Hey there! I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Virginia. I've been in practice since 2017. I help adults dealing with anxiety, depression and PTSD find hope and healing. I've worked with a broad range of people in both community agencies and private practice in both urban and rural settings with clients from varied backgrounds. It's really important for me to show up with genuineness, empathy and positive regard for my clients. I use a person-focused approach in every session; trusting that my clients have the ability to grow and change in the ways that they want to. My clients are the experts in their lives and my role is to be a sounding board and a safe space for the individuals I work with. In that safe space we can work to sort through the things that brought you to therapy. I use EMDR, CBT, DBT, existential and psychodynamic approaches to help the clients I work with.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
First sessions are all about getting to know each other. We'll start with some basic introductions and then I'll ask what brings you to therapy and what makes it important to start now. We'll discuss your answers to these two questions and work together to start formulating some plans for how to move forward. While I may not be able to answer all the questions that you have, I will make sure to provide some time for you to ask me questions about myself and my approaches as a therapist.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I have worked with clients from all walks of life and had an extremely broad experience across populations, cultures, backgrounds and symptoms. This has allowed me to develop a significant strength in my ability to connect with my clients in a deep and meaningful way. This helps my clients feel safe and seen, which is an important foundation for all healing. My clients appreciate my ability to use humor throughout our work as well as my intention to pace the work at a speed that my clients feel comfortable with.
About Josh Johnson
Appointments
Virtual
My treatment methods
EMDR
EMDR is really helpful in healing and changing patterns of thought or behavior that keep us stuck. EMDR can bring significant change in a short amount of time. I've used EMDR with many of my clients for anxiety, depression, trauma responses and even chronic pain. In EMDR we identify current challenges, explore past memories and experiences that relate to these current challenges and then use any type of bilateral stimulation (activating both sides of the brain, most often with back and forth eye movements) to help your brain process those memories and experiences. Then we work our way up to the present and into the future with the same process.
Dialectical Behavior (DBT)
DBT is all about finding balance in our lives between the many paradoxes (dialectics) that we have to navigate each day. I use DBT approaches to help identify obstacles that are in the way of your goals and then teaching new techniques and/or helping you find ways around or through those obstacles. DBT is really helpful in increasing mindfulness, managing emotions, navigating intense crises and increasing our ability to be in relationship with others.
Person-centered (Rogerian)
Fundamental to my practice is the core tenants of client centered therapy. Showing up with genuineness, empathy and positive regard for my clients. I use person-centered therapy in every session by trusting that my clients have the ability to grow and change in the ways that they want to. My clients are the experts in their lives and my role is to be a sounding board and a safe space for the individuals I work with. In that safe space we can work to sort through the things that brought you to therapy.
Psychodynamic
The essence of psychodynamic therapy and its methods is the question "How is your past showing up in your present?" We learn patterns of being in relationship and navigating the world early in our lives and these ways of being can bring distress into our lives. I use psychodynamic approaches to help explore those early patterns, identify how they are impacting your present and then working to help you find new ways of engaging in the world. I often use psychodynamic therapy to help identify targets for EMDR reprocessing.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
I use CBT to assist the clients I work with in identifying and changing troublesome thought patterns and/or behaviors. This might look like helping to identify all-or-nothing thinking or noticing when we are trying to "mind read" someone else. It might also look like working to practice new skills or behaviors instead of continuing to engage in ineffective ones.
