Psychiatry & Psychotherapy for Families and Professionals of Color in Boston
Thoughtful, physician-led care for children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families navigating anxiety, burnout, school stress, relationship strain, identity concerns, and the effects of being misunderstood or alone in important environments.
Not sure if the timing is right? Call us at 617.859.5953. No commitment required.
Two Common Reasons People Reach Out
For parents and families
You may have a child who is more irritable, less confident, less engaged, or increasingly discouraged. You may suspect that school, belonging, race, or social experience matters, but not know how to think about it clearly yet.
For professionals of color
You may be successful on paper and increasingly depleted in private. Perhaps work has become more fraught, you feel watched or misread, or you are tired of having to explain the racial dimensions of your experience, or your family’s immigration story before real treatment can even begin.
We help patients and families think carefully about what is happening, what it means, and what kind of treatment would actually be useful.
How to Get Started
1.
Request a consultation:
Submit the form or call.
2.
Office manager call:
We review basic clinic information and fit.
3.
Brief clinician screening (10–15 minutes):
Then our office manager books your first appointment.
Private-pay care enables time, continuity, and depth, with fees discussed during the office manager call.
Located in Back Bay and serving Beacon Hill, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton, and surrounding areas. Telehealth is available for established patients in Massachusetts, and for new patients where in-person care is not accessible.
Appointments are often available within a week.
When Parents Feel Something Has Shifted
Sometimes the first sign is not a dramatic crisis.
It may be a child who seems more irritable, more self-conscious, less confident, less interested in school, or quicker to get into conflict. It may be a son who is still functioning outwardly, but no longer feels like himself. It may be a bright adolescent who suddenly seems discouraged, withdrawn, or harder to reach.
Many parents are not sure what exactly they are seeing. They may wonder whether this is a developmental phase, anxiety, ADHD, depression, school stress, or something about race and belonging that their child cannot yet put into words.
That uncertainty is often the right time to seek consultation for a child.
When Work Starts to Feel Different
Many professionals of color come to treatment after a difficult shift at work.
Sometimes there has been a specific incident. Sometimes the problem is harder to name. A once-manageable environment may begin to feel tense, exposing, or quietly humiliating. You may feel scrutinized, underestimated, passed over, isolated, or caught in a situation that seems racial in nature but difficult to prove or discuss.
Some people come in exhausted by code-switching, self-monitoring, or carrying the burden of staying composed in environments where they do not feel fully seen. Others are less concerned with any one event than with finding a clinician of color with whom they do not have to explain or defend the basic reality of their experience before deeper work can begin.
We make room for all of that. We do not force race to explain everything, and we do not avoid it when it matters.
When a Child Is One of Very Few at School
Some children of color carry pressures at school that are hard to describe, especially when they are one of very few.
A child may feel watched more closely, misunderstood by adults, left out socially, unsure where he fits, or reluctant to speak openly about what feels painful or confusing. Sometimes this shows up as anxiety. Sometimes as withdrawal, perfectionism, conflict, lowered confidence, or a change in school performance. Sometimes a child begins to look oppositional when he is actually discouraged, lonely, or on guard.
Parents may sense that school is no longer feeling good to their child, but may not be certain whether race is central, peripheral, or not the issue at all. Part of our work is helping families think clearly about what belongs to school culture, development, temperament, identity, psychiatric symptoms, and relationships with teachers or peers.
Care That Does Not Begin With Defending Reality
Many patients of color arrive already tired.
Tired of wondering whether something really happened the way it felt. Tired of translating their experience into terms that others will accept. Tired of deciding how much of themselves is safe to show. Tired of beginning treatment with the fear that they will first have to persuade the clinician that race, identity, public perception, or belonging might matter.
At Webster Clinic, we aim to begin from a more informed place.
For some patients and families, it matters that our clinic includes Black psychiatrists with longstanding commitment to Black communities. Not because identity alone determines treatment, but because it can make it easier to begin with more trust, more nuance, and less unnecessary explanation. From there, the work becomes what it should be: understanding your child, your life, your suffering, your relationships, and what may actually help.
OUR APPROACH
Psychotherapy-based psychiatry
Developmentally informed care for children, adolescents, adults, and families
Thoughtful attention to race, identity, culture, school, and workplace context
Medication when useful, not by default
We do not assume every problem is primarily about race. We also do not leave patients alone with the subject when it matters.
Our work begins with careful listening. We try to understand the whole picture: emotional life, personality, development, relationships, family history, work or school setting, symptoms, identity, strengths, and the meanings attached to what is happening.
For some patients, race and belonging are central. For others, they are one thread in a more complex situation. Either way, treatment should help people think more clearly, feel less alone, and move toward change that is not merely superficial.
Why Some Patients and Families Choose a Psychiatrist Who Also Provides Psychotherapy
People often come to us with several questions at once.
FOR A PARENT:
Is this anxiety, depression, ADHD, school strain, trauma, or some combination?
Is my child being misunderstood?
Would medication help, or would it miss the point?
FOR AN ADULT:
Is this burnout, depression, trauma, moral injury, workplace conflict, racial stress, or all of these together?
Am I reacting to a bad environment, repeating an old pattern, or both?
Would medication be useful, or is the heart of the problem elsewhere?
