About Kathleen
Kathleen O'Connor is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) with 25 years of experience helping people navigate addiction, trauma, mood disorders, anxiety, and major life changes. She focuses on practical steps that move people toward clearer goals. Kathleen uses plain talk and steady support so clients feel understood and able to try new strategies.
Kathleen trained in clinical social work and earned a Specialized Mental Health Provider certificate while in her master's program, focusing on people with severe mental illness and co-occurring diagnoses.
How Kathleen works
She has worked in many settings, including substance abuse treatment, psychiatric emergency rooms, dialysis clinics, criminal justice programs, nursing homes, and community-based crisis services. That range informs a flexible, down-to-earth approach. Her style is interactive and collaborative.
She checks in often during sessions to make sure the conversation stays relevant. She avoids stigmatizing labels and treats people with respect, sensitivity, and compassion. Kathleen typically blends motivational interviewing, mindfulness techniques, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy into care plans.
She adapts conversations and plans to fit each person's needs and the complexity of their goals. Sessions may be short-term problem-focused work or a longer journey depending on what the client wants. She has provided in-home therapy, community crisis work, and telehealth through phone and video during the pandemic.
Kathleen practices in Massachusetts and conducts sessions in English.
Kathleen lists 7 ways of working on the entry:
What Kathleen works with
The areas below are the ones Kathleen selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Addictions
- Trauma and abuse
- Bipolar disorder
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Mood disorders
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Stress, Anxiety
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
Training and background
| Register | LICSW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 25 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Massachusetts |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapeutic approaches fit into online care
Client-Centered Therapy focuses on listening and responding to each person's concerns. It helps people feel heard and guides the direction of therapy based on their goals. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and teaches concrete skills to change them, which is useful for anxiety, depression, sleep, and mood issues. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills to manage intense emotions and relationship stress.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. Kathleen will work together with the person to decide what methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That conversation may shift as progress is made and new issues arise.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow a fuller face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat works for quick check-ins, and text-based messaging supports ongoing reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caregiving, and other responsibilities while using the therapeutic tools described above.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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