If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988, or call 911. All crisis resources

Aura Integra emblem: two teal cupped hands holding a gold cross inside a gold ring. Aura Integra Behavioral Health Book on Zocdoc

In-person & telehealth psychiatric care · Massachusetts

Reclaim
Your Aura

Psychiatric and addiction care in our Worcester office, and by secure telehealth across Massachusetts.

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Act one · Start where you are

You do not need to be in crisis, or even know what to call it.

Maybe life looks fine from the outside, but your mind is always preparing for what might go wrong. Maybe you are tired, disconnected, distracted, using something more than you meant to, or simply wondering whether the way you feel deserves attention.

If you learned to keep going and not make much of it, noticing may be the first step. You can come with a clear concern, a half-formed question, or no language for it yet.

You can start with a question, not a diagnosis.

Act two · What we help with

You do not need the right words. Start with whichever line sounds like your life.

Service guideBrowse onlyNothing to complete

These are common reasons people reach out, not an assessment. Open any line that feels familiar to see what care for it can look like here.

The nights are long, and the mornings are worse.

Low mood that has stopped lifting, sleep that will not hold, a flatness where interest used to be. We look at how long this has been going on, what changed around the time it started, and what has already been tried. If medication belongs in the plan we explain what it does, what it does not do, and how we will know if it is working. Sleep, routine, and daylight get treated as real interventions, not afterthoughts.

Everything looks fine, but my mind keeps going to the worst-case scenario.

Constant worry, replaying conversations, expecting something bad to happen, or a body that stays braced even when life looks manageable from the outside. We look at the thought patterns, physical tension, sleep, and demands around you, then build a plan that does not require waiting until anxiety becomes a crisis.

Drinking stopped being a choice a while ago.

Alcohol care without shame and without a script you have to perform. We talk about what drinking is doing for you before we talk about taking it away. Medication options for alcohol use are explained honestly, including what the evidence supports and what it feels like week to week. Cutting back is a legitimate goal to start with.

Coming off something has me frightened.

Opioid use, withdrawal, and the fear of being sick. We explain medication for opioid use disorder in plain language, how starting works, what the first days ask of you, and how we stay reachable while your body settles. Nobody here treats a relapse as a moral failure. We treat it as information about the plan.

My focus falls apart the moment it matters.

Attention difficulties in adults and in young people, including the ones who were quietly told they were lazy for twenty years. Evaluation is careful and unhurried, because getting this right matters more than getting it fast. Treatment covers medication when it fits, plus the practical structure that makes any medication work better.

Two things are happening at once.

When a mental health condition and substance use are tangled together, treating one and ignoring the other rarely holds. Both are addressed in the same plan, by the same person, in the same conversation, so you are not translating your own care between two systems.

Something shifted after a baby, or as my body changed.

Women's mental health across the whole arc: the weeks after birth, the cycle that reliably takes a week of your month, the years when hormones and mood stop cooperating. Your reports of your own body are the starting point, not the thing that has to be proven first.

Act three · Whole person care

Medication is one tool. Here is the rest of the toolbox.

Turn the wheel, or tap a part of it. Body, mind, and spirit are one plan, not three appointments.

Body

Sleep that restores instead of interrupts. Appetite, energy, and the physical side of anxiety. Medication chosen carefully, explained fully, adjusted rather than piled on. Movement and daylight treated as part of treatment, and withdrawal or cravings managed medically instead of endured.

  • Careful prescribing, plain explanations, honest side effect talk
  • Sleep, appetite, and energy as clinical targets
  • Medically supported approaches to cravings and withdrawal

This wheel is educational and saves nothing. If you are in danger right now, call or text 988, or call 911.

Act four · Hope beyond medication

The fear is that a prescription is all you will ever get. That is not the plan here.

Medication can be part of that. When it is, we explain it clearly, adjust it carefully, and never hand it to you as the whole answer.

Because you are more than your symptoms. You are tired. You want relief. And somewhere under all of it, you want things to mean something again.

A quiet room with two soft chairs, a blanket over one arm, a glass of water on a low table, and morning light through a curtain.
The room is calm on purpose. So is the pace.

  1. We look for the story behind the symptom

    What happened, when it started, what it has cost you. A diagnosis is shorthand, not an explanation.

  2. We build routine and resilience you can keep

    Sleep, food, movement, structure, and a plan for the weeks that go badly, because some weeks will.

  3. We include your people, only if you want

    Family, a partner, a faith community, a sponsor, a friend who has been carrying this with you. With your permission, on your terms.

  4. We plan for the life after stability

    Work, school, parenting, driving, dating, the parts of living that stopped being possible. Feeling steady is the beginning, not the finish.

  5. We honor what you already believe

    Your beliefs and your values sit inside the treatment plan rather than outside it. Aura is your energy and presence. Integra means whole. That is the work.

