Dr. Heather Joppich Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist | Owner/Founder of Zephyr Care
Dr. Joppich is a Licensed Psychologist in Tennessee who specializes in psychological assessment and complex differential diagnosis. She frequently works with people who have received multiple or conflicting diagnoses, have not found answers through previous treatment or evaluations, or feel that something important about their experiences has been missed. Her work focuses on getting to the bottom of complicated clinical questions and helping clients understand how their symptoms, history, and patterns of functioning fit together.
Her clinical interests include psychosis, personality disorders, trauma-related conditions, mood and anxiety disorders, OCD, and neurodevelopmental differences such as autism and ADHD. She pays particular attention to presentations in which these conditions overlap, resemble one another, or occur together. Her approach is neurodiversity-affirming and non-stigmatizing, emphasizing an understanding of each person’s experiences within the context of their life. She considers patterns across development, relationships, emotional experiences, and daily functioning to clarify which diagnoses best explain a person’s difficulties and what support may be most helpful.
Clients often describe their work with Dr. Joppich as finally finding answers to questions that previous care had left unresolved. She takes a thorough, investigative approach, looking closely at details, revisiting earlier assumptions, and exploring connections that may have been overlooked. She emphasizes explaining findings clearly so clients leave with a more coherent understanding of themselves and practical recommendations for moving forward.
Dr. Joppich also specializes in evaluations for standardized testing accommodations and professional examinations, including the LSAT, Bar Exam, MCAT, USMLE, and other academic, professional, and licensing examinations. Her work also includes pre-employment, military enlistment, and other fitness or eligibility evaluations. Across these services, she emphasizes careful assessment, thorough documentation, and recommendations tailored to the specific referral question.
She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Tennessee State University and completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center/Department of Veterans Affairs Consortium, with a concentration in veterans’ mental health. She later completed a post-doctoral residency specializing in psychological assessment, with advanced training in evaluating children, adolescents, and adults. Her assessment experience spans outpatient practices, hospitals, residential treatment programs, schools, nursing homes, correctional facilities, and veterans’ healthcare settings. This breadth of experience informs her understanding of varied and complex clinical presentations.
In addition to her own assessment work, Dr. Joppich provides clinical supervision and consultation to other clinicians conducting psychological evaluations at Zephyr Care Mental Health.
In her free time, Dr. Joppich enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with her family and dogs.