Our psychiatrists are physicians who also provide psychotherapy. That allows us to think in an integrated way about diagnosis, emotional life, relationships, development, context, and medication in one place.
For some people, therapy with a separate prescriber works well. But when the picture is nuanced, painful, or hard to name, many patients prefer one clinician who can think psychotherapeutically and medically at the same time.
The value is not simply access to medication. It is depth, continuity, and integration.
Who We Help
We work with families and professionals of color seeking thoughtful, sustained psychiatric care, including psychotherapy and medication when it advances your goals, all delivered by clinicians who have dedicated their lives to your particular kind of care.
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Children and adolescents of color
Children and teens struggling with anxiety, sadness, irritability, school refusal, academic decline, social isolation, ADHD, behavior changes, lowered confidence, or the strain of not feeling fully understood.Parents and families of color
Parents trying to understand what has changed in a child, how race and school context may or may not matter, and how to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively.Professionals of color
Adults navigating burnout, workplace conflict, code-switching fatigue, leadership pressure, racial stress, isolation, demoralization, anxiety, depression, or the wish to work with a clinician of color who can see more of them from the outset.Couples of color and interracial couples
Couples managing conflict, cultural differences, parenting stress, professional strain, and different ways of understanding race, family, and belonging.Multiracial and multicultural individuals and families
Patients navigating differences between how they understand themselves and how they are perceived by schools, workplaces, institutions, communities, or extended family.
Common Reasons People Contact Us:
Anxiety and chronic worry
Burnout and depletion
Workplace conflict or racial stress
Depression and withdrawal
School stress and school avoidance
ADHD and questions about attention or motivation
Irritability, anger, or conflict at home
Social isolation or difficulty fitting in
Perfectionism in high-achieving settings
Identity concerns and belonging
Reactions to bullying, exclusion, or scrutiny
Parent-child conflict
Relationship strain
Questions about whether medication may help
WHY WEBSTER CLINIC?
Webster Clinic offers a style of care that is thoughtful, psychotherapeutic, and physician-led.
We work with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families, and we are attentive to the way emotional life unfolds in context, including family expectations, school environments, workplace pressures, racial experience, and identity.
Our clinic includes Black psychiatrists whose clinical, academic, and community commitments reflect longstanding investment in the mental health of patients, families, and communities of color.
For some patients and families, that matters because it can make treatment feel safer, more nuanced, and less burdened by unnecessary explanation. What matters most, however, is the quality of thinking and care that follows.
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![A woman with long dark hair, wearing a purple dress, smiling and sitting on an olive green armchair in a room with a bookshelf and a potted plant in the background.]()
Christine Crawford MD MPH
Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist
Black psychiatrist whose leadership and professional work reflect deep commitment to communities of color and thoughtful, identity-attuned psychiatric care.
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![A woman sitting in a green armchair with a bookshelf behind her, smiling at the camera.]()
Jacqueline Buchanan MD
Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist
Psychiatrist providing thoughtful care for adults, couples, and families with attention to emotional life, relationships, and context.
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Cecil R Webster Jr MD
FOUNDER & CEO
Child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist
Psychoanalyst
FAQs
Do you work with both families and adults of color?
1
Yes. We provide psychiatry and psychotherapy for children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families of color in Boston.
Do you work with professionals of color?
2
Yes. We often work with professionals dealing with burnout, difficult workplace dynamics, racial stress, demoralization, depression, anxiety, and relationship strain.
What if I think something at work may be racial, but I am not fully sure?
3
That is common. Many people come in with a strong sense that something is wrong without being fully certain how to name it. Treatment can help clarify what is happening, what it is stirring up, and how you want to respond.
Do you work with children in independent schools?
4
Yes. We often work with children and adolescents in demanding school settings, including independent schools, where concerns may involve pressure, belonging, teacher relationships, social exclusion, discipline, or the strain of being one of very few. As a part of care at Webster Clinic, we work closely with teachers and administrators to help alleviate that strain.
What if we are not sure whether race is part of the problem?
5
That is common. We help patients and families think carefully about what belongs to development, temperament, school or workplace environment, family dynamics, identity, and psychiatric symptoms.
Why see a psychiatrist rather than a therapist alone?
6
Some people do well with therapy alone. Patients often choose Webster Clinic when they want an integrated assessment from a physician who can think about psychotherapy, diagnosis, development, context, and medication together.
Do you prescribe medication?
7
Yes, when it is useful. Medication is one possible tool, not the center of every treatment.
Do you work with parents too?
8
Yes. Especially with children and adolescents, treatment often includes helping parents think clearly about what their child is experiencing and how best to respond.
Do you work with multiracial children and adults?
9
Yes. We are attentive to how people understand themselves and how they may be perceived differently in families, schools, workplaces, and public life.
What does private-pay care allow?
10
Private-pay care makes possible more time, continuity, and depth than many insurance-based settings allow, especially when the issues are nuanced, evolving, or difficult to name.
Do you offer in-person appointments?
11
Yes. We offer in-person care in Boston’s Back Bay, with periodic telehealth for established patients.
Call the office or submit a request for a complimentary consultation with the clinician of your choice. Our office manager will also review the process with you and coordinate next steps if you are a good fit..