Meet Dr. O'Brien

I started out college life as an English major, but I gradually became more and more interested in psychology.  After college, I spent a year working at a residential school for children with serious emotional and behavioral issues. That experience resulted in my decision to pursue a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, focusing on children and adolescents. I finished my Ph.D. and then spent several years working in clinical settings, both an inpatient psychiatric facility and then an outpatient mental health clinic.  During those times, I became increasingly fascinated by brain-behavior relationships and the impact that neuropsychological issues have on an individual's social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. This led me to pursue a post-doctoral fellowship in Developmental Neuropsychology. I found that training to be utterly fascinating, and this expertise has allowed me to help families better understand the challenges facing their children, adolescents, and college students.  Since completing my post-doctoral training, I have worked in both clinical and school settings; this has given me an unusual breadth of experience as well as a true knowledge of special education policies and procedures.  Although I still appreciate good literature and am an avid reader, I feel blessed to have pursued a career path helping young people who struggle in their day to day lives.