Katherine O'Connell

Katherine helps her clients heal and grow through the difficulties and transitions of life. We all face challenges, whether it’s struggling with intimacy in our relationships, the trauma of loss and pain, or relational conflicts.  She will help you tap into your potential to make meaningful life changes so you can begin to live the life you want.   Katherine helps individuals who are experiencing interpersonal difficulties, relationship challenges, and other painful struggles such as grief, complex trauma, infidelity, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. She also has a unique niche for working with neurodiverse adults and supporting them to live a full and connected life. Katherine believes in honoring each person’s life history, experiences, values, and beliefs they carry that may impact how they feel today. She will support you and your desire to be heard and understood to make meaningful connections in your relationships.  

Katherine appreciates that individuals experience and interact with the world in different ways. She understands that neurodiverse adults often spend a great amount of energy trying to “fit in” or struggle to feel understood in their relationships. She will not limit you by labels and believes diagnoses fail to capture your unique strengths and brilliance. Katherine will support you with your struggles and help you identify and share your true needs. She will help you explore what matters to you and support you in obtaining your goals. This can foster deeper healing and connection in your life.

Katherine loves supporting couples in repairing their relationship, helping them communicate to understand, not just listen, and getting couples to connect on a deeper level. She is trained in Gottman Method Levels I and II and incorporates an attachment-based lens in her work for healing relationship wounds and addressing destructive cycles that keeps couples stuck.  She particularly values the role sexuality and intimacy holds for individuals and couples; it is a core part of the human experience yet so rarely addressed, even in most therapy offices. She will support your vision for healthy intimacy and help you achieve a closer connection. Katherine helps couples stop the painful and destructive cycles they may have found themselves in. She will teach you how to openly share, be vulnerable, and empathize to reach each other on a more intimate level.

Katherine uses a variety of empirically supported therapies and techniques to help her clients heal and move towards growth. She leverages skills and techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills for individuals and practices the Gottman Method in treating couples.  She relies upon managing suicidality and self-harm using Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS) augmented by CBT and DBT. In supporting clients healing from infidelity, Katherine uses the Posttraumatic Growth Model for Intimate Betrayal, and enjoys creating a space to encourage healing and recovery from betrayal trauma.

About Katherine

Katherine attended Mary Baldwin University for her undergraduate degree studying history and international relations before joining the Army.  She served for 10 years during which time she was intrigued by the mental health toll of geographical separations upon couples and families, the trauma of war upon servicemembers, and increased suicidality in veterans.  She completed two Master of Science degrees studying Psychology at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Psychological Sciences at Seattle Pacific University in Washington.  She is currently a fourth-year doctoral student at Seattle Pacific University and is on track to receive her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in May 2025. When Katherine is not studying or working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three children camping, hiking, and travelling.

Education & Credentials

• Master of Science in Psychological Sciences (M.S), Seattle Pacific University

• Washington State Agency-Affiliated Counselor

• Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate

• Gottman Couples Therapy: Levels I & II

• CAMS Trained (Collaborative Assessment for Managing Suicidality)

Professional Memberships

• American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology

• Society for Military Psychology |Student Member

• Society of Clinical Psychology | Student Member

• Joint Special Operations Association Member

• Veteran of Foreign Wars (#9248193) | Member

Publications

O’Connell, K. L., Jacobson, S. V., Ton, A. T., & Law, K. C. (2022). Association between race and socioeconomic factors and suicide-related 911 call rate. Social Science & Medicine, 306, 115106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115106

Marks, R.B., Wee, J.Y., Jacobson, S.V., Hashimoto, K., O’Connell, K.L., Golden, S.A., Baker, P.M., & Law, K.C. (2022). The role of the lateral habenula in suicide: A call for further exploration. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.812952

Moreira, N., O’Connell, K.L., Wee, J.Y., Lin, Y.C., Marks, R.B., Jacobson, S.V., Hassler, M., Layton, J.L., O’Boyle, M., Hashimoto, K.H., Ton, A.T., & Knight, J., Law, K.C. (in press). A qualitative examination of mental health needs and managing suicide risk in COVID-19 frontline medical professionals. Inquiries Journal.

Lin, Y.-C., O’Connell, K.L., & Law, K. C. (2023). Moderating roles of grit and locus of control on rumination and suicidality. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jad.2023.02.148

Lin, Y.-C., Wee, J.Y., M., Marks, R.B., O’Connell, K. L., Hassler, M., & Law, K.C. (2022). Shame-proneness and suicidal ideation: The role of depressive and anger rumination. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, 7, 100303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2021.100303

Vaydich, J. L., Anderson, E. K., O’Connell, K.L., Moreira, N., Deonier, C. F. (2023). Parenting during the second year of COVID-19: Positive and negative parental experiences in the USA. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science.

O’Connell, K.L., Hassler, M., Moreira, N., Barnette, B., Gilbert, A., Widman, C., & Law, K.C. (2023). Do crisis details differentiate suicide-related 911 call outcomes?  Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000921 

 If you would like to set up an appointment with Katherine please reach out today!