About Heather
Heather McQuay is a licensed clinician in Maryland with both an MD and a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical credential. She brings 20 years in human services and over a decade as a practicing therapist. Heather focuses on common concerns like anxiety, depression, stress, grief, and trauma.
She also supports people facing parenting strain, career questions, attention challenges such as ADHD, and phobias. Her style is warm and practical. She uses a person-centered stance to make sessions feel collaborative and respectful.
Background and approach
Sessions often begin by talking about what matters most to the client and setting small, clear goals. Heather avoids a one-size-fits-all plan and adjusts tools to each person’s needs. Heather teaches skills people can try between meetings.
She draws from cognitive behavioral techniques to spot and change unhelpful thinking patterns. She also uses acceptance and commitment ideas to help people focus on values and workable actions. When trauma or strong emotions are present, she blends approaches to keep therapy steady and grounded.
Dialectical behavior ideas help with managing intense feelings and building coping skills. Existential conversations can surface meaning and choices during big life changes. Many people come for help with relationship strain, family stress, caregiving burdens, or mood instability.
Heather also works with those dealing with chronic health issues, adoption and foster care questions, or the fallout from loss and abandonment. Her goal is to help people gain clearer choices and more workable daily routines. If someone wants to start, Heather guides them through practical next steps and helps schedule a first session that fits their life.
How Heather’s Approaches Work Online
Heather commonly blends Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in online sessions. ACT helps people notice what truly matters to them and take small actions toward those values, which can be useful for anxiety, avoidance, and life changes. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors, which often helps with depression, phobias, and stress management.Finding the right approach is a team effort. Heather works with each person to choose techniques that match their goals, preferences, and day-to-day reality. She checks in regularly and adjusts the plan when something isn’t working, so therapy stays practical and relevant.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions let people use visual cues and work through material together. Phone sessions can be a good shorter option or work when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text are useful for quick check-ins, coaching-style support, or when someone prefers not to be on camera. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep momentum between meetings.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- Maryland
- Languages
- English
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