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Anxiety & OCD Therapy · Northern Virginia · Telehealth

Anxiety therapy for Northern Virginia
minds that won't slow down.

You've been managing — sometimes well, sometimes not. But the pace of life here doesn't pause, and anxiety has a way of taking up more and more space until it's hard to remember what calm felt like. You don't have to keep outrunning it. Telehealth anxiety and OCD therapy for adults across Fairfax, Arlington, McLean, Reston, Alexandria, and all of Virginia.

Book via Headway Free 15-min consultation
Licensed in Virginia OCD & ERP Trained PMH-C Certified 15+ years experience Accepting new clients
CBT Mindfulness-Based EMDR ERP for OCD Psychoeducation
You might recognize this

"There's no single type of anxious person.
But if any of this sounds familiar — you're in the right place."

Looping worries that won't stop.
Panic attacks out of nowhere.
Trouble sleeping. Mind won't stop.
Watching your world get smaller.

Sound familiar? You don't have to keep pushing through alone →

Types of anxiety I work with

Anxiety wears many faces in Northern Virginia.
All of them are treatable.

Anxiety is not one thing. Whether you're dealing with pervasive daily worry, sudden panic, or specific fears that have started limiting your life, effective treatment exists — and it's tailored to your particular experience, not a generic protocol.

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder

If worry is your default state — about health, work, relationships, money — and it's been that way for as long as you can remember, this is likely what you're dealing with. GAD is one of the most common and most treatable forms of anxiety. You don't have to live at this level of constant tension.

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Panic Disorder

Panic attacks are terrifying — heart pounding, chest tight, a certainty that something is seriously wrong. What often makes them worse is the fear of the next one. Panic disorder is a cycle we can interrupt. With the right tools, you can stop dreading your own nervous system.

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Phobias & Specific Fears

A specific fear — driving on highways, flying, medical procedures — can quietly reshape your life as you build your world around avoiding it. Both exposure-based therapy and EMDR are highly effective for phobias — some of the most treatable terrain in anxiety work.

Northern Virginia context

The DC metro is one of the highest-pressure regions in the country. Demanding careers in healthcare, law, consulting, tech, and academia carry a kind of weight that's hard to put down — a recipe for anxiety that has nowhere to go. Military families add the ongoing stress of deployments, relocations, and reintegration. And new parents in a high-achieving culture often carry the additional pressure of making it all look effortless.

If this is your world, you don't need to explain why you're anxious. You need a space to actually do something about it. Telehealth sessions from wherever you are mean no commute, no rearranging your schedule, no juggling childcare or office hours — just a real hour to work on what matters.

OCD Specialist & ERP Trained
Specialty area

Perinatal OCD, and OCD in all its forms.

OCD is one of the most misunderstood and underdiagnosed conditions in mental health — particularly during pregnancy and the postpartum period, when it often looks very different from what most people picture when they hear "OCD."

Perinatal OCD doesn't usually involve counting, checking, or organizing. It typically looks like this: intrusive, unwanted thoughts about harm coming to the baby — thoughts so disturbing and so at odds with who you are that you become terrified of your own mind. The thoughts feel shameful and impossible to admit. And because they don't fit the stereotype of OCD, they often get misdiagnosed as postpartum depression, or missed entirely.

Here's what's important to understand: having these thoughts does not mean you would ever act on them. In fact, the distress they cause is part of what makes them OCD. People with perinatal OCD are not dangerous — they are suffering. And they deserve a therapist who knows the difference.

OCD outside the perinatal period is also an area I work with — including harm OCD, checking OCD, contamination OCD, and other presentations. OCD is a specialty that requires specific training, and I treat it as such.

The gold-standard treatment

ERP — Exposure and Response Prevention — is the most evidence-based treatment for OCD and the approach recommended by OCD specialists and the International OCD Foundation. Unlike general anxiety therapy, OCD requires a specific method: gradually exposing you to anxiety-provoking situations while resisting the compulsion to neutralize the discomfort. It's challenging work, and it works.

What perinatal OCD can look like
  • Intrusive thoughts about harming the baby
  • Fear of being left alone with the baby
  • Compulsive checking
  • Reassurance-seeking that never brings lasting relief
  • Avoiding objects like knives or stairs
  • Intrusive thoughts about illness or contamination
My background

As a PMH-C certified perinatal mental health specialist, I have specific training in how OCD presents during pregnancy and the postpartum period — and how to treat it without making the anxiety worse. This is a space where generalist OCD knowledge isn't enough.

A note from Geraldine
"OCD thrives in silence.
You don't have to suffer alone."

So many people carry these thoughts alone for months — sometimes years — terrified that saying them out loud will change how someone sees them. I have heard these thoughts before. They don't change how I see you. They tell me you're suffering — not who you are. This is a safe place to say the thing you've been afraid to say.

Schedule a free consultation
Treatment approach

How we work together, for the life you actually live.

There's no single protocol that fits every anxious person. My approach draws on several evidence-based methods, combined based on what your particular anxiety responds to. Here's what that looks like in practice.

CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Most anxiety involves patterns of thinking that feed the fear — catastrophizing, overestimating threat, underestimating your ability to cope. CBT gives you tools to identify these patterns and interrupt them. It's structured, practical, and gives you skills to take with you long after therapy ends.

MBI Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Mindfulness isn't about eliminating anxious thoughts — it's about changing your relationship to them. When you stop fighting your anxiety and learn to observe it instead, it loses some of its power. Mindfulness-based approaches help you carry anxiety differently, even when it's still present.

