Practitioner record · Checked 7 Oct 2026

Heather Parenti has been in practice 27 years and is licensed in Connecticut. Heather lists stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and eating disorders among 58 subjects on the BetterHelp roster.

Everything below is either quoted from Heather's own BetterHelp listing, taken from public licensing records, or written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such. Nothing here is an availability promise, a review, or a rating.

27years in practice
58subjects listed
9approaches listed

01 · Who Heather works with

Heather works with stress, Anxiety, relationship issues and eating disorders

Heather lists 17 specialisms and 41 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects Heather chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

Specialisms
  • Stress, Anxiety
  • Relationship issues
  • Eating disorders
  • Depression
  • Addictions
  • LGBT
  • Family conflicts
  • Trauma and abuse
  • Grief
  • Intimacy-related issues
  • Sleeping disorders
  • Parenting issues
  • Anger management
  • Self esteem
  • Career difficulties
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Coping with life changes
Also experienced with
  • Abandonment
  • Aging and geriatric issues
  • Attachment issues
  • Blended family issues
  • Body image
  • Cancer
  • Caregiver issues and stress
  • Chronic pain, illness, and disability
  • Codependency
  • Communication problems
  • Control issues
  • Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
  • Divorce and separation
  • Eating and food-related issues
  • Emptiness
  • Family problems
  • Fertility issues
  • First responder issues
  • Guilt and shame
  • Hospice and end-of-life counseling
  • Impulsivity
  • Life purpose
  • Midlife crisis
  • Money and financial issues
  • Mood disorders
  • Multicultural concerns
  • Narcissism
  • Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
  • Postpartum depression
  • Post-traumatic stress
  • Pregnancy and childbirth
  • Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Self-harm
  • Self-love
  • Sexuality
  • Social anxiety and phobia
  • Trichotillomania
  • Women's issues
  • Workplace issues
  • Young adult issues

02 · In Heather's own words

What Heather says about the work

Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.

My clients come in with many different troubles and often, the troubles lead to a great many other problems that they have or have had in their lives. There is no problem too big and there is a way to live better. I believe we are looking for contentment. To feel "okay" and, today's society tries to warp us into believing we are not okay because we need something else than what we have right now. We all have the capacity to choose a better life, better relationships, better care for ourselves. The answer is not outside of us but within. I work with children, teens and adults that think they're not enough. We are all enough.

I have been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for over 20 years, licensed in both California and Connecticut. I received my degree from California University Long Beach, living in Southern California most of my life until moving to Connecticut in 2017.

I am a professional and have worked in many entities including private practice since 2004, the medical and mental health community, the education system, and athletic coaching. I have been a competitive athlete since childhood and continue training and competing through all life transitions. Additionally, I have created space and time to practice yoga and meditation. I have also accepted that I am an artist - writing, drawing and painting through change and growth.

My treatment approach is varied based on my client. My main theoretical framework is probably Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but also utilize Mindfulness/Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and Narrative Therapy.

I can help individuals who are experiencing many things in life. I have clients and former clients leading full, enriched lives because of the guidance I have provided through the therapeutic process. .

Heather Parenti, on the BetterHelp listing · read 7 Oct 2026

03 · How Heather works

The 9 approaches Heather lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods Heather lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not Heather's - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how Heather runs a session.

Attachment-Based Therapy
Reads present-day relationship difficulty through the lens of how safety and closeness were learned early on. The therapeutic relationship itself is treated as part of the work, because it is where the pattern tends to show up first.
Cognitive Behavioural TherapyCBT
Structured, present-focused work on the loop between what you think, how you feel and what you then do. Usually means noticing a thought pattern in the room, testing it against evidence, and practising something different between sessions. Among the most heavily researched talking therapies for depression and anxiety.
Dialectical Behaviour TherapyDBT
A structured skills-led adaptation of CBT built around holding two things at once: accepting yourself as you are and working to change. Teaches concrete skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation and relationships. Developed for people whose feelings arrive at overwhelming intensity, and strongest-evidenced there.
Emotionally Focused TherapyEFT
Built for couples and rooted in attachment: the recurring argument is treated as a cycle two people are stuck in rather than as one person's fault. Sessions work to interrupt the cycle and get to what each person is actually asking for underneath it.
The Gottman Method
A couples approach built on decades of observational research into what distinguishes relationships that last. Structured and assessment-led: it maps friendship, conflict and shared meaning, then works on the specific mechanics of how the two of you argue.
Mindfulness-Based TherapyMBCT
Trains attention on what is happening right now - body, breath, the thought as it arrives - so distress can be observed rather than automatically acted on. Strongest evidence is in preventing depression from recurring, and it is usually taught as a practice you keep doing outside the session.
Narrative Therapy
Treats the story you tell about your life as something that can be examined and retold rather than as the plain facts. Separates the person from the problem - “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety” - to make room for the parts the current story leaves out.
Solution-Focused Brief TherapySFBT
Starts from where you want to end up rather than from how you got here. Sessions look for the times the problem is already smaller and work out what is different about those, so the number of sessions tends to be short and the work concrete.
Trauma-Focused TherapyTF-CBT · trauma-informed
CBT adapted for people whose difficulty is rooted in a frightening or overwhelming event. Pacing is the point: safety and stabilisation come first, the memory itself is approached gradually and only when you are ready, and the aim is that recalling it stops hijacking the present.

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

Heather practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of Heather's own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.

  1. A questionnaire, not a booking form

    BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking Heather at this point.

  2. Naming Heather specifically

    BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for Heather is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to Heather.

  3. If the caseload is full

    You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.

  4. The first conversation

    A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.

  5. If the fit is wrong

    Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.

05 · Before you commit

4 questions worth asking Heather

Built from what Heather actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not Heather's - Heather has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.

  • “You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Attachment-Based Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”

    Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.

  • “How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”

    Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.

  • “With 27 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”

    Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.

  • “How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”

    On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.

06 · Practical details

Credentials and licensing

Credential
LCSW
Licensed in
Connecticut
Licence
CA LCSW 19194, CT LCSW 10551
Licence number
19194
Licence expires
31 Jan 2028
NPI
1336290451
Years in practice
27
Gender
Female
Languages
English
International clients
Accepted
Listed since
18 Aug 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

Heather's name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 7 Oct 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.

The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.

Maker Therapy is not BetterHelp, does not take bookings, and has not met Heather. There are no reviews or ratings on this page because we have no way to verify one. If you start therapy through a link here, we may be paid a commission - it does not change your price and it does not affect who appears here or in what order.

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