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Heather Friend, LCSW

Experienced mental health professional

Provides online counseling through BetterHelp

At a glance

Heather is an experienced, licensed Mental Health Professional who specializes in affordable online therapy offered through our partner, BetterHelp.

4.8 stars
Clients are very satisfied with Heather. View 49 reviews
Great news, Heather is accepting new clients!
She is normally fully-booked.
Speaks English
Offers Telehealth visits
Licensed in Colorado, Michigan, and 1 more

Recent reviews

Heather has provided excellent, comforting and helpful advice. I really appreciate our sessions.

Heather is nothing short of amazing. Creative and attentive and compassionate.

More about Heather

  • 6 years' experience
  • Female
  • LCSW, LMSW

Looking for someone that truly listens and also helps you to move forward?

Hello. I am Heather Friend, a licensed clinical therapist with over a decade of experience helping individuals move through trauma, anxiety, relationship challenges, parenting stress, and deep emotional pain.

Whether you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure where to begin, I offer a space that is calm, compassionate, and judgment-free.

I specialize in helping adults who are managing:

*Complex trauma and PTSD

*Parenting or caregiving of children with ADHD, autism, or behavioral challenges

*Anxiety, grief, depression, and emotional dysregulation

*The weight of growing up in abusive or unstable environments

*Difficulties in Relationships and setting healthy boundaries with others

***

You don't need to show up perfect. You just need to show up.

***

My approach is grounded in warmth, respect, and clarity. I integrate tools from Person-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, somatic trauma work, mindfulness, and psychodynamic healing based on your needs. We can help you rebuild trust with yourself and create lasting change.

***Clients tell me they feel understood, supported, and encouraged to grow without pressure. Clients also state that they are happy to have found a therapist that not only listens but also guides them to create positive changes in their lives.***

If you're someone who has always taken care of others and is finally ready to be cared for — I'm here.

You deserve to feel safe, supported, and to have your experiences truly seen and understood.

You deserve to experience peace and to feel empowered.

*********************************************************

If you’re in crisis and need immediate support, help is available 24/7:

Call or text 988

Crisis Line: 1-844-493-8255 or text TALK to 38255

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

US National Hotlines:

**National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

**National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673

**National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233

**Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453

**Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline: 1-800-662-4357

**Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255, PRESS 1 or text 838255

**CDC National HIV and AIDS Hotline: 1-800-232-4636

Specialties

Stress Anxiety Relationship issues Trauma and abuse Grief Parenting issues Addictions LGBT Family conflicts Intimacy-related issues Eating disorders Sleeping disorders Anger management Self esteem Career difficulties Bipolar disorder Depression Coping with life changes Coaching Compassion fatigue ADHD Abandonment Adoption and foster care Aging and geriatric issues Antisocial personality Attachment issues Autism and Asperger Syndrome Avoidant personality BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture Blended family issues Body image Cancer Caregiver issues and stress Chronic pain, illness, and disability Co-morbidity Codependency Commitment issues Communication problems Control issues Coping with natural or human-caused disaster Dependent personality Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) Dissociation Divorce and separation Domestic violence Drug and alcohol addiction Eating and food-related issues Emptiness Family of origin issues Family problems Fatherhood issues Fertility issues First responder issues Forgiveness Gender dysphoria Guilt and shame Hearing impaired Hoarding Hospice and end-of-life counseling Immigration issues Impulsivity Infidelity Intellectual disability Isolation / loneliness Jealousy Life purpose Men's issues Midlife crisis Veteran and Armed Forces Issues Money and financial issues Mood disorders Multicultural concerns Narcissism Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD Panic disorder and panic attacks Paranoia Personality disorders Phobias Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships Postpartum depression Post-traumatic stress Pregnancy and childbirth Prejudice and discrimination Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling) Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Self-harm Self-love Sex addiction Sexual assault and abuse Sexual dysfunction Sexuality Smoking / vaping cessation Social anxiety and phobia Somatization Traumatic brain injury Trichotillomania Visually impaired Women's issues Workplace issues Young adult issues

Treatment 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
  • Trauma-Focused Therapy
  • Internal Family Systems

Licenses

Heather Friend's National Provider Identifier (NPI) is 1366083321.

  • LCSW · Colorado · CSW.09927984 · Expires August 2025
  • LMSW · Michigan · 6801117005 · Expires August 2026
  • LCSW · Illinois · 149026353 · Expires November 2025

About online counseling

Affordable.
Pay a low flat fee.
Convenient.
Do it at your own time and at your own pace. Communicate whenever you feel it's needed.
Available now.
There is no waiting list and no calls to make. Simply fill out a short questionnaire and send your first message.

Online counseling allows you to receive care from a mental health practitioner via phone, video chat, or instant messaging. It is convenient for those who may have trouble getting to or would prefer not to have in-person therapy appointments. Starting at $65 per week, online counseling is generally more affordable than in-person counseling. A study by researchers at University of California, Berkeley found that online counseling can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy while being more convenient, affordable, and accessible.