EMDR Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

When anxiety is rooted in past experiences — even ones that don't feel obviously "traumatic" — EMDR can help the nervous system complete what it got stuck on. It's particularly useful when CBT alone hasn't gotten to the root of the anxiety, or when the body's response to anxiety is as difficult as the thoughts themselves.

PE Psychoeducation

Understanding how your own mind works is therapeutic. When you learn why your brain produces intrusive thoughts, how the anxiety cycle maintains itself, and what your nervous system is actually trying to do — the symptoms become less terrifying and more workable. For OCD in particular, psychoeducation is often where real relief begins.

What becomes possible

"What if anxiety was something you managed — instead of something that managed you?"

What life looks like when anxiety stops running the show.

Morning light breaking over dew-covered grass
A quieter mind at rest

The constant background hum of worry softens. You can sit with uncertainty without needing to resolve it immediately. You can fall asleep without running through everything that could go wrong.

A body that doesn't brace

The physical tension, the tight chest, the stomach knot — these ease as your nervous system learns it doesn't need to be on constant alert. You start to feel at home in your own body again.

More presence in your relationships

When you're not half-distracted by anxiety, you can actually show up. You have more patience. You stop snapping. The people in your life notice — and so do you.

Room to make decisions clearly

Anxiety turns every decision into a crisis. With less of it, you can weigh options, tolerate uncertainty, and make choices without the spiral that used to follow. You trust yourself more.

A wider life

The places you'd stopped going, the situations you'd started avoiding — they become possible again. Your world expands instead of contracts.

Tools you actually own

Therapy isn't indefinite. The point is to give you skills that work when I'm not in the room — and long after our work together ends.

Getting started

What it looks like to begin.

You don't need to have everything figured out before you reach out. Most people come in knowing only that anxiety has been taking up too much space. That's enough to start.

1
Free 15-minute consultation

We talk about what you've been experiencing, what you're hoping for, and whether this feels like the right fit. No pressure, no commitment — just a real conversation.

2
First sessions: getting to know your anxiety

Early sessions focus on understanding your specific patterns — what triggers the anxiety, how it shows up in your body and your thoughts, and what's been keeping it going. This isn't just background information; it's the foundation for everything that follows.

3
Active treatment, at your pace

We build skills, work through patterns, and gradually expand what feels tolerable. Progress isn't always linear — anxiety tends to spike before it settles — but it happens. Sessions are 50 minutes via secure video from anywhere in Virginia.

Want to know more about who you'd be working with? Read about Geraldine's background, training, and approach to anxiety and OCD →
Virginia scheduling

Morning sessions available: 6am through 4pm

Virginia sessions run 6am through 4pm — including early morning slots for before-work clients and lunch hour appointments.

6–8am
Before work
While the house is still quiet
Lunch
Midday reset
Step away, come back grounded
Virginia insurance

Most major Virginia plans accepted.

All Virginia billing is handled through Headway — a platform that verifies your benefits upfront and handles claims, so your out-of-pocket costs are clear before your first session. No paperwork on your end.

Aetna CareFirst BCBS Kaiser Permanente Quest Behavioral Health Carelon Behavioral Health

Out-of-network superbills available upon request. Serving clients across Northern Virginia: Fairfax, Arlington, McLean, Reston, Alexandria, Herndon, Centreville, Woodbridge, and all of Virginia via telehealth.

Common questions

Things people often wonder before reaching out.

I've been anxious my whole life. Is it actually possible to change?

Yes — and this is probably the question I hear most often. A lifelong pattern of anxiety doesn't mean it's fixed. It usually means it's been well-practiced and hasn't had the right kind of intervention. Anxiety is one of the most treatment-responsive conditions in mental health. Most people notice meaningful change within a few months of consistent work. The goal isn't to become a completely different person — it's to change your relationship with anxiety so it takes up less of your life.

I keep having intrusive thoughts I can't control — scary images, worst-case scenarios, things I would never want to happen. Is something wrong with me?

No — and the fact that these thoughts disturb you is actually meaningful. Intrusive thoughts are unwanted, distressing mental images or scenarios that pop into your mind against your will. What makes them OCD — rather than just worry — is the way they hook you, the desperate need to neutralize them, and the shame and fear that follows. The distress these thoughts cause is not a sign of danger. It's a sign that they are completely out of line with your values. Intrusive thoughts are treatable, and you deserve support from someone who understands the difference between a thought and who you are. I have heard these thoughts before, and I will not be shocked or alarmed. This is exactly the kind of thing I work with.

Will you explain to me what's actually happening in my brain? I feel like understanding it would help.

Yes — and you're right that it would. Psychoeducation is a core part of how I work, especially with OCD and anxiety. Many clients feel immediate relief just from learning that their brain has a name for what it's doing, that it's a well-understood pattern, and that other people experience it too. When you understand that OCD is essentially a misfiring alarm system — not a reflection of who you are or what you secretly want — the thoughts become much less powerful.

What's the difference between seeing you for anxiety versus seeing any therapist?

Most therapists can offer supportive care for anxiety. What I bring specifically is training in evidence-based anxiety treatments — CBT, mindfulness-based approaches, EMDR, and ERP for OCD — combined with specialty training in perinatal mental health (PMH-C). If your anxiety is connected to pregnancy, postpartum, or parenting, or if you suspect you may have OCD, those specialties matter. General therapy can help. Specialty care helps more efficiently.

I'm a high-functioning person. I'm managