Our Psychologists & Therapists

Dr. Adam Bucher is a post-doctoral fellow working under supervision of Dr. Adrianne Brennan. Dr. Bucher’s area of expertise includes evaluation for ADHD, learning disorders, and mood/anxiety disorders. He treats patients from young childhood to adulthood. Dr. Bucher has a broad level of training and experience in psychological assessment, ranging from private practice, school settings, community settings, and inpatient emergency services. His research experience has focused on streamlined psychological assessment for community-health settings. He has also received training in a wide age range of patients from young children to older adults. In addition to psychological assessment, Dr. Bucher has an extensive history of therapeutic services targeted toward substance use and PTSD.

Dr. Bucher received his Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier University of Louisiana after completing an internship at Mississippi State Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Bucher has also received an M.S. in Clinical and Counseling Psychology, focused in trauma-informed care, from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In practice, Dr. Bucher strives to work with patients and parents to provide comprehensive psychological assessments that can target challenges in both the home and school setting. Dr. Bucher’s work also prioritizes interdisciplinary care and communication between medical providers and school faculty. As a local of the greater New Orleans area, Dr. Bucher is proud to return to his home community and provide care to his neighbors.

Dr. Amy Henke is a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Henke received her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Nova Southeastern University in 2008 with a training focus on children and adolescents. She has additional specialty training in psychological evaluation, children with complex medical issues, and children with severe psychological problems.

While on faculty for eight years at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, she served as an Assistant Professor working with psychiatrically hospitalized children and adolescents at Children’s Hospital. She is now in her eleventh year as medical staff at Children’s Hospital where she provides consultation, evaluation, and therapy services to children and families. She is also an elected member of the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, as well as codirector of the post-doctoral fellowship in Pediatric Psychology at Children’s Hospital.

In her private practice, she enjoys psychological assessment and evaluation with children and adolescents, where she focuses on a holistic view of each child’s individual strengths and weaknesses. Her approach to assessment concentrates on conceptualizing children through the lens of their unique psychological, cognitive, social, medical, and familial

Dr. Corinn Johnson is a licensed clinical psychologist who obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Mississippi. Her graduate training focus was on children and adolescents, as well as individuals with developmental disabilities (e.g., autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability) across the lifespan. After loving New Orleans as an undergraduate student at Xavier University of New Orleans, Dr. Johnson returned to New Orleans to complete her postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital of New Orleans. She decided to remain in the city, possibly forever, and is currently a medical staff member at Children's Hospital of New Orleans.

Dr. Johnson's private practice focus is to provide comprehensive evaluations for children, adolescents, and young adults with academic, attentional, and/or behavioral concerns. Dr. Johnson aims to help individuals and their families understand test results, as well as assist families with appropriate treatment planning.

Dr. Enrique Varela specializes in the assessment and treatment of childhood and adolescent mental health disorders. His expertise is in anxiety, ADHD and conduct problems, learning disorders, and complex presentations. Dr. Varela also has broad experience in the assessment and treatment of symptoms following exposure to traumatic events in children and adults.

Dr. Varela received his Ph.D. in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas in 2002, following an internship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He was Associate Professor of Psychology in the doctoral School Psychology Program at Tulane University until 2015. Currently, he is Professor of Psychology and holds the Provost Distinguished Professorship at Loyola University.

Dr. Varela founded and was director of the Tulane University Anxiety Disorders Clinic for Children and Adolescents, where he supervised doctoral students in assessment of a wide variety of disorders (e.g., anxiety, ADHD, learning disorders, depression, conduct problems) and in the treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., PTSD, OCD, social phobia, panic disorder, selective mutism). He is fluent in Spanish and he enjoys helping families unpack and understand complex emotional and behavioral difficulties of childhood and adolescence.

Dr. Varela is an accomplished scholar with numerous published peer reviewed papers in top journals in the field. His research has been funded by the Louisiana Board of Regents and the National Institute of Mental Health, and he has served as a grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health for several years. He is on the editorial board of five prestigious journals and is Associate Editor of another top journal. He has extensive teaching experience in graduate and undergraduate courses, including Abnormal Psychology, Family Psychology, Childhood Behavior Disorders, and Clinical Psychology.

