DANVERS — A new outpatient clinic run by women, for women is changing how trauma, mental health, substance abuse, postpartum depression, eating disorders and other issues are treated.
Aurora’s team meets women where they are at in their healing journey and approaches their care through a whole-body approach. Founded by Andrea Stanford and Róisín Mulkerrins, the clinic aims to be a welcoming space where women of all backgrounds can find peace and progress on their road to recovery.
“We’re helping women be able to heal without holding judgment, shame and guilt,” said Stanford, who is also the company’s CEO.
She first envisioned a women-focused center like Aurora 11 years ago, when she was working in mental health and substance abuse outpatient centers in the area.
That idea became reality when Aurora opened in Suite B203 at 75 Sylvan St. about two months ago.
The facility’s rooms are decorated to be peaceful and welcoming, a much needed departure from the often stark and sterile atmosphere of many outpatient facilities.
One room is a designated meditative space with flowers hanging from the ceiling and soothing colors on the wall, which compliment colorful floor pillows surrounding a sound bath station. The entire facility is bright and airy and decorated to feel calming and comfortable.
That’s the type of environment it often takes for patients to feel comfortable opening up, Mulkerrins said.
“We get to know who these women are,” said the co-founder and program director. “We’re not just focused on the things that have happened to them recently, but what built up to that. We’re very transparent about how life experiences shape a lot of why you made that first call for help.”
Patients take part in a variety of treatments at Aurora. Clinicians use traditional avenues of talk therapy and there is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner on site who prescribes medicine, if that’s needed.
There’s also group sessions, art therapy, yoga and mediation, sound bowl experiences and an emphasis on trauma and childhood-informed therapeutic work, among other areas of focus like nutrition, hormones and mindfulness.
“We’re healing from the body out,” said Samantha Lipka, the facility’s clinical director. “We work on the inner core of what is going on and how that can affect your body physically, how your mind is connected to your body, and how when we don’t help our mind, our body then later on sees the effect of that.”
Trauma can form through a single catastrophic event or less obvious experiences, like a problematic way of thinking influenced by childhood relationships with family and classmates, Stanford said.
That trauma contributes to the eating disorders, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other issues the clinic treats without patients even realizing it, Stanford and Lipka said.
Already, some of Aurora’s patients have seen more progress at this facility than any others they have been to, Lipka said.
“At a lot of programs, they just don’t feel a sense of safety to truly heal,” she said. “Real healing comes with a sense of safety, so that’s what Aurora really offers.”
The facility aims to be accessible to all women. It currently accepts out-of-network insurance and is working on being accepted as in-patient insurance for companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts, MassHealth and Harvard Pilgrim.
“We’re meeting people where they’re at with what they need,” Stanford said.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com .