Therapy for Addiction and Recovery
Telehealth across Vermont and Massachusetts ยท Private pay
Telehealth therapy for addiction and recovery in Massachusetts and Vermont, with Maxwell Crystal, LICSW, former Clinical Director of Sana at Stowe, a residential addiction treatment program. For people who are drinking, using, or in recovery, and for the families around them. Individual sessions are $175 and couples or family sessions are $200, both 50 minutes, private pay. The first step is a free 15-minute phone call.
Maybe you've started to wonder whether your drinking or use is a problem. Maybe you're just out of detox, residential, or an intensive outpatient program, and the structure that held you up is suddenly gone. Maybe you're years into recovery and something has started to slip, or the relationships never quite came back.
This is structured, direct therapy for wherever you are with it. You don't need a diagnosis, a sobriety date, or a decision about what you want to change before you call.
Who this is for
Questioning your use. Drinking or using more than you mean to, or noticing it has become the way you get through the day.
Early recovery. Newly sober, or newly home from treatment, and working out what support looks like now.
Longer-term recovery. Years in, and facing what sobriety didn't fix on its own: relationships, grief, anxiety, or a quiet sense of risk.
After a relapse. Picking back up without starting from zero, and without letting shame do the steering.
When something else is underneath. Anxiety, depression, grief, or trauma that the drinking or using has been helping you manage.
Partners and families. The people who have been carrying the impact. More on that below.
Not every addiction involves a substance. I also work with people and families affected by process addictions: gambling, compulsive sexual behavior and pornography use (often called sex or porn addiction), gaming, and compulsive spending. They tend to bring the same secrecy, broken trust, and financial or relational fallout, and partners often carry the shock of discovery on their own.
What we work on
The work is practical: what keeps happening, what the drinking or using has been doing for you, and what it would take to change it.
Ambivalence, honestly. Most people are of two minds about changing. We work with both sides instead of arguing with one.
The high-risk moments. A concrete plan for the situations, times of day, and feelings that reliably go wrong.
Life after treatment. The weeks after detox, residential, or an IOP are where many people lose their footing. Weekly sessions keep some structure in place.
What it was doing for you. The stress, grief, or anxiety it helped you manage, and what can take its place.
Shame and repair. What happened while you were using, who it affected, and how repair actually works in practice.
Trust at home. Rebuilding it with a partner or family on a timeline both sides can live with. (Family Therapy When a Loved One Is in Recovery)
What I bring to this work
Before opening my practice, I was Clinical Director of Sana at Stowe, a residential program treating co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. I've seen recovery from inside treatment: what supports it, what undermines it, and how often people lose their footing in the weeks after discharge. I also coordinated a hospice bereavement program and worked in community mental health.
My approach is structured and direct, and it doesn't depend on one model of recovery. Whether you go to meetings, take medication for addiction, work a different program, or none of these, therapy can work alongside it.
I'm a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in Massachusetts and Vermont. More about me
When you need more than weekly therapy
Weekly telehealth therapy is outpatient care. If you need detox, a residential program, an intensive outpatient program, or medical support, I'll tell you directly and help you find it.
If you drink heavily every day or take benzodiazepines, don't stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal from alcohol and benzodiazepines can be medically dangerous. Talk to a doctor first.
Free, confidential help:
Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline: 800-327-5050, helplinema.org
VT Helplink: 802-565-5465, vthelplink.org
SAMHSA National Helpline: 1-800-662-4357, 24/7
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988
For partners and families
For partners, parents, and families who have been holding things together around someone else's addiction, and are running out of ways to do it.
Addiction treatment is built for the person using. The people around them usually get a pamphlet, a family night, or nothing at all.
Family therapy is where the rest of the family gets help too: with the fear, the anger, the second-guessing, and the patterns that have built up over years. I offer structured telehealth therapy for families and couples affected by addiction, in Massachusetts and Vermont.
Your loved one doesn't have to be in treatment, sober, or willing to come for you to start.
The work with families usually focuses on:
Enabling and codependency. Telling the difference between helping and holding it all up. (Codependency and Addiction: You're Not Sick. You Adapted.)
Boundaries you can actually keep. Not ultimatums, but limits that hold when things get hard.
Living with the fear of relapse. How to stop scanning for signs every day without looking away.
Rebuilding trust in recovery. What repair looks like after the lying, the money, the missed years. (Family Therapy in Addiction Recovery)
What the kids see. How to talk with children and teens about what's happening at home.
The same argument, again. Breaking the conflict cycle that addiction leaves behind.
Your own exhaustion. Room for the person who has been the stable one for years.
If someone else's addiction has been running your family for a while, you can start getting help now. Book a free 15-minute call and we'll talk about where things stand.
More on family therapy for parents and families.
When addiction ends in a death
Some families come to me after the worst has already happened. Grief after an overdose or addiction-related death carries its own weight: guilt, anger, stigma, and questions that may never have answers.
I work with individuals, couples, and families through that kind of loss. (Grief & Life Transitions)
I also run Grieving a Death from Addiction, an online support group for adults anywhere in the US. It meets weekly on Zoom for 8 weeks, is capped at 10 people, and costs $15 per session, with scholarships available. Learn about the group
Further reading:
Common questions about addiction therapy
Do I have to be sober to start?
No. You don't need a sobriety date, a diagnosis, or a decision about what you want to change. We start with where things actually are.
Is telehealth therapy enough for addiction?
For many people it is, especially if you're questioning your use, stepping down from a higher level of care, or in longer-term recovery. It isn't detox or a replacement for medical care. If you need more, I'll help you find it.
Can therapy work alongside AA, SMART Recovery, or medication?
Yes. Whether you go to meetings, take medication for addiction, or neither, therapy builds around what you're already doing rather than replacing it.
Can my partner or family be involved?
If and when it makes sense, yes. Some people start on their own and bring a partner in later, and some families start without the person who is using. Everyone joins by video from wherever they are, as long as each person is in Massachusetts or Vermont during the session.
Do you work with gambling or sex and porn addiction?
Yes. Process addictions tend to bring the same secrecy, broken trust, and fallout as substance use, and I see individuals and couples for them.
Is what I share confidential?
Yes, with the narrow legal exceptions I'll go over at the start, such as a serious risk of harm. Because I don't bill insurance, nothing goes to an insurer unless you choose to submit a superbill yourself.
Do you take insurance?
No. I'm private pay: $175 per 50-minute individual session and $200 per couples or family session. I can provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement. (Why most of us don't take insurance)
Fees and how to start
$175 per 50-minute individual session
$200 per 50-minute couples or family session
Private pay. Superbills available for out-of-network reimbursement, HSA and FSA cards accepted, and a limited number of sliding-scale spots
Telehealth by secure video, anywhere in Massachusetts or Vermont
(339) 224-4532
How to start:
Free 15-minute phone call. Book a time and I'll call you. Tell me as much or as little as you want.
A clear direction. You'll know whether weekly therapy is the right fit, or whether something more would serve you better first.
Begin therapy. Structured weekly sessions built around where you are with it.