Molly O'Phelan - Planning Committee Chair
(Ph.D, RN, LMFT)

Email: drophelan@gmail.com

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Moonyeen “Molly” O’Phelan, PhD, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and a Registered Nurse. She began her nursing career on an Oncology/Hospice unit in St. Paul, MN. Love of nursing and caring for those terminally ill set the stage for Molly’s desire to become a therapist specializing in loss and grief. During this time, she met and married the love of her life, a seminarian who was assigned to her hospital unit with plans to become a Chaplain in the US Air Force. Their first assignment was at San Antonio’s Randolph AFB. This move from Minnesota brought new opportunities as she entered St. Mary’s University and eventually earned her MA in Counseling, while continuing to work as an RN, offering support groups for infertile couples through a local hospital. Military assignments around the globe while rearing two wonderful children eventually brought her family back to San Antonio, where she completed her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from St Mary’s University, specializing in loss and grief.   For ten years, she served as Clinical Director of St Mary’s University’s, Family Life Center, where she created collegial relationships with helping agencies throughout San Antonio, bringing affordable therapy to the underserved.

 

Molly is currently the Bereavement Coordinator for Porter Loring Family Care Services, offering grief support to families and inviting them to support groups specific to their loss: spouse, family member, or the loss of a child. She facilitates these groups all of which are made available free of charge to the community.

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Besides spending time with her husband and two grown children, Molly enjoys entertaining guests with a good home-cooked meal, gardening, needlework, being out in nature, travel, and most things German.