Seda Ebrahimi, Ph.D.
Founder and Director of the Cambridge Eating Disorder Center (CEDC)
Seda Ebrahimi, Ph.D. has been working in the field of eating disorders since 1986. She began her career as a pre-doctoral intern at Brown University’s internship consortium and continued on to become an assistant clinical professor after a year of postdoctoral fellowship in the field of eating disorders. Subsequently, she worked as the Director of the Eating Disorders Research Program at Butler Hospital, the Director of the Eating Disorders Treatment Program at McLean Hospital, and has been an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard University since 1993. She continues to provide clinical education to professionals at conferences and trainings locally and nationally.
Dr. Ebrahimi is a member of the Academy for Eating Disorders, International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals and American Psychological Association. She is also involved in patient advocacy on a local and national level.
Alfredo R. Martija, MD, ABPN
Medical Director
Alfredo R. Martija, MD completed medical school in 1993 and started as a preliminary general surgery resident at SUNY Brooklyn. After completing two
years, he shifted focus and decided to pursue his passion for mental health at the Harvard South Shore Psychiatry Residency Program with a fellowship in Public Psychiatry. He went on to become Medical Director of the Partial Hospitalization Program at the Corrigan Mental Health Center in Fall River, MA, working with a population of severely, chronically mentally ill patients. In 2009, he became Attending Physician, and in 2010 transitioned to Acting Medical Director of the Geropsychiatry unit at nearby St Anne’s Hospital. From 2009 to 2011, he also served as the outpatient psychiatrist at the Plymouth Department of Mental Health.
In 2011, he joined Quincy Medical Center as Attending in the Geropsychiatry unit and later became Chief of Psychiatry with clinical and administrative duties in the inpatient adult, adolescent and geriatric units. He also directed the outpatient medication clinic, the Partial Hospital Program and the consult liaison services through 2018. In his position as Medical Director of CEDC, which started in January 2019, Dr. Martija brings his valuable experience in psychopharmacology and overall psychiatric management in assisting our clients through their struggles towards their recovery goals. Dr. Martija is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He also maintains an outpatient buprenorphine treatment program in his private practice.
Ruth Elliot
LICSW, Program Director, CEDC of NH
Ruth Elliot, MSW, Director of CEDC NH, has worked in the field of eating disorders for the past 13 years. She has extensive experience treating all forms of eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and trauma using a variety of modalities and believes in blending conventional and alternative modalities in order to help patients achieve sustained recovery.
Alyssa Demoulas
LMHC, Director, Partial Hospital & Intensive Outpatient programs
Alyssa Demoulas, M.Ed., has known since high school that she wanted to be a therapist who treats individuals with eating disorders. Some family members suffered from eating disorders, and it seemed so simple to her back then. Why wouldn’t they just eat? She has spent the last 13 years at CEDC answering that question for herself and helping others do the same.
Since graduating, Demoulas has worked in several therapeutic settings including, acute residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient programs. She believes that every individual is capable of full recovery.
Mark Shelford
LICSW, Admissions Coordinator
Mark Shelford has been in the behavioral health field for over 35 years, working in a variety of settings including residential, partial hospital, outpatient, inpatient, and emergency services.
At CEDC, Mark conducts clinical assessments for residential services as well as individual case management and group therapy. He also assists with insurance contracts, patient level-of-care issues, state licensure compliance, and national accreditation.
Mark majored in Philosophy at the University of New Mexico and studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He earned his Master’s in Social Work at Smith
College. For 15 years he worked at a community hospital and managed their emergency psychiatric services, addictions services, and social work services.
Mark joined CEDC in 2008 to pursue his interest in treating eating disorders and to look for ways to improve care wherever possible.
Cambridge Eating Disorder Center
Move from surviving to thriving.
The Cambridge Eating Disorder Center provides individuals suffering with eating disorders a comprehensive continuum of support services focused on their recovery. Our treatment programs focus on reducing the eating disorder symptoms while promoting the development of a healthy self that encompasses both emotional and physical well-being.
