Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea, Ph.D.

Education: Dr. Frawley-O’Dea earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. She worked in healthcare marketing for seven years. Changing careers, she earned a Master of Arts degree and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, where she also received a post-doctoral Certificate in Advanced Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Rockland County Community Mental Health Center in Pomona, NY.

Clinician & Executive Director: For more than 35 years, Dr. Frawley-O’Dea has specialized in treating adolescent and adult male and female survivors of developmental trauma, including sexual abuse, and is internationally known for this work. She takes a relational psychodynamic approach to her clinical work informed by trauma theory and contemporary neuroscience. She believes that psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are crafts, combining both scientific principles and artisanship. No two therapeutic journeys are alike. Rather, they reflect the unique interactions of the individuals involved in the processes. Therapists and patients enter a relationship through which, when things go well, “more” becomes possible — more life, more love, more play, more feeling, more thought, more choice, more reflection.

Author, Expert Witness: Mary Gail’s co-authored book, Treating the Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse, is considered a classic. She also co-authored a book, The Supervisory Relationship, which offered a new, relational model of psychodynamic supervision. She also authored a paper on the psychological and spiritual damage resulting from clergy sexual abuse. After that, she authored Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, an analysis of the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. She has provided expert witness services in legal cases addressing sexual abuse.

Dr. Frawley-O’Dea is or has been on the editorial boards of several professional journals and is a member of the editorial board of The North Carolina Psychologist. She has published more than 50 book chapters, professional articles, and magazine or newspaper articles and has made numerous professional presentations and invited lectures throughout the United States as well as in Canada and Israel. She appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary film, Deliver Us From Evil, which addressed the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Location: Dr. Frawley-O’Dea works with clients remotely on a HIPAA compliant online platform.  She accepts, Aetna., Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance, Cigna, United Health Care, out-of- network benefits and sliding scale fees.

Dr. Frawley-O’Dea served as Executive Director of Presby Psych from 2010 to August 2023.

Purchase Books by Dr. Frawley-O’Dea

Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

Predatory Priests, Silenced Victims: The Sexual Abuse Crisis and the Catholic Church

The Supervisory Relationship: A Contemporary Psychodynamic Approach

Treating the Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Psychoanalytic Perspective