Alayna McGarty

she/her

Member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health and Human Services Professions

CLINICAL EXPERTISE

• Suicidality 

• Self-harm

• Depression

• Eating disorders 

• Transitioning out of RTC’s 

• Other self-destructive behaviors triggered by emotion dysregulation 

• Borderline personality disorder

• Trauma and PTSD

• DBT, CBT, and exposure therapies

Alayna McGarty, LMHC, MCCS is Co-Founder and Director of DBT Services at Birch Hill Behavioral Health. She is an experienced psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and consultant known for delivering evidence-based care with clarity, warmth, and precision. Alayna specializes in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), CBT, and exposure-based treatments, and works with adolescents, young adults, and adults navigating emotion dysregulation, suicidality, self-harm, depression, eating disorders, trauma, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, and other high-risk or complex clinical presentations.

Alayna’s therapeutic style reflects the central dialectic of DBT: balancing acceptance and change. She is direct, thoughtful, and collaborative, and believes that meaningful treatment begins with a strong therapeutic alliance, shared goals, and a clearly defined plan for care. In addition to individual therapy, she provides group therapy, parent guidance, consultation, and supervision.

Alayna earned her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling from the Lynch School of Education at Boston College in 2013. Early in her career, she pursued intensive training in evidence-based treatment across a range of respected settings, including McLean Hospital’s 3East DBT Continuum, the Laboratory for the Study of Adult Development, McLean-Franciscan Children’s Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, and Triad Adolescent Services. She also completed intensive DBT and DBT + PE training through Behavioral Tech.

In recent years, Alayna has expanded her clinical focus to include working with athletes in individual treatment and supporting collegiate programs around student-athlete mental health, performance pressure, and behavior change. She brings a nuanced understanding of the unique emotional, interpersonal, and identity-related challenges that can arise in athletic environments, and values helping athletes build resilience, flexibility, and sustainable high performance.

Alayna has also completed the Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI) in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), an intensive training in evidence-based treatment for OCD and related disorders. This additional specialization reflects her ongoing commitment to deepening her expertise in treatments that are both research-informed and highly effective in practice.

Since establishing her private practice in 2015, Alayna has been sought out for her clinical expertise as a therapist, supervisor, consultant, and educator. Her professional contributions have included teaching graduate-level coursework in DBT at Suffolk University, mentoring through the Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association, and speaking at Boston College, the BRYT program, and the Quell Foundation.

In 2024, Alayna was appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health and Human Services Professions. In this public service role, she helps uphold professional standards and supports the board’s work in carrying out the regulations and laws that govern mental health and human services practice in Massachusetts.