Optional guided reflection

Not sure what you would say if you reached out?

Private reflection toolOptionalNot a screener

This is different from the service guide above. If you want help gathering your thoughts, tap whichever cards sound like the last few weeks. You will get plain language back that you can keep for yourself or use to start a conversation. Nothing is scored, diagnosed, saved, or sent. You can also skip this and go straight to the message form.

Nothing here is stored, sent, or measured. In crisis, call or text 988, or call 911.

Act five · Who you will be talking to

One provider, start to finish. You will not be passed around.

Augustine Mensah, MSN, BSPH, APRN, PMHNP-BC, smiling in a navy jacket and light blue shirt.

Augustine Mensah

MSN, BSPH, APRN, PMHNP-BC · he/him
Board certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner

Augustine spends his working life in the hardest hours of other people's worst weeks, and he does not flinch at them. Before this practice he led a substance use continuum, detox and clinical stabilization and transitional services, as nurse manager over a team of more than 30 nurses caring for over 100 people at a time. The conversations most people brace to have here are the conversations he has spent years having every day.

Alongside Aura Integra he now practices in outpatient psychiatry and on the emergency services side of a large community mental health system, seeing people in acute crisis and helping decide what happens next. He founded Aura Integra because too many people leave psychiatric care holding a prescription and nothing else. His approach is unglamorous and effective: understand the story, prescribe carefully when it helps, and build the ordinary structures that keep a person steady between appointments.

He is also a doctoral student in psychiatric mental health nursing with an addictions focus, which mostly means the evidence he uses with you is current. Care is provided under Massachusetts full practice authority, in person in Worcester and by telehealth statewide.

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A short introduction, in Augustine's own voice

Read the transcript

Hi, I'm Augustine Mensah, a board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and founder of Aura Integra Behavioral Health.

I work with adults and adolescents across Massachusetts through secure telehealth, offering psychiatric evaluation, medication management, and supportive follow-up care for anxiety, depression, mood concerns, ADHD, sleep, stress, and substance-use recovery.

For adolescents ages 13 to 17, I provide evaluation and medication management, always in coordination with parents, guardians, and the young person's pediatrician or therapist.

My approach is calm, collaborative, and judgment-free. We start by understanding your full story, then build a plan together at a pace that respects your life and your goals.

Whether this is your first time reaching out, or you're returning to care, you're welcome here. To take the next step, request an appointment through my Psychology Today profile. Thank you for being here.

Act six · What a first visit feels like

Nothing about the first appointment is designed to catch you out.

Four steps. Click through them, or use the arrow keys.

Before: a link, a quiet room, no waiting room

You get a secure video link. No parking, no lobby, no signing in where someone might recognise you. Use headphones if privacy at home is thin. If you are more comfortable in your car, that is a perfectly normal place to have this appointment. If the technology fails, we call you.

You will not be asked to fill out anything clinical before we speak. Paperwork lives inside the protected clinical system, not on this website.

Walkthrough only, nothing recorded. In crisis, call or text 988, or call 911.

Straight answers, from the provider

Short, plain answers to the questions people ask before they call.

General education, not medical advice. Watching these does not create a provider relationship and does not replace an evaluation. In crisis, call or text 988.

Act seven · Questions people actually ask

The things people ask us before they are ready to reach out.

What happens after I send a message?

A real person reads it, not an automated system. You will hear back, usually within one to two business days, with what your options look like and what happens next. If what you need is not something this practice can provide, we will tell you that plainly and point you somewhere better.

Is all of the care virtual?

No. Aura Integra offers a limited number of scheduled in-person appointments in Worcester and secure telehealth appointments across Massachusetts. In-person visits are by appointment only, and walk-ins are not accepted. For telehealth, you need to be physically located in Massachusetts at the time of your visit.

Am I just going to be handed a prescription?

No. Medication is one tool among several, and it is only used when it is likely to help. When it is part of the plan, you get the honest version: what it does, what it costs you in side effects, how long it takes, and how we will know if it is working. Routine, sleep, meaning, and support are treated as real parts of treatment, not as filler.

Do I have to talk about faith or spirituality?

Never. Spiritual support is offered because it matters deeply to some people and is quietly missing from most psychiatric care. It is always invited, never assumed. If it is not part of your life, say so once and it will not come up again. Your care is complete either way.

Can you help with alcohol or opioid use?

Yes. Addiction care is a core part of this practice, including medication for opioid use disorder and for alcohol use disorder, alongside psychiatric treatment when both are in play. You will not be asked to get sober first in order to be taken seriously.

What if I have tried treatment before and it did not work?

That history is useful, not disqualifying. We go through what was tried, at what dose, for how long, and what actually happened. Very often the problem was time, dose, fit, or the fact that nobody asked what your life was like around the treatment.

How does paying for care work?

