Dr. Heather Ann O’Brien, PsyD, PMH-C, is a clinical psychologist licensed in Washington who also has the authority to practice telepsychology in all PSYPACT states (APIT: 13773). She has advanced degrees from CACREP-accredited and APA-accredited programs and completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. O'Brien spent the first six years of her career serving within the Department of Defense healthcare system, as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force, and then as an addictions specialist in the United States Navy. These roles required working within complex systems and with individuals carrying high levels of responsibility, stress, and moral demand—experiences that continue to inform her clinical perspective.
Dr. O'Brien is passionate about integrated behavioral health care and has directed programs in primary care, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology clinics. She is also deeply committed to supporting health professionals. She furthers this mission through her work with the Washington Physicians Health Program.​ Dr. O’Brien is a professional member of the American Psychological Association, the Washington Psychological Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Mental Health Professional Group, the Pacific Northwest Neuropsychological Society, and the Federation of State Physician Health Programs. ​​​
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APPROACH
Dr. O'Brien is guided by the understanding that much of emotional life unfolds outside conscious awareness, and that meaningful change happens through experience rather than instruction alone.​ People often come to therapy with insight, motivation, and effort—and still find themselves repeating familiar patterns in relationships, emotions, or decision-making. This is not a failure of will or intelligence. It reflects the way human minds are shaped by experience, particularly early relational experience, and how those patterns continue to influence perception and behavior long after their original purpose has passed.
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She approaches therapy as a collaborative process of inquiry. Rather than applying a fixed set of techniques, she pays close attention to how patterns emerge in the present—both in a person’s life outside therapy and in the therapeutic relationship itself. These moments offer valuable information about how expectations, defenses, and emotional responses are organized, and they provide opportunities for understanding that can lead to change.​​​ She works deliberately and without urgency, with respect for ambivalence and uncertainty as normal aspects of change. Many psychological difficulties were once adaptive responses to earlier circumstances. Therapy offers a space to understand those responses in context, so that they no longer have to operate automatically or unquestioned.
Dr. O'Brien frequently works with adults navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, relational difficulties, neurodivergence, and professional or caregiver burnout. She aims to offer a therapeutic relationship that is thoughtful, engaged, and able to hold complexity—one that supports greater freedom and choice over time, rather than quick resolution. ​​Dr. O'Brien will also provide psychological assessment services when a deeper understanding of cognitive, emotional, or personality functioning is helpful.
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