Ely Center logo
The Ely Center Needham, MA

Where Everyone
has a Voice!

Explore our full-service therapeutic center in Needham, MA

The Ely Center Needham, MA

Services

Speech Language Therapy Icon

Speech and Language Therapy

Join a Social Learning group of 2-6 like-minded peers or engage in 1:1 individualized sessions with a speech therapist/social coach. Sessions are individualized to meet the unique needs of each participant.
Mental Health Counseling

Mental Health Counseling

Our mental health counselors work with individuals and families to meet their unique needs and guide them to make positive changes in their lives.
Consultative Services

Consultative Services

Our experienced clinicians are available to consult to academic, community and job related settings. Consultation may be on behalf of our clients or directly to an organization seeking to develop a deeper understanding of social cognition and the interplay between social emotional health, language development, and executive function.
Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy

The overarching goal of occupational therapy is to help clients improve their performance of everyday functional skills; Fine motor, visual-motor, sensory-motor,gross motor as applied to OT, trunk strength, muscle tone, and overall strength.

Summer Programming

Our summer programs include the Early Learners Program, Executive Functioning Program, High School Summer Social, Weekly Social Groups Program, and Individual Sessions.

Summer 2025 programs will open for registration beginning in January 2025, please stay tuned or feel free to contact us in the meantime for more information!

Ely Center Mission

Where Everyone Has a Voice!

The Ely Center is a full-service neurodiverse affirming therapy center offering speech & language therapy, mental health counseling services, and occupational therapy with a special concentration in social cognitive development. We offer individual & group therapy and family coaching using a functional-interactive training model.

Our mission is to meet our clients where they are and support their social-emotional and academic growth by building on what they can do! We address the needs of our unique neurodiverse population from early childhood through adulthood.

What Our Clients
Say About Us

The Ely Center was the only place I could find that welcomed us immediately and was able to accommodate the varying needs of both boys. Their integrated approach allows for consistent messaging throughout the various therapies (OT, Speech and Language, mental health), and they have truly connected with both my sons and with me. They provide me with parent coaching to help me understand the complexities of their diagnoses and how I can best support them. We have already adjusted services to recognize new milestones (for example, one of my sons can now handle a group social skills class) as well as our specific needs. To my surprise and delight, the staff of The Ely Center has also been in direct communication with the faculty and staff at my boys’ school, advising them on the best ways to support each boy. Both boys are progressing rather quickly, and their transition back to school has been smoother than anticipated. The therapists at The Ely Center have already developed strong and impactful relationships with both of my children and with me. The integrated approach has already proven to be successful and productive.

EG, clients ages 7 participating in 1:1 Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling.

“The Ely Center has been an amazing resource for my child who has struggled with social-emotional learning since we started in 2021. The administrators, therapists, and staff are not only knowledgeable but also empathetic. Parenting any child, especially exceptional children, is difficult and the Ely center goes above and beyond in creating groups tailored to my child’s needs and my own. We have used many different providers but have stayed with the Ely Center throughout. It is truly a special place where both my child and I have grown together and are learning to navigate the world, whether at school or at home, with better tools, strategies, and a full understanding of our capabilities. I recommend anyone struggling with parenting – neurodiverse or neurotypical children – to join the Ely family and get better equipped to succeed.”

SJ, clients ages 8 and 10 years old, participating in 1:1 Coaching, Group Speech Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling

“Raising two kids who have very different needs is hard. When one of my children quickly developed acute anxiety impacting her ability to manage the day-to-day we reached out to the Ely Center to get her and us the support we needed. We quickly realized how valuable her 1:1 Mental Health Counseling sessions are to her and to us as we scaffold and support her in overcoming her anxiety. These challenges impact everyone in the family so when it was suggested and available we enrolled our other child in counseling to help manage the day-to-day of being an older sibling to a sister who demands more support. We’ve seen firsthand how the Ely center is helping us become the parents we want to be to our kids.”