Dr. Boggs is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The University of Mississippi in 2007. Dr. Boggs completed a pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where her clinical training focused on using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to address challenging behavior and teach important skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Dr. Boggs then worked in hospitals in Asheville, North Carolina and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before moving back home to work at Children’s Hospital New Orleans where she was on the medical staff for over 10 years and served as Team Leader for the Autism Center.

Here at Brennan Behavior Group, Dr. Boggs provides comprehensive diagnostic evaluations for suspected autism and other developmental disorders like global developmental delay, intellectual disability, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Her ultimate goal is to help individuals have better days. Through interviews, observations, and testing, Dr. Boggs works to obtain a clear picture of an individual’s unique profile of strengths and challenges. This helps guide recommendations and next steps focusing on honoring and relying on an individual’s strengths while bolstering them in areas where they struggle. Dr. Boggs is passionate about providing information that helps individuals access the supports they need to achieve their potential and live a meaningful life.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Boggs was appointed to serve on the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists for a five-year term. She served as both Vice Chair and Chair during her tenure with the Board. In her spare time, Dr. Boggs loves to glitter (especially shoes!), watch football, listen to live music, bike or walk around New Orleans, and travel.

Dr. Kristin Callahan is a licensed developmental psychologist who received her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of New Orleans in 2010.

She has additional specialty training certifications in Infant Mental Health, Child-Parent Psychotherapy and the use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2) and the Monteiro Interview Guidelines for Diagnosing the Autism Spectrum, 2nd Edition (MIGDAS-2) for differentiating neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan. Dr. Callahan also has advanced practice in the use of clinical diagnoses and 1508 classification guidelines in psycho-educational assessment to inform school-based accommodations and classroom modifications.

Dr. Callahan serves as the Director of Pupil Appraisal and Low Incidence Disabilities for Collegiate Academies, Mental Health Director for Opportunities Academy, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) and Associate Adjunct Professor for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier University (TCSPP). She has been named a “Rising Star” by American Psychological Association (2016), Healthcare Hero by New Orleans City Business (2018), Psychology Faculty Member of the Year by LSUHSC (2018, 2021) and Adjunct Professor of the Year by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology (2020).

In practice, Dr. Callahan specializes in neurodevelopmental assessment of global developmental delays, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, specific learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder across the lifespan. In therapy, Dr. Callahan maintains a strengths-based, eclectic theoretical approach, highlighting and considering each patient’s unique neurodiversity.

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Lisa Gallagher completed her M.S. in Clinical Psychology at Loyola University Maryland and went on to earn her Psy. D. from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. Her training focus at Xavier University was providing mental health services in a variety of healthcare settings.

Dr. Gallagher has experience working in psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers, and forensic hospitals. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at a local Burn Center where she conducted brief assessments and provided short- and long-term psychotherapy to individuals and families after burn and other traumatic injuries.

Dr. Gallagher strives to fully understand clients’ strengths and difficulties through comprehensive assessment measures that are then used to guide treatment recommendations, and is passionate about tailoring evidenced-based practices to meet her clients’ individual needs.

Dr. Sarah Miller Rayburn specializes in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, intellectual developmental disorder, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Rayburn is a licensed psychologist and board certified behavior analyst, doctoral level. She earned her PhD in school psychology from Louisiana State University. She completed her doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine and the Marcus Autism Center, a NIH Autism Center of Excellence. Dr. Rayburn then served as a psychologist in the Severe Behavior Program at the Marcus Autism Center and an assistant professor in the Emory University School of Medicine before returning home to Louisiana. Before joining Brennan Behavior Group, she enjoyed five years on the medical staff at Children’s Hospital New Orleans.

Dr. Rayburn enjoys working with families to implement behavioral treatments with their children across school, home, community, and clinic contexts. Her goal during psychological assessment is to help identify the strengths and needs of the individual being evaluated, with an emphasis on how these results guide choosing the best treatments. She has experience treating a range of concerns including tantrums, aggressive and self-injurious behaviors, feeding problems, toilet training, noncompliance, and language delays. Her greatest reward in her work is seeing the improvement the right treatment can make in helping a child or teenager reach their full potential.

Dr. Rayburn has published research on behavior interventions to reduce challenging behavior and promote skill acquisition in leading journals in the field, including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and School Psychology Review. She is a member of the Louisiana Psychological Association, the Association for Behavior Analysis International, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.