About Judy Osborne

Judy Osborne is a marriage and family therapist in Brookline, MA, and Director of Stepfamily Associates, an organization she founded in 1981. She consults with individuals, couples and families about the issues of living in stepfamilies (www.stepfamilyboston.com) and has seen, first hand, the evolution of many post-marriage relationships.

Osborne has always been on the leading edge of new services to families. In 1966 she became the first elementary guidance counselor in the Brookline (MA) public schools. The establishment of Stepfamily Associates (1981) was an early entry into services for the then growing numbers of stepfamilies created as the divorce wave reached its peak. Also in the early ‘80s she became a founder of a community hospice that served as a model for services to families facing terminal illness. This was well before the national legislation made hospice services common. In the early 1990s she became involved in creating services for adult children of alcoholics, helping to extend family alcoholism services at McLean Hospital (Belmont, MA).

Osborne studied Child Development at Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School in 1963. She earned advanced degrees in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University (1966) and Northeastern University (1989) and has a certificate of advanced study from The Boston Institute for Psychotherapy (1980).
Osborne grew up in a small town in Connecticut. Her early years were formed with the expectation of lifelong connections in family and community. Cultural changes of the mid 20th century and her own story and solid foundation as a family therapist allow her to take a very long view of family change.

Osborne now lives in Boston. Her far-flung family includes a daughter and son, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, four grandsons, two stepdaughters and two step-granddaughters, plus the extended family members connected with each one of them. Her ex-husband, his wife and families complete the kinship circle. These lifelong connections are renewed at a place by the sea in Cape Cod where her kids and stepkids played 40 years ago.