EA, clients ages 7 & 9 years old who participate in Mental Health Counseling

“Raising young children during the Covid pandemic presented unique challenges to my generation of parents, and for our boys, the struggle with social development in their younger years was both evident and beyond my wife’s or my capacity to address. In the three years that we have had our two sons, now aged 5 and 7, attending group social skills sessions at the Ely Center, we have consistently noted steady improvements in their self-awareness, their emotional regulation, and their ability to interpret and respond to verbal and nonverbal cues from others. The breadth of available programming is another benefit of the center: one of our sons has done a year of occupational therapy, during which his handwriting, external coordination, and kinesthetic awareness have improved remarkably. The other has been engaged in mental health counseling for the same period, during which some of his very painful struggles have either eased or lapsed entirely. The staff at the Ely Center are well trained, selected based on both academic knowledge and practical experience and are uniformly exceptional at what they do. For parents who are looking for help managing their children’s mental, physical, or emotional needs, I cannot recommend Ely highly enough.”

-DR, clients ages 7 & 5 years old who currently participate in 1:1 & Group Speech Therapy, OT, and Mental Health Counseling

“We came to the Ely center to help our 4-year-old son with his challenges communicating in a social setting, attending to instructions, staying in a group, and regulating his emotions. Our son was involved in both individual sessions, social skills groups, and the intensive summer program over a 6-month period. The Ely center staff were able to teach our son ways to stay in a group, follow a plan, take turns, be more aware of his body, communicate his needs more clearly, and calm down so he could attend to others and act less impulsively. They provided help in a considerate, gentle, and fun manner and our son loved attending the center and made a real friend in the group. The staff was diligent in providing clear communication about what happened in sessions and how we could use their strategies at home. Throughout his time at the center, our son showed genuine improvements in his ability to navigate and communicate in social situations as well as strategies to regulate himself in social situations. We are very thankful to the Ely Centre and highly recommend the service.”

-HA, 4 year old client participated in 1:1 & Group Speech Therapy and our Summer Intensive Early Learners Program
Q
“We came to the Ely center to help our 4-year-old son with his challenges communicating in a social setting, attending to instructions, staying in a group, and regulating his emotions. Our son was involved in both individual sessions, social skills groups, and the intensive summer program over a 6-month period. The Ely center staff were able to teach our son ways to stay in a group, follow a plan, take turns, be more aware of his body, communicate his needs more clearly, and calm down so he could attend to others and act less impulsively. They provided help in a considerate, gentle, and fun manner and our son loved attending the center and made a real friend in the group. The staff was diligent in providing clear communication about what happened in sessions and how we could use their strategies at home. Throughout his time at the center, our son showed genuine improvements in his ability to navigate and communicate in social situations as well as strategies to regulate himself in social situations. We are very thankful to the Ely Centre and highly recommend the service.”

HA, 4 year old client participated in 1:1 & Group Speech Therapy and our Summer Intensive Early Learners Program

Q

“Raising young children during the Covid pandemic presented unique challenges to my generation of parents, and for our boys, the struggle with social development in their younger years was both evident and beyond my wife’s or my capacity to address. In the three years that we have had our two sons, now aged 5 and 7, attending group social skills sessions at the Ely Center, we have consistently noted steady improvements in their self-awareness, their emotional regulation, and their ability to interpret and respond to verbal and nonverbal cues from others. The breadth of available programming is another benefit of the center: one of our sons has done a year of occupational therapy, during which his handwriting, external coordination, and kinesthetic awareness have improved remarkably. The other has been engaged in mental health counseling for the same period, during which some of his very painful struggles have either eased or lapsed entirely. The staff at the Ely Center are well trained, selected based on both academic knowledge and practical experience and are uniformly exceptional at what they do. For parents who are looking for help managing their children’s mental, physical, or emotional needs, I cannot recommend Ely highly enough.”

-DR, clients ages 7 & 5 years old who currently participate in 1:1 & Group Speech Therapy, OT, and Mental Health Counseling

Q
“The Ely Center has been an amazing resource for my child who has struggled with social-emotional learning since we started in 2021.  The administrators, therapists, and staff are not only knowledgeable but also empathetic. Parenting any child, especially exceptional children, is difficult and the Ely center goes above and beyond in creating groups tailored to my child’s needs and my own. We have used many different providers but have stayed with the Ely Center throughout.  It is truly a special place where both my child and I have grown together and are learning to navigate the world, whether at school or at home, with better tools, strategies, and a full understanding of our capabilities.  I recommend anyone struggling with parenting – neurodiverse or neurotypical children – to join the Ely family and get better equipped to succeed.”

SJ, clients ages 8 and 10 years old, participating in 1:1 Coaching, Group Speech Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling.

Methodologies We Employ