Dr. Jillian Burley
she/her
CLINICAL EXPERTISE
Health Psychology
Behavioral Medicine (Mind/Body)
Mindfulness
Eating Disorders
Self-Injurious Behavior & Maladaptive Coping Behaviors
Depressive Disorders
Anxiety Disorders
Trauma-informed Psychotherapy
Grief & Loss
Major Life Changes & Transitions
Medical & Health Professional Mental Health
Dr. Burley works with adults presenting to care with a variety of problems and concerns. She specializes in providing evidence-based psychotherapy in an integrative way, tailoring treatment for each patient, grounded in a thorough understanding of each person’s unique background, and consideration of individual preferences, inherent strengths, and psychological needs. Dr. Burley’s therapeutic style and approach is relational, interactive, and warm. In psychotherapy, she incorporates principles of mindfulness, as she believes that present-focused awareness and experiencing, with compassion and curiosity, are essential to skillful responding to Self and in true change processes. Dr. Burley believes that for a therapy to be truly helpful or healing, a person must feel safe and connected within the therapeutic relationship. It is this alliance that sets the foundation for the work and is ultimately a catalyst for change.
Dr. Burley is originally from Ontario, Canada. She graduated from Northern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a focused minor in Health and Nutrition. She earned her Doctoral Degree from William James College, with an emphasis on Health Psychology. Her research explored coping strategies in response to weight stigmatizing experiences among individuals with body size diversity and internalized weight bias.
Dr. Burley has worked in a variety of care settings including Community Counseling, the full continuum of Eating Disorder care, behavioral medicine-focused outpatient clinics, and Primary Care/medical settings. She completed an Internship accredited by the American Psychological Association in the Chicago area, which focused on the specialty care of individuals with co-occuring eating disorders and self-injurious behavior. Dr. Burley then completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) in Cambridge, MA, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Affiliate, in Primary Care Behavioral Health Integration (PCBHI). Dr. Burley went on to join the staff at this Hospital in 2015, and became a Clinical Manager in the PCBHI program in 2017 before moving to full-time private practice in 2020.
In addition to being on staff at BHBH, Dr. Burley is a Clinical Lecturer at Cambridge Health Alliance, continuing to provide consultation to physicians/interdisciplinary providers, and supervision to medical and psychology interns and fellows. The mission of integrating behavioral health services into primary care and medical specialities is of particular interest to Dr. Burley who supports medical and allied health professionals in the care of themselves and their patients. These changes in our health system bring hope of increasing access to mental health services, de-stigmatizing psychological issues, and expanding overall definitions of "health" to include both the body AND the mind, the patients, AND the providers.
