About Us
The New England Center for Existential Therapy was established to encourage the exploration of phenomenological and existential perspectives and their application to the work of therapists, philosophers, artists, and other students of the human condition. At each of NECET's quarterly meetings, a featured speaker presents on a topic related to the year's theme. Two discussants share prepared responses that open a period of facilitated group discussion.
Clinicians, licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who attend our talk series are eligible for LMHC or LICSW CEUs.
Steering Committee
NECET Steering Committee 2023-2024:
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A psychotherapist, supervisor, and teacher, Robin R. Chalfin holds a master’s degree from Smith College School for Social Work. She completed her post-graduate fellowship at the Victims of Violence Program and advanced study at the Institute for Existential-Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She is Adjunct Faculty with the Graduate Counseling and Psychology Program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and serves as board member and frequent lecturer for the New England Center for Existential Therapy. Her writing, teaching, and clinical practice is situated at the intersections of philosophy and psychology, concentrating on the areas of identity and difference, sexuality and gender, and relational and structural violence. Recent publications include the chapter “Being Broken and Unbroken: Trauma, Heidegger and Befindlichkeit” in the anthology In the Wake of Trauma: Psychology and Philosophy for the Suffering Other, “Identity-as-disclosive-space: Dasein, Discourse and Distortion” in the collection Race, Rage and Resistance: Philosophy, Psychology and the Perils of Individualism, and an essay entitled The Entanglement of Being, Sexuality Inside and Outside the Binary, in press.
Contact Robin: chalfinr@me.com
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Ming is a bilingual (English/Mandarin) Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She is also a personal coach that works with individuals who are actively seeking changes and fulfillment in their lives. Her living interest in the intrinsic wisdom of Eastern, Western and African teachings has been the crucial foundation of her professional practice and everyday life. To learn more, please check out Ming's website.
Contact Ming: mcwholeness@gmail.com
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Bob Fox is the founder of the Institute for Existential-Psychoanalytc Therapy and has been an adjunct professor for the Counseling and Psychology Graduate Program at Lesley University in Cambridge, since 1981. He has a private practice of psychotherapy and clinical supervision in Somerville. He has been teaching philosophy to therapists for many years.
Contact Bob: rfoxpsych29@gmail.com -
Glen Freiband is a 2002 graduate of Lesley University with a passionate commitment to existential perspectives. He is a psychotherapist at South Bay Mental Health in Plymouth and has a private practice in Mashpee. Glen provides therapy services to a broad clientele, with specialties in relationality, grief, and the possibility of joy. He seeks to support humans and their relations in becoming who they already are. Glen finds himself at home as a therapist with many differences- including ways of thinking, feeling, gender, sexuality, and culture. Glen serves individuals, couples, families, and adolescents.
Contact Glen: gfreiband@gmail.com
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Richard Freid, LMHC has a keen interest in philosophy and integrates this with a psychological, relational, and experiential approach to life and psychotherapy. Richard has a private practice in Salem, MA and offers therapy for adults, couples, and individual and group consultation. Additionally, he is an adjunct faculty member at Lesley University.
Richard also serves as NECET's designated ombudsperson. If you have concerns or feedback about the NECET community, please contact Richard at rjfreid@comcast.net.
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Jason is a licensed mental health counselor in private practice in the Harvard Square area serving individuals and couples. In addition to traditional psychotherapy, Jason also specializes in helping immigrants and adult children of recent immigrants who struggle with identity and cultural differences, a process he calls "being in-between." Jason's approach is informed by existential, analytic, relational, and multicultural lenses. Additionally, Jason presents at diversity-related classes and training programs.
Contact Jason: counseling@jasonri.com
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Wendy Sharak is an existentially-oriented art therapist and licensed mental health counselor. She offers individual psychotherapy and professional consultation at her private practice in Boston. She graduated from Lesley University’s Expressive Art Therapy program in 2001, and spent many years serving resilient children and families with complex life stressors as Senior Clinician for the therapeutic after-school program at The Guidance Center, a community mental health agency in Cambridge. As a Lesley adjunct faculty member and modality supervisor, Wendy is honored to provide guidance and support to up-and-coming expressive arts therapists joining the field.
Contact Wendy: wendysharak@yahoo.com
Partnerships
NECET is proud to partner with the Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics (PHE) and the Office of Professional and Continuing Education (PCE) at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development. This partnership enriches both communities' commitment to broadening the discipline of psychology by placing the psychological sciences into dialogue with the humanities, including phenomenological and existential perspectives, through professional development opportunities.
For information on NECET’s co-sponsored events with PHE and PCE, please visit the Co-sponsored Offerings tab.
Quarterly Meeting Details
NECET also partners with PHE for its quarterly meeting space, found on Boston College’s Chestnut Hill campus.
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Four Quarterly Meetings Sundays 12-3:30
For specific dates, please visit the “Events” page, which is hyperlinked for specific dates.
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Campion Hall, Room 139: 2599 Beacon St, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Room 139 is best accessed by entering Campion Hall from its main entrance across from McGuinn Hall. It will be on the right-hand side of the main hallway.
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Boston College’s campus requires permits for on-campus parking.
Visitor parking is available at the Beacon Street Parking Garage, off House Road, and the Commonwealth Avenue Parking Garage, off Campanella Way.
Visitors may park in the white-lined spaces on Levels 1-3 of the Beacon Street Parking garage and in the white-lined spaces on Levels 2-6 of the Commonwealth Avenue Parking Garage.
For additional information on general policies and parking rates, visit Boston College’s Visitor Parking website.
Street parking is available on Beacon Street, and there are also commercial parking facilities nearby.
Boston College is also accessible by the T with the Green line (B) going on to Boston College’s campus and the Green line (C) and the Green line (D) stopping before the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.
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As of September 2022, Boston College strongly encourages all visitors to be vaccinated. Those who are not are strongly encouraged to wear a mask and follow social distancing guidelines.
For the most updated information, visit Boston College’s BC Forward website.