Heather McQuay
Compassionate, practical therapy for real life
- Credentials
- MD, LCSW-C
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed in
- Maryland
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Heather
Heather McQuay is a licensed clinician practicing in Maryland with two decades in human services and more than ten years as a licensed therapist. She holds an MD and is a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical, credential number LCSW-C 14115. Heather focuses on practical help for people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, and related concerns.
Her style is straightforward and person-centered. She aims to meet people where they are and build goals together.
Background and approach
Sessions are collaborative and paced to fit what each person wants to work on. Heather uses a mix of methods rather than a single formula. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy supports values-based choices when emotions feel overwhelming. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance. She also brings motivational interviewing and client-centered techniques to encourage strengths and practical solutions.
That variety lets her adapt to different problems and personal preferences. It also means sessions tend to be focused on concrete steps you can try between meetings. People often come for help with parenting, relationships, grief, career stress, ADHD, and anger.
Heather’s background includes work with trauma from childhood and adulthood, and with mood disorders. She works in plain language and keeps things practical to help clients make steady progress.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without letting them dictate actions. It emphasizes choosing actions that reflect personal values, which can be useful for stress, anxiety, and life changes. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. CBT is often used for anxiety, depression, and practical coping skills to improve day-to-day functioning.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Heather will discuss your goals and preferences and help decide which methods to try. This is a collaborative process that may mix approaches to match what helps you most.
Online therapy offers flexibility for busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation from home. Phone sessions provide a simpler option when video is not needed. Live chat and text-based messaging let people check in between sessions or use shorter, focused exchanges. These options make it easier to fit therapy into parenting schedules, work demands, and other daily responsibilities, while keeping treatment adaptable to changing needs.
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.
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.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Anger management
Also works with
- 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
Next step
Talk to Heather
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point