Denise O'Leary

Denise has practised as a therapist in drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres in Thailand since 2020, following years of therapy work in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology and is a Certified Canadian Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, with a clinical focus on addiction and trauma.

Denise is the only therapist in Thailand certified by the EMDR International Association. She is also the only clinician in Thailand trained and certified in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured trauma therapy that uses guided eye movements to help the brain reprocess painful memories so they stop driving present-day behaviour. To earn the EMDRIA certification, Denise completed hundreds of hours of practice and two years of intensive consultation. She trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for addiction at the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, founded by Dr Aaron Beck, and in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) at the DBT Centre of Vancouver.

At Jintara, Denise helps clients uncover the causes of their addictive behaviour and identify the skills, resources, and changes needed to replace addiction with something immeasurably better, a good life. She works with a small group of about 10 adults at a time inside a CBT-core, non-12-step program, and decides when CBT, DBT, EMDR, or CPT is the right fit for each client. Her addiction and trauma work anchors the clinical team at Jintara.