Carleigh O'Brien

Carleigh O'Brien is a licensed clinical social worker with nine years of experience helping people cope with hard moments. She trained in Missoula, Montana, and now practices in Montana as an LCSW. She focuses on straightforward, practical work aimed at reducing stress and improving daily functioning.

Carleigh uses common-sense tools from cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness to help people notice unhelpful thinking patterns and learn new responses. She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ideas to help people clarify what matters to them and take steps toward those values. Attachment-based ideas inform how she looks at relationship and communication patterns.

Sessions tend to be conversational and goal-focused. People can expect to talk through current problems, practice specific skills, and set small achievable steps between sessions. The tone is collaborative rather than prescriptive, so the pace adjusts to each person’s needs.

Carleigh works with a range of concerns including stress, anxiety, depression, grief, anger, trauma and relationship worries. Additional focus areas include parenting strains, postpartum depression, ADHD, and young adult issues. She also supports people facing identity and intimacy-related concerns.

Her approach blends short-term skill building with attention to how relationships and attachment shape behavior. That combination helps people manage symptoms now while shifting patterns that cause repeated problems. To get started, readers can use the Start Therapy button and follow the matching steps to schedule a first session.

Approaches that translate to online work

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice what matters and take small actions toward those values. It often uses practical exercises and short behavioral experiments that fit well into daily life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on identifying patterns of thought and testing them with real-world actions, which can be practiced and reviewed between sessions.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will work together with each person to choose methods that match their goals, pace, and preferences. That collaborative planning makes it easier to try techniques and adjust them based on what helps.

Confirm the platform and session options before booking since formats are not specified here. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy schedule, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and support use of in-the-moment exercises between meetings. Licensed professionals can guide homework tasks and mindfulness practices so progress continues between sessions.