About Cathy
Cathy O'Brien is a Licensed Master Social Worker who brings six years of direct clinical experience to her practice in Michigan. She focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and related concerns. Cathy aims to build a calm, honest connection so clients feel safe talking about hard things.
Cathy works in a warm, respectful way and meets people where they are. She uses familiar, practical methods to help with symptoms like panic, intrusive thoughts, low mood, or trouble managing emotions.
Background and approach
Sessions often include simple skills practice, problem solving, and checking progress together. Her background includes work across school and clinic settings and a range of clinical roles. That experience shaped her interest in attachment, adoption and foster care issues, and conditions such as ADHD, OCD, and mood disorders.
She has supported people after grief, abuse, and other traumatic events. Cathy blends a few different therapy styles to match a person’s needs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tools are often used to notice thinking patterns and try new behaviors.
Client-centered techniques keep the conversation grounded in each person’s values and priorities. In sessions she focuses on building skills for stress management, coping with life changes, and strengthening self-worth. People also work on parenting concerns, career stress, and eating or body image struggles.
Cathy aims to make therapy a practical, steady part of tackling life’s challenges.
How Cathy Uses Talk Therapy Online
Client-centered work focuses on listening and following the client's goals. The therapist reflects feelings, asks what matters most, and helps people set goals they find meaningful. This approach is useful when someone needs a steady, understanding presence while sorting through feelings.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions. Sessions often include short experiments, thought records, and skill practice to reduce anxiety, panic, or mood symptoms. CBT is practical for people who want clear steps to try between appointments.
Finding the right approach is a team effort. Cathy will talk with the client about goals, preferences, and what has helped or not helped before. Together they decide whether to emphasize skill-building, emotion-focused work, or a mix of methods to match the person's needs.
Online therapy here can use video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone calls can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text are useful for brief check-ins, immediate coping strategies, or flexible scheduling during work breaks or busy days.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Anger management
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Eating disorders
- Family problems
- Grief
- Impulsivity
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 6 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English
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