Words of inspiration at Berkshire Heart &  Mind. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A new therapy office has opened in the downtown area helping people of all ages.

Berkshire Heart and Mind Therapy cut the ribbon Thursday for the new office on at 34 Depot St., Suite 303.

Executive Director Colleen Passetto has been a therapist a little over 10 years and recently decided to go into private practice.

"I went and became a private practice clinician after working for years at a community mental health clinic. That was amazing," she said. "That was amazing to me, but then decided a little over a year ago, that I was going to expand, and I slowly started working on becoming a group practice."

Berkshire Heart and Mind Therapy is a group private practice for all ages and Passetto wants everyone to feel welcome there. 

"My group practice is basically designed to welcome everybody in, from ages like 4 or 5 up that need therapy through elders. So no matter who they are, what they're carrying, we welcome them," Passetto said. "We don't discriminate, we don't judge. We like everybody to feel like when they come here, that you know, they're welcomed, that everything they have that is strengths, skills, history, experiences, is valued and is used as part of their healing and treatment."

The practice provides in-person therapy in Berkshire County and telehealth services throughout Massachusetts. The organization also offers individual therapy sessions and ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) consultants.

Passetto wanted to create a space for people to come together and help each other. Through a recent diagnosis, she was was able to bring a different perspective to the practice in terms of trauma care and neurodivergence.

"We work with clients to help meet them where they're at, but we also do it from the lens of neurodivergent affirming, because I am a neurodivergent therapist who has AuDHD lately diagnosed, but I've had it for a long time," she said, using a term now used for autism/ADHD. "It's just as we women get older, some of us are now getting diagnosed because it was overlooked when we were younger. So it's a practice that I developed so we could actually come together and be able to help our communities.

"It's really needing mental health therapy. It needs additional support, but trying to find ones that you know, where everybody can come no matter what."

Passetto said her diagnosis helps her understand and be empathetic to others.

"It's kind of turned into my superpower, so to speak. I use it, I'm very creative, I'm very empathic. I'm able to think outside the box and be creative about different solutions, but I also can understand where others are coming from from my own trauma history as a child, I'm able to pretty much kind of understand where they're coming from," she said. "So I'm able to see it from a whole new different angle and lens as well."

Passetto said she got help from organizations including Common Capital, 1Berkshire and others, plus a grant from the city to open her office.

She hopes to slowly expand and progress her business as they grow. She is currently hiring clinicians and would like to start out with at least three. 

"Our goal is over five years to slowly expand to about between five and 10 clinicians. But to start this year, our goal is to have about at least two to three. Obviously, as we have more clinicians apply, we have the available funding from working capital that we're working with, Common Capital, and the more need of people that are needing services, then we can slowly start adding on more commissions as we need them," she said. "So we don't over grow too quickly, but we can grow with the community as it's needed, and this way we can make sure that we are successful in here for a long time."

She is also hoping to expand her therapy groups and open up different areas of expertise, to offer "a wide range and eclectic kind of types of therapy groups that are needed."

"Obviously, we're going to eventually be adding stuff like grief support groups. We're going to be adding groups for like different things like anxiety and depression for all ages," Passetto added.

She said she is looking into a program in which clients can play a games with others to help them with their anxiety. One therapy group uses Dungeons and Dragons for adolescents and adults who have like social anxiety, anxiety, depression, even maybe trauma, as way for them to engage with community. 

People who are struggling with these mental health issues often feel they are not listened and are unfairly stigmatized.  

"For example, those that have ADHD, ADD, stuff like that, bipolar, other diagnosis, some people in the community may tell them that they're lazy or, they bring things onto themselves, but they don't. They're just going through the same thing other people are, but in a different way.," she said. "And they kind of think and feel that they're broken, but they don't need to be fixed.

"They need to be nurtured, supported, help them to grow, to heal in ways that they have their own strengths and individualities and personalities they can use to do that so they're not forgetting who they are, and others can start seeing who they are with positive support."

Berkshire Heart and Mind Therapy accepts most insurances and Passetto is currently working on getting Medicare credentials.

The office is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information can be found on the website.

"It's kind of like a family atmosphere. Even though we do therapy, we don't want them feeling like they're in a clinical atmosphere. We want them to be able to sit down like they're at home, become grounded, but comfortable."