Meet Our Staff

Kristin O'Connor is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Supervisor practicing with Cy-Hope Counseling. In addition to her counseling services, Kristin serves as the Marriage & Family Therapy Program Coordinator and Supervisor for Cy-Hope Counseling, overseeing the work of practicum students & licensed interns.

Kristin graduated from Texas A&M University receiving a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. During her time at Texas A&M, Kristin volunteered at Giddings State School for incarcerated youth where she created and ran a Youth Mentor Program for adolescents. Upon graduating from Texas A&M, Kristin completed her Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Oklahoma State University where she worked as a clinical intern at The Center for Family Services seeing clients for marriage counseling, family counseling, and individual counseling. During her time at OSU, Kristin served as a clinical student intern at Payne County Youth Services, counseling teens and their families in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Kristin also served as the clinical student intern at Ripley High School, and Ripley Middle School counseling students and running counseling groups for teens. 

Upon graduating from Oklahoma State University, Kristin joined the Cy-Hope Counseling staff as a founding member and helped build and establish the counseling center. 

Kristin specializes in working with couples, families, adolescents, and individual adults. Kristin is a certified Prepare-Enrich pre-marital counseling provider and is also trained in play therapy, Filial Therapy, and Parent-Child Interactional Therapy. Visit Kristin's website, http://www.kristinoconnortherapy.com/, to learn more about Kristin's counseling approach. 

Taylor Williams is the Intake specialist for Cy-Hope Counseling. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a degree in business marketing. She has a passion for helping people and looks forward to helping you find the perfect counselor and greeting you when you walk in! 

Valerie earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Texas A&M University in Business Marketing. She began her career in the classroom as a special education teacher. She later earned a Masters of Arts degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Houston. She has worked as a speech language pathologist for a large school district, as well as worked in Home Health settings as a Speech Language Pathologist, Supervisor, and Clinical Coordinator. In addition, Valerie is very involved with organizations such as the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo where she is active in the Special Children’s Committee and Gatekeeper Committee.

Valerie's specialties include working with receptive/expressive language delays, fluency disorders, and pragmatic and social language difficulties. She also has expertise in articulation and phonological processes disorders, where someone may be pronouncing words incorrectly or omitting consonants leading to a reduced intelligibility. Over the years, Valerie has worked with a variety of diagnoses and feeding disorders in children and adults of all ages. In addition, Valerie is able to work with individuals with reading comprehension difficulties. Valerie also has experience working with children and families on the autism spectrum disorder. 

Valerie has a passion for working with children, adolescents and families. She is excited to partner with Cy-Hope to provide speech and language services. Valerie is eager to work with a child's counselor, when applicable, in order to provide a consistent treatment plan and collaborate with sessions.

I graduated from The University of Oregon with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology with an emphasis on child development and family theories. I earned a Master’s degree from Sam Houston State University in clinical mental health counseling where I specialized in play therapy and couples counseling. My areas of interest are developmental psychopathology, pediatric therapy, teen issues, marriage counseling, and child-parent interaction therapy. My goal is to help my clients realize their potential in life to reach wholeness, health, and happiness. In order to achieve treatment goals I use a variety of approaches depending on my clients needs including cognitive behavioral therapy, play therapy (children), and Gottman (couples). I have experience with ages 3-8, adolescents, teens, couples, individual, and parental training groups. I enjoy helping clients who struggle with depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive, divorce, marital issues, trauma, child behavioral issues, suicide ideation, parent training, and parent-child bonding. 

Yarely holds a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Sam Houston State University and a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Stephen F. Austin State University. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). Fluent in both English and Spanish, Yarely is comfortable conducting sessions in both languages. Her training includes play therapy, family counseling, and individual counseling, and enjoys working with a wide range of ages including children, adolescents, and older adults. Yarely wishes to help the community in Cypress by addressing personal, familial, and systematic issues to help the individuals and families reach personal, educational, and emotional goals. Yarely also has a passion for art therapy, and when appropriate, will often incorporate expressive arts activities into her counseling sessions.

Yarely obtuo su Licenciatura de Sociología en la Universidad de Stephen F. Austin y termino sus estudios con una Maestría de Consejería en la Universidad de Sam Houston. Ella conduce sesiones en Español y en Inglés. Su entrenamiento incluye terapia de juego, terapia familiar y terapia individual, y disfruta trabajando con una amplia gama de edades, incluyendo niños, adolescentes y adultos mayores. Yarely desea ayudar a la comunidad Hispana en Cypress a superar obstáculos personales, familiares, y sistemático para que ellos puedan alcanzar sus metas. Yarely también se especializa en terapia de arte, y cuando sea apropiado, incorporará actividades de artes expresivas en sus sesiones de consejería.

Sara Robertson earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Houston in 2014 and her master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Sam Houston State University. She has enjoyed her time working with adolescents and utilizing creative methods tailored to meet their needs. Sara has experience working with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, she has worked with clients in a community counseling center, private practice, and non-profits, and truly enjoys working with a variety of clientele. Counseling isn't always about fixing what's broken; instead we take those broken pieces and create something even better. Sara takes an integrative approach and enjoy applying cognitive-behavioral interventions when appropriate.

Melissa Hoot is a practicum counselor who is pursuing a Master’s in Professional Counseling from Liberty University. She currently holds a bachelor’s degree from The College of Biblical Studies in Biblical Counseling. Melissa has been a sign language interpreter at a local school district for the past 13 years. She hopes to one day use her signing skills in her future practice. Melissa is excited to be able to work with a diverse population and is accepting couples, individuals, children, and adolescents.