The EOI team is comprised of mental health professionals across the United States with a range of evidence-based expertise. Meet our founders below.

  • Dr. O’Hayer is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She serves as the Director of the Jefferson Center City Clinic for Behavioral Medicine. She has expertise in various evidence-based behavioral therapies including Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Radically Open Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (RO DBT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

    Dr. O'Hayer's research line focuses primarily on the application of acceptance-based behavioral therapies to chronic and rare illnesses including HIV, cystic fibrosis, pancreatic cancer, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, and thyroid eye disease. She specializes in the adaptation of evidence-based behavioral therapies to specific disease states, delivered via brief telehealth interventions, to patient and their caregiver/loved ones. Dr. O'Hayer conducts clinical trials of these adapted treatments, aimed at improving psychological flexibility and medication adherence, reducing anxiety and depression, and improving value-based living, for patients with rare disease and their loved ones.

    Virginia aspires to be a “fun Mom” to her two human children and her two rescue mutts, Wailer and Barkley.

  • Ms. Esiason is a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, and serious illness-related mental health issues for children, adolescents, and adults. Ms. Esiason has worked in both outpatient mental health clinics and in residential facilities. She has expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills (DBT), motivational interviewing (MI), play therapy, and animal-assisted therapy. She has a special interest in the inclusion of caregiver/loved ones in the development of evidence-based behavioral therapies for specific disease states.

    Her research focuses on the development of mental health assessment tools and interventions tailored to the lived experience of specific diseases, including cystic fibrosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.

    She is a speaker and blogger on topics related to serious illness, mental health, and caregiving.

    Ms. Esiason is Mom to two energetic kids and two dogs, Blinky and Blitzen.