Licensed to practice in Texas and accepts 41 insurances. Specializes in Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD), Trauma and PTSD
Heather Lucero
(she/her)
About me
You are more than the struggles that brought you here. I help adults who are struggling with OCD, trauma, anxiety, depression, and major life challenges find relief while building lives that feel more meaningful and connected. Many of the people I work with feel stuck in patterns of fear, overwhelm, or disconnection—from themselves, the people they care about, or the life they want to be living. I believe meaningful healing is about more than reducing symptoms. It is also about helping you feel known, supported, and better able to connect with yourself and others. My approach combines warmth and compassion with evidence-based care, so therapy is both a place where you can feel genuinely understood and a place where meaningful change can happen. I use research-supported approaches including Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and systemic therapy. Treatment is tailored to your individual experiences, needs, and goals rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. I specialize in OCD and trauma and also work with anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, grief, and life transitions. While these struggles may be part of your story, they do not define who you are. Together, we will work toward reducing the symptoms that are getting in your way while also strengthening relationships, clarifying what matters to you, building resilience, and helping you create a life that feels more connected and meaningful.
Get to know me
In our first session together, here's what you can expect
Your first session is an opportunity for us to begin getting to know one another and understand what brought you to counseling. I will ask questions about what you have been experiencing, what feels most important to you right now, and what you hope will be different as a result of therapy. You can expect me to listen with curiosity and compassion while also helping us begin to make sense of the patterns that may be contributing to where you feel stuck. You do not need to have everything figured out or know exactly where to begin—that is something we can work through together. I believe therapy works best when you understand not only what we are doing, but why we are doing it. As I begin developing an understanding of your concerns, I will share my initial impressions and recommendations with you and explain the approaches that may be most helpful. We will begin identifying your goals and developing a treatment plan that feels both meaningful and realistic. Most importantly, I want the first session to feel like the beginning of a collaborative relationship. You can ask questions, tell me when something does or does not fit, and have a voice in the direction of your treatment. My goal is for you to leave with a clearer understanding of where we can begin and a sense that you do not have to figure out the path forward alone.
The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions
I bring warmth, curiosity, and a strong ability to see patterns and make connections that may be hard to recognize when you are in the middle of something. I want to understand not just what you are struggling with, but what may be underneath it and what has kept you feeling stuck. I tend to be an active therapist. I will listen and give you space to process, but I will also ask questions, share what I am noticing, and offer practical tools when they may be helpful. I believe it is important for you to understand why we are doing something in therapy and how it connects to the changes you want to make. My training also helps me look at the bigger picture. We may consider past experiences, relationships, current circumstances, and patterns that have developed over time rather than looking at symptoms in isolation. Most importantly, I try to meet you where you are. You do not have to come into therapy knowing exactly what you need or how to get there. Part of my job is helping us figure that out together and finding ways to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
The clients I'm best positioned to serve
You may find yourself caught in constant doubt, overthinking, checking and rechecking, or trying to get certainty that never seems to last. Intrusive thoughts may leave you questioning yourself, your decisions, or even what your thoughts say about who you are. You may know that the cycle is exhausting, but still feel unable to step out of it. Or maybe past experiences continue to affect you in ways you did not expect. You may feel constantly on guard, have difficulty trusting yourself or others, or notice that you have become disconnected from parts of yourself along the way. Things that once felt natural—being spontaneous, feeling close to someone, relaxing, or simply enjoying the moment—may now feel much harder. Many of the people I work with are functioning on the outside while struggling much more internally than the people around them realize. You may have become very good at pushing through, taking care of what needs to be done, or appearing okay while privately feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or disconnected. If you recognize yourself here, therapy can be a place to begin understanding these patterns and learning a different way of responding to them. The goal is not to eliminate every uncomfortable thought, feeling, or memory, but to help them have less control over your life so you can have more room for the people, experiences, and things that matter to you.