Ask us directly and you will get a straight answer about your payment options before you commit to anything. We do not list plan names or make coverage promises on this page, because coverage depends on details specific to you and we would rather be accurate than optimistic.

Is what I say confidential?

Clinical care is confidential and protected by law, with the narrow legal exceptions every clinician has, mainly immediate danger to you or someone else. Substance use records carry additional federal protection. Please keep this website's contact form for contact only, and save clinical detail for the protected clinical system once you are connected.

Looking ahead

Join Our Team

Aura Integra is growing, and how it grows matters more to us than how fast. We would rather build slowly with people who share the way we practice than fill a seat quickly. If the work described on this site sounds like the work you want to be doing, we would genuinely like to know you exist.

There is no formal opening to point you to right now. What there is instead is an open door. Tell us who you are and what you care about clinically, and we will keep it on file and reach out as the practice makes room.

We are especially glad to hear from psychiatric nurse practitioners, therapists and counselors, care coordinators, and administrative people who have worked in behavioral health before and understand what it asks of you.

Care here is delivered by video to people who are physically located in Massachusetts at the time of their visit.

Introduce yourself

The Aura community · A preview

A first look
at our gear.

A shared look for the people helping us build.

A preview of the Aura Integra gear we are developing for community ambassadors, fellowship participants, and future employees. A small glimpse of what is taking shape.

Concept preview only. Final designs and availability may change. Not available to order.

Explore ways to get involved Team introductions
24 seconds · Silent
White, teal, and charcoal polos; black, teal, and charcoal jackets. Final products may differ.

The closing moment

Do You Need Help?

Send Us a Message

Send us a message today to take the first step toward better mental and emotional well being. We believe mental health care should be compassionate, whole person, and within reach of everyone who needs it. By bringing evidence based psychiatric treatment together with spiritual support when it is wanted, we work to change how healing feels and how long it lasts. Our aim is to inspire hope and to help you live with purpose, peace, and resilience. Our mission is to combine thoughtful medication care with meaning and support, so you can take back control of your mental health and your life.

Five ways to reach us. Any of them is a fine place to start, and you are welcome to use more than one.

Secure message

Spruce is the app we use for secure messaging, and it is free for you. Opening the link shows you how to connect. You write your message inside Spruce rather than on a web page, which is the part that keeps it private.

Best for anything personal, medical, or detailed.

Open Spruce

Call or text

508-978-6455

The same Spruce line, answered as a phone. For anyone who would rather just talk.

The short form below

A plain note that you would like to be seen, with no clinical detail in it. It opens your own email app; nothing is sent from this page.

Best if you just want to start the conversation.

Go to the form

Open your patient portal and get a head start

Creating the account asks for four things: your first name, your last name, an email address, and a password you choose. Once you are in, there is a short pre screen and a demographics page, and your date of birth is asked there. Finishing those lets Augustine open your chart before you ever speak to anyone.

Best if you would rather handle the paperwork first, on your own time. Creating an account is not an appointment, and it is not a commitment to be seen here.

Open the patient portal

Book online through Zocdoc

Pick a day and time yourself, on our Zocdoc page. Zocdoc will ask a few short questions about your insurance and your reason for the visit before it confirms the appointment.

Best if you already know when you want to be seen and would rather not go back and forth to schedule.

Book on Zocdoc

These are doors, not tracks. Send a message and start the portal the same evening, or call first and do the rest whenever you are ready. Choosing one does not close any of the others.

info@auraintegra.comPatient email. Good for scheduling questions; please keep medical detail out of it and use Spruce for that.

508-952-9583Secure fax, for referring providers

Aura Integra Behavioral Health, PLLC
100 Front Street, Suite 400, Office 404
Worcester, MA 01608
In-person visits are by appointment only. Walk-ins are not accepted. Building entry outside regular business hours is coordinated before your appointment. Secure telehealth is available across Massachusetts.

When we are open

Monday to Friday
to
Saturday
to
Sunday
Closed

These are our office hours, not crisis coverage. We are not a 24 hour service, and there is no one here overnight. If you are in crisis at any hour, call or text 988 or go to your nearest emergency department. Both are there all night, every night. More ways to get help right now.

In-person visits are available by appointment only at our Worcester office. Telehealth visits are available to people who are physically located in Massachusetts at the time of their visit.

You do not have to have the words ready. You do not have to explain everything today.

This form is for a plain hello. Anything personal or medical belongs in Spruce, which is built to hold health information. Email is fine for scheduling questions.

How would you like us to reach you?

Whichever you chose above. One is enough.

Care is available to people located in Massachusetts.

Are you reaching out for yourself, or for someone else?

A sentence is plenty. Please keep out medical details, medication names, and anything private about your health, this form is for contact only.

This form is not for emergencies and it is not secure messaging for clinical information. Please do not send medical, medication, or substance use details here. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911. If someone is in immediate danger, go to the nearest emergency department.