Therapists:

Meredith Fields, M.D.
1040 Great Plain Avenue
Needham, MA 02492
781-444-9222

My interest in human experience led me from the study of history in college on to medical school. In medical school I was interested both in patients’ health and in their lives and stories. The opportunity to pay detailed attention to both was what appealed to me about psychiatry. I have enjoyed this throughout my practice for nearly 25 years now. In psychiatry, I have worked with adults in individual treatment and in groups. My experience has included work in inpatient units, outpatient clinics, and private practice. I have worked with adults of all ages and of diverse backgrounds. In addition, I have taught and supervised medical students and residents in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

I joined Needham Psychotherapy Associates in September 2008. My office is located at 1040 Great Plain Avenue, Needham. I have enjoyed getting to know a new community and a new group of patients and colleagues.

My approach to working with patients or with colleagues is collaborative. I see my clinical work as an effort to combine my expertise in psychiatry with my patient’s expertise about his/her own life and experience. My hope is to work together to develop and implement a plan for individualized treatment. Following an initial evaluation and discussion with a patient regarding his/her situation, symptoms, history, and his/her thoughts about what would be helpful, I may recommend psychotherapy and/or medications or other treatments. I see patients for psychotherapy, for medication, or for both. For some patients I prescribe medication while another clinician provides psychotherapy. If a person is in psychotherapy with another clinician I expect to keep in close contact with that clinician and to work as a team. In addition, since I consider attention to a person’s overall health to be a very important part of psychiatric treatment, I routinely collaborate with primary care physicians and other health care providers.

Though I have made it a point to remain a general adult psychiatrist rather than to sub-specialize, particular areas of interest and experience include mood and anxiety disorders, chronic medical illness, early life trauma, grief and loss, life stage issues and women’s health issues.
Education and credentials:
B.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1974
M.D., University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 1984
Internship, residency, and fellowship in psychotherapy at Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1984-1989
Instructor in psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 1987-1999
Board certified in psychiatry, 1991

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