Specialties
Top specialties
Anxiety
Obsessive-Compulsive (OCD)
Trauma and PTSD
Identifies as
Woman
Serves ages
Adults (18 to 64)
Elders (65 and above)
Teenagers (13 to 17)
Licensed in
Texas
Accepts
Aetna
Aetna - ASR Health Benefits
Aetna - Allied Benefits
Aetna - Lucent Health
Aetna - Luminare
Aetna - Moda
Aetna - WebTPA
Aetna – HealthEZ
All Savers
Amerihealth Administrators
Amerihealth NJ Medicare Advantage
Arlo
AvMed
Blue Cross Blue Shield
Anthem
Independence Administrators
Independence Blue Cross
Cash - $120 per session
Centivo
Cigna
Cigna - HealthEZ
EAP:Cigna
EAP:Evernorth
EAP:UnitedHealthcare/Optum
Evernorth
GTEB
Golden Rule
Harvard Pilgrim/UnitedHealthcare
Humana - Medicare
Humana Dual (Medicare & Medicaid)
UnitedHealthcare/Optum
Optum
OptumHealth Complex Medical Conditions
Oscar
Oxford
Surest (formerly Bind)
Tufts Health/Cigna
United Medical Resources
UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance
UnitedHealthcare Shared Services
UnitedHealthcare StudentResources
Location
Offers in-person in 201 S Lakeline Blvd, Cedar Park, TX 78613, 201
Virtual
My treatment methods
EMDR
EMDR can be especially helpful when past experiences continue to influence how you respond to stress in the present. You may find that certain situations bring up emotions that feel much bigger or more intense than you expect, even when part of you knows you are safe. EMDR works by helping the brain process experiences that may still carry a strong emotional charge. As those experiences are processed, they may begin to feel less immediate and have less influence over how you respond in the present. Over time, the goal is not to stop having difficult emotions, but to help you feel less overwhelmed by them. This can create more space between what you feel and how you respond, allowing you to make choices that are more grounded in the present and more aligned with your values rather than being driven by experiences from the past.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP)
ERP can be especially helpful when anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or uncertainty begin to take up more space in your life. You may find yourself checking, seeking reassurance, avoiding certain situations, mentally reviewing things, or trying to get complete certainty before you can move on. These responses may bring some relief in the moment, but over time they can strengthen the cycle of anxiety and OCD. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps you gradually face the thoughts, feelings, situations, or uncertainty that trigger anxiety while learning to respond differently. Rather than trying to make the anxiety disappear or prove that a feared outcome will not happen, we work together to help you tolerate uncertainty and reduce the behaviors that keep the cycle going. Over time, the goal is not to never feel anxious or have an intrusive thought again. It is to help those thoughts and feelings have less control over what you do. This can create more freedom to make choices based on what matters to you rather than what anxiety or OCD is telling you that you need to do to feel safe or certain.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be helpful when patterns of thinking and responding begin to contribute to anxiety, depression, stress, or feeling stuck. Sometimes the way we interpret a situation can influence how we feel and what we do, creating patterns that can be difficult to recognize or change on our own. CBT helps us slow down and look at the connections between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Together, we can identify patterns that may no longer be helpful, explore whether the way you are interpreting a situation fits with the available evidence, and practice new ways of responding. The goal is not to simply “think positively” or convince yourself that difficult things are not difficult. Instead, CBT can help you develop a more balanced and flexible way of understanding your experiences while building practical skills for responding to challenges. Over time, this can help you become more aware of the patterns that keep you feeling stuck and more confident in your ability to respond in ways that support the life you want to live.
Compassion Focused
Self-compassion model helps clients improve by teaching them to treat themselves with kindness and understanding during difficult times. By embracing the idea that suffering is a common human experience, clients can reduce feelings of isolation and self-criticism. Mindfulness practices within the model also enable clients to observe their emotions without becoming overwhelmed, fostering greater emotional resilience and overall well-being.
1 rating with written reviews
July 21, 2025
She was very knowledgeable, real, and empathetic! I left with book recommendations, new mindsets, and tools to improve my situation.