Reviews for Heather Friend

All reviews have been submitted by clients after seeing the provider.

Overall rating:

4.8

49 reviews

5
4
3
2
1

Clients mention: Great Helpful Amazing Caring Listens Helped Recommend Thoughtful Understand Easy

Heather has provided excellent, comforting and helpful advice. I really appreciate our sessions.

Heather is nothing short of amazing. Creative and attentive and compassionate.

She’s helpful and knowledgeable!

Great help, compassionate and thoughtful approach.

Reviewed April 2025

Heather has been a wonderful bright light in my path to finding and finding out about myself. She listens to me, gives suggestions, and is otherwise a welcome part of my day when we meet up. Thank you for all you do Heather!

Reviewed January 2025

Heather Friend is a very caring and insightful therapist. She always gives any issue I’m working on the upmost attention and proper explanation to put it to a comfortable conclusion.

Reviewed January 2025

Heather helped to save my life. It’s hard to describe what her guidance and support has meant to me, but that says it all.

Reviewed November 2024

Heather listens to my concerns and gives productive feedback for the help I am needing. She helps and explains things that is easier for me to understand.

Reviewed September 2024

Heather creates a very safe space to open up about traumas and emotions and displayed a keen knowledge of a variety of different struggles and issues.

Reviewed September 2024

I appreciate Heather's positive and warm disposition. It is calming and allows me to open up.

Reviewed September 2024

Heather has been so very communicative and open from the beginning. I have had no doubt the will be able to help me create a plan and sort out the thoughts the battle in me head for attention so I can focus on what I need to work on. She is friendly and helpful and has been great from day one. I am grateful for her help!

Reviewed August 2024

She's great

Reviewed August 2024

Heather has been beyond helpful and caring and extremely easy to talk to. Would recommend her to anyone.

Reviewed July 2024

To put it simply, Heather helped save my life. I’ve never felt better in my life, and it’s largely because she helped me crawl out of the dark I’d been in for decades. I’m eternally grateful for her.

Reviewed July 2024

Very helpful

Reviewed May 2024

Heather Friend is a great therapist who always listens, respects, my concerns. Furthermore, she gave me tools to cope and ways to manage the anxious thoughts that I have been having. My favorite one is the breathing exercise where I breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, and exhale for 10 seconds. She has been working with me to overcome a phobia that I have been struggling with and exploring my past. Along with that we discussed how I can overcome imperfection. Thank you Heather Friend :)

Reviewed April 2024

Heather is incredibly kind and not judgemental at all. I feel like I can be completely honest and get honest feedback that makes me feel empowered instead of weak. She seems to understand problems from the male perspective that is rare for therapists. I have found her to be helpful through some challenging times.

Reviewed March 2024

Heather is compassionate, thoughtful and insightful. i feel very comfortable exploring complex and difficult issues

Reviewed March 2024

Best decision ever.

Reviewed February 2024

I feel safe with Heather. She is compassionate, knowledgeable and supportive. Whilst chat was not how I thought I would be communicating with my therapist, Heather makes it very easy and I look forward to working with her more. I have already seen some positive changes and I am excited in exploring some of the themes identified further.

Reviewed February 2024

Heather is amazing, it only took me 1 session to know that heather was gonna get on my level and help me work thru my issues. She is kind, considerate, and really really good about not letting me slack off by providing me with useful skills and the right amount of motivation. 10/10 would recommend

Reviewed March 2023

I am new to seeking counseling to resolve some issues in my life and to learn how to declare to my family and the world that I am a transgender female a nd live the remainder of my life out in the open. Today will be my first actual appointment with Heather but she has already been helpful in feeling that she is someone that can help me towards that goal.

Reviewed May 2022

I had some important personal breakthroughs with Heather. Much appreciated

Reviewed January 2024

Heather has been an extremely helpful resource in my mental health journey. She's receptive and offers great advice and/or resources. She's very good at responding to messages in a timely manner and very good at checking in between sessions. Overall, Heather has been incredibly helpful in getting my mental health back on track and I would absolutely recommend her to anyone that needs some help.

Reviewed January 2024

Heather has been a great help with me, I feel like she has listened to what I have said and understood how I felt and it was easy and lovely to be able to share my experiences with her

Reviewed December 2023

Heather is a truly non-judgmental, thoughtful, and caring therapist who has given me the space to step out of the darkness and feel better about myself and my needs. Truly thankful to have found her!

Reviewed December 2023

She was extremely kind, helpful, respectful, supportive, and listened well during our sessions. She’s very understanding and provides you with lots of help and fantastic resources. If you’re looking for a sweet therapist who knows what they’re doing and wants to help you in a way that’s most suited to you, then I’d definitely recommend her.

Reviewed September 2023

Heather has been amazing. She has been a rock during a time when I did not realize I would need her most. And she has given me some answers to life-long questions, as well as resources to start a healing journey I was not aware needed to be addressed. She truly is a beautiful light helping me through some dark times. I am beyond grateful for her and Betterhelp. It was the best decision to get therapy when I did.

Reviewed August 2023

Heather, has been very kind and supporting during our sessions. She did make me feel understand and that was exacely what I needed to make do the needed work and make the needed steps to move forward and not getting stuck.

Reviewed July 2023

Friendly, compassionate, and professional! She has really helped me get a rational look at life!

Reviewed June 2023

Great, caring person!

Reviewed May 2023

Ms. Friend is caring and professional. She understands my issues and offers constructive solutions.

Reviewed March 2023

Heather Friend is an amazing therapist. She’s been really dedicated to supporting me and providing me with the tools I need in order to better my life. In the last few months of meeting with Heather, I’ve felt immense personal growth and I truly feel like I owe it all to her.

Reviewed April 2023

Very friendly and helpful

Reviewed February 2023

I feel supported and understood with Heather. She is direct and helps me with suggestions on how to handle difficult situations. I look forward to visiting with Heather. She is trustworthy:)

Reviewed December 2022

Is very good at picking words and trends out when there are issues. Supplies many different worksheets to help client understand what and why they are feeling certain things.

Reviewed November 2022

She supplies me with amazing resources

Reviewed September 2022

So far Heather send very intuitive to my concerns and needs. When I feel like I’m rambling, she reiterated what I’m trying to say very effectively and gives me lots of reinforcement and nonjudgmental advice.

Reviewed August 2022

She's great!! I wish we could talk more often.

Reviewed July 2022

Great therapist. Very insightful.

Reviewed July 2022

Empathetic

Reviewed July 2022

I don't think I could have found a better therapist on BetterHelp than Heather. Heather is extremely professional and thorough, which I greatly appreciate. They are very compassionate and empathetic while also very knowledgeable and educated. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Heather's approach to therapy. It is unique, supportive, understanding, and engaging. Although I am writing this review not too long into working with Heather, I already know I found a good one. Not only do I look forward to the next live session every week, but I finish each session with Heather feeling more empowered, validated, supported, and heard.

Reviewed June 2022

Thoughtful, provides space to sort through issues in my own time, and provides resources and reading material often to help me work on myself. I've had a few therapists before this but I've never been able to open up like this

Reviewed May 2022

She is wonderful. Shes very quock to respond in the messages and if any issues arise she lets ypu know before hand. Great communication!

Reviewed April 2022

Heather is so kind and compassionate! She listens carefully to me and relates very helpful ideas and suggestions. Thank you!

Reviewed April 2022

Great help!

Reviewed March 2022

Very nice! I love how responsive Heather is!

Reviewed March 2022

A kind and warm person who listens and gives good advice to whatever your concern may be!

Reviewed March 2022

Heather Friend is a great therapist ! Understanding and non judgemental.

Reviewed March 2022

How was your experience with Heather?

Frequently asked questions

Does Heather Friend offer telehealth visits?

Yes. Heather Friend works with clients by exchanging messages, chatting live, speaking over the phone, or video conferencing based on what works for the client at that particular time.

What language(s) does Heather Friend speak?

Heather Friend speaks English.

How many years of experience does Heather Friend have?

Heather Friend has 6 years of experience.

Where is Heather Friend licensed to practice?

Heather Friend is licensed to practice in Colorado, Michigan, and Illinois.

Does Heather Friend accept clients outside of the United States?

Yes, Heather Friend accepts clients outside of the United States.

Is online therapy as effective as in-person therapy?

Numerous studies support the effectiveness of online platforms in facilitating life changes. For instance, research published by JMIR Publications, conducted by teams from the University of Berkeley, UCSF, and SF General Hospital, found that "users of BetterHelp experienced significantly reduced depression symptom severity after engaging with the platform."

What treatment approaches does Heather Friend offer?

Heather Friend offers clients 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, Trauma-Focused Therapy, and Internal Family Systems.

How can I communicate with Heather Friend?

Heather Friend can be engaged in any one of four ways: (1) Exchanging messages, (2) chatting live, (3) speaking over the phone, or (4) video conferencing. You can use different ways at different times as you wish, based on your needs, availability, and convenience.

How do I get started with Heather Friend?

Just tap the CHAT NOW button or tap here: A new window will open and you'll be directed to a simple form that will help start the conversation. Please note: It can take up to a few days to be matched to a therapist.

Mental health conditions are real, common, and treatable.

And recovery is possible.

Messaging
Live Chat
Phone
Video

When you tap CHAT NOW a new window will open and you'll be directed to a simple form that will help start the conversation. Please note: It can take up to a few days to be matched to a therapist.