About Dr. Vannicelli

Dr. Vannicelli, a licensed psychologist, is an interactive psychodynamic psychotherapist who works collaboratively with clients to help them improve relationships and take better care of themselves emotionally.

As a psychotherapist, she is valued by her clients — professional caregivers (including therapists), CEOs, ACOAs, spouses of substance abusers — for her warm, interactive style and respect for each individual’s unique ways of adapting. Through her psychotherapy books, lectures and teaching, she has trained and supervised 100s of clinicians in individual therapy, group work, and couples treatment. She teaches what she loves about her work — helping clients to feel more empowered in relationships to improve self-esteem, and to deal with family-of-origin issues, communication problems, life transitions, anxiety, depression, and self-defeating behaviors.

As former Director of the Substance Abuse Outpatient Clinic at McLean Hospital, she has been able to help family members cope with the pain of chaotic and unpredictable lives, to find more effective ways of intervening to help their loved ones, and to improve the quality of their own lives.

She has a special interest in helping her clients understand and deal with the complicated feelings and emotional upheaval often associated with major transitions in their own lives and those of family members (marriage, divorce, empty-nest and its opposite — failure to launch, retirement and bereavement).

More about her views on various clinical issues can be found in her recent posts.

Teaching, Training, and Supervising Experience:
Dr. Vannicelli is currently Associate Professor of Psychology Part Time in the Harvard Medical School, and Attending Psychologist at McLean Hospital. She has trained and supervised clinical staff at many agencies in the Greater Boston area including: Appleton Outpatient Clinic at McLean Hospital, Family Counseling and Guidance, the Training Program of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy, Boston Institute for Psychotherapies, Spaulding Hospital, Minor Street Day and Evening Program (HCHP), Brighton Memorial ATP, Boston ASAP and Brandies Counseling Center, and for 20 years was on the faculty of William James College (formerly MSPP) where she taught the doctoral courses on group psychotherapy and supervised students clinical practicums. She currently provides clinical supervision to the doctoral interns at McLean Hospital.

Honors and Awards: Who’s Who in American Professional Woman (1988); Fellow, American Group Psychotherapy Association; Advisory Board, American Academy of Health Care Specialists in the Addictive Disorders; and past tenures as Editorial Reviewer for the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research; Lifetime Achievement Award, Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy.

Clinical Positions and National Consultation Appointments: Following her internship at McLean Hospital, Dr Vannicelli founded and for 20 years was the Director of the Appleton Outpatient Treatment Center at McLean Hospital. She is currently a Clinical Associate at McLean. She has also held positions as Consultant to: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Center of Alcohol Education, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the Mass Advisory Unit on Mental Health.

Clinical Writing and Lectures: Dr. Vannicelli has written extensively (more than 70 professional publications) including two Guilford Press books: Group Psychotherapy with ACOAs: Treatment Techniques and Countertransference Considerations; and Removing the Roadblocks: Group Psychotherapy with Substance Abusers and Family Members. She has also given lectures nationally and internationally and appeared on TV (more than 200 appearances) on topics of special interest: midlife issues, woman’s issues, group psychotherapy, couples treatment, the treatment of ACOAs, and the impact of alcohol abuse on the family.

Professional Affiliations

• Fellow and Life Member, American Group Psychotherapy Association
• Life Member, American Psychological Association
• Life Member, Massachusetts Psychological Association
• Life Member, Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy
• Member, National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology
• Member, Psychodynamic Couple and Family Institute of New England