Heather Friend
Warm, practical support for life changes
- Credentials
- LCSW, CSW
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed in
- Colorado, Michigan, Illinois
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Heather
Heather Friend is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, relationship strain, addiction, parenting questions, and mood challenges. She greets new clients with a warm, open attitude and a focus on practical steps. Heather aims to help people feel steadier and more confident in daily life.
Her style is collaborative and paced to each person. She listens without judgment and works with clients to identify small, doable changes.
Background and approach
Sessions emphasize noticing strengths and building emotional clarity so people can manage hard moments more easily. Heather uses several proven approaches, including cognitive behavioral techniques to spot unhelpful thoughts and acceptance methods to make space for difficult feelings. She also draws on attachment ideas to understand relationship patterns and client-centered skills that keep the session focused on what matters to the client.
Across eight years of practice she has supported people dealing with trauma, ADHD, compassion fatigue, body image concerns, grief, and changes in work or life circumstances. She also addresses areas like intimacy-related struggles, sleep or eating concerns, and caregiver stress. Heather offers flexible scheduling with weekday, evening, and weekend options.
She accepts international clients and provides sessions from Colorado in English. Messaging between sessions is available for extra support when needed.
Therapeutic approaches and accessible online care
Heather uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help people spot and change thoughts and behaviors that get in the way of daily functioning. CBT is practical and often focuses on small, concrete skills that reduce anxiety, improve mood, or address sleep and eating habits.She also draws from attachment-based therapy to look at relationship patterns and how early bonds shape reactions today. That approach helps when struggles show up in intimacy, caregiver stress, or ongoing relationship cycles. Client-centered therapy is another part of her practice, which means sessions focus on the client's priorities and move at a comfortable pace.
Choosing the right approach is a team effort. Heather will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful. Together they will try methods that fit and adjust over time based on what works.
Online therapy here is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to suit different schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives, allow steady contact between sessions, and provide flexibility for people living in different places.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with difficult thoughts, more about loosening their grip and acting on what matters to you anyway. Values and committed action carry the work, which suits conversation at a distance.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Louisiana
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Heather
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point