Cecile Gunn Desmond(She/Her/Hers)

Dr. Cecile Gunn is a psychologist providing tele-therapy for clients in MA, NH, and FL, and in-person treatment in Portsmouth, NH. She works with adults of all ages, providing individual therapy. Many of Cecile’s clients come in to address disordered eating, trauma and attachment (relationship) issues, anxiety, and spiritual/religious struggles. Cecile is particularly passionate about serving women with childhood trauma histories, working mothers, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and older adults. She has advanced training in treating Complex PTSD, various types of anxiety (panic, social, general anxiety), disordered eating, and somatic (body-based) issues.

Cecile is trained in psychodynamic, trauma-informed, somatic-based psychotherapy, and utilizes aspects of CBT, ACT and IFS. She will help you identify how you adapted to difficult circumstances in your life, and how those adaptations are no longer serving you, sometimes even within the client-therapist relationship. Cecile focuses on developing insight, building emotional regulation, exercising your imagination, and making peace with your somatic experiences so you can reconnect with your body and self. The goal is for you to feel more at home with yourself, more present in your relationships, and more hopeful about your future.

Cecile's style is warm, humorous, and interactive, with a little science/research sprinkled throughout. Cecile ensures that clients feel safe as well as empowered to collaborate in their own treatment.

Cecile received her PhD and MDiv from Boston University. She worked at The Trauma Center in Brookline, MA with individuals and children in foster-care during her two-year postdoctoral fellowship. She trained at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, in Boston, specializing in treating clients in the Eating Disorders Program. Her psychodynamic training/home is The Danielsen Institute. Inside and outside of her practice, Cecile is passionate about racial, class, and immigrant justice, being the daughter of an immigrant herself.