences and she individualizes care to most effectively meet their needs.

Dr. Burton provides individual and group therapy for adults with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, relationship issues, identity development, academic and career challenges, and adjustment to life transitions. She specializes in working with young adults to navigate common transitions and settings during this stage of life, such as college and graduate school, early career experiences, relationship development, relocation, and decision making/future planning.

Dr. Burton’s approach integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). She also incorporates Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and relational interventions. Dr. Burton is dedicated to providing culturally responsive care and welcomes clients of diverse backgrounds and identities. She provides a supportive and collaborative space to explore current concerns, as well as the impact of past experiences. Dr. Burton supports her clients’ growth by expanding their understanding of themselves and others and by building self-compassion. She builds therapeutic relationships on a foundation of trust and open communication and she values flexibility, curiosity, compassion, and humor.

Tara is an integral part of Aviva’s functioning. She is dedicated, curious, and eager to help. She supports the team with warmth, care, and essential administrative tasks so operations at Aviva can run smoothly for both clinicians and clients. Tara studied psychology at Boston College, is currently pursuing her master's degree in Mental Health Counseling at the Boston College Lynch School of Education, and hopes to become a clinical psychologist in the coming years.