Dr. Ellenhorn is a pioneer and leader in the development and promotion of community integration services, types of care that serve and empower individuals diagnosed with psychiatric and/or addiction issues while they remain in their own communities and outside institutional settings.

Trained as a sociologist, psychotherapist and social worker, he created the first fully operating intensive hospital diversion and wrap-around program in Massachusetts. Ellenhorn later created and led one of the first public Programs for Assertive Community Treatment teams in the state. In 2022, Ellenhorn co-founded CARDEA, a psychedelics based practice that assists those who seek recovery from deep and entrenched psychological anguish, from behaviors that are out of control, as well as those who want a more awakened life and expanded sense of existence.

Dr. Ellenhorn has authored three books on human behavior. Parasuicidality and Paradox: Breaking Through the Medical Model addresses psychiatric hospital recidivism and techniques for diverting hospital use. It was published by Springer Publishing in 2007. His most recent book, How We Change (and the Ten Reasons Why We Don’t), takes a deep dive into the dynamics that influence all human change. Published by Harper Collins, and in seven different languages, How We Change was released in May of 2020. Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life celebrates our inherent “sacred originality” and establishes a new framework for self-reliance. It was published in 2022. He has authored numerous articles, gives talks and seminars throughout the country, and provides consultation to mental health agencies, psychiatric hospitals and addiction programs.

Dr. Ellenhorn is the founder of the Shifting The Paradigm conferences, a bi‑annual series that addresses humanistic and empowering changes in behavioral healthcare. He is the executive producer of the film, Recovering Addiction: A Public Health Rescue Mission, a documentary on new, less‑oppressive means for understanding problematic substance use and other distressing habits.

Dr. Ellenhorn is the first person to receive a joint Ph.D. from Brandeis University’s prestigious Florence Heller School for Social Welfare Policy and Management and the Department of Sociology.

Lauren Pellettieri is a licensed clinical social worker with close to a decade of varied experience supporting children, adolescents, and adults living with extreme states of mind and physical illness. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Fordham University and a master’s degree in Social Work from The Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Lauren has worked in a variety of settings including a hospital-based substance use clinic, public middle school, drop-in center and shelter for transitional age youth experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, and an outpatient mental health clinic. Most recently, she helped develop and implement a scattered-site housing program in the Bronx for people living with chronic illness, providing comprehensive support in people’s transition from homelessness to community living. Lauren employs a strength-based approach that focuses on accepting people for who they are, supporting them in how they want to live their lives, and evoking internal resources for personal development and change.

In complement to her clinical work, Lauren is the founding Executive Director of a dance non-profit, Liberated Movement®, which provides donation-based dance classes to the NYC community. As a life-long dancer and movement enthusiast with over 15 years of teaching experience, Lauren is passionate about helping people get into their bodies in healthy, accessible ways. She enjoys incorporating mindfulness, movement, and breath-work into therapeutic practice, to help people to build a holistic, empowered, and cohesive sense of self.

Zoi is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Northeastern University, where he was a Graduate Research fellow. Zoi’s 13 years of public health service span participation in the first Boston Teen Health Report, graduate school public health research and working at a community-based substance abuse outpatient center in Boston. Zoi has been trained in and has facilitated many evidence-based approaches to group work, and was a member of the team that developed groups for dual-diagnosed men funded by federal grants given to the Bureau of Addictions Prevention/Treatment and Recovery Support Services, a bureau of the Boston Public Health Commission. He has worked with clients in diverse settings, from homeless shelters and correctional facilities to community clinics and hospitals, in both individual and group settings. Zoi is trained in psychological first aid and as a psychiatric crisis clinician. His recent clinical interest lies in mind-body connections and using physical exercise to combat impulse control issues.

Shelly serves as the Clinical Director of Ellenhorn Los Angeles Program and holds the role of Director of AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalization Based Integrative Treatment) at Ellenhorn. She oversees, supervises, and actively participates in AMBIT teams. Shelly has also contributed to the field, having authored a chapter on Ellenhorn's implementation of AMBIT in a Dutch publication titled "AMBIT in Practice," and takes part in the global AMBIT community.


Before joining the Ellenhorn team, Shelly relocated from Houston, Texas, where she served as the Program Manager for the Pathfinder Community Integration Program at The Menninger Clinic. It was during her tenure at Menninger that Shelly developed a deep passion for learning, practicing and educating others about mentalization. Her clinical interests are particularly focused on addressing disruptions in attachment, mistrust, trauma, and interpersonal relationship struggles.

Teri Bryant holds a master’s degree in education and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She completed her training in family therapy at The Family Center/Kantor Family Institute in Somerville, Mass., and earned her certification in Open Dialogue through a two-year training program at The Institute for Dialogic Practice in North Hampton, Mass. Teri trains Ellenhorn clinicians in Open Dialogue/Dialogic Practice and also has a broad range of expertise and training in management and leadership, psychosocial injury, Integrated Dual Diagnosis treatment, adoption, LGBTQi+ support, Motivational Interviewing, Mentalization-Based Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Reiki, and family education and coaching. In addition to her work at Ellenhorn, Teri manages her own private practice, through which she works with individuals, couples and families.

Laurie received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Rochester with a minor in music. She then worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Laurie decided to pursue a career in nursing rather than remain in a lab, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Rochester School of Nursing. She began her career as a registered nurse at McLean Hospital, working on the bipolar/schizophrenia psychosis unit. Her work there was recognized with a Partners in Excellence award for nursing. Laurie has been with Ellenhorn since 2009 and during that time she received her MSN in psychiatric nursing from Boston College. Starting here as a program nurse, Laurie was promoted to Lead Nurse, then to Director of Admissions and now to COO. Laurie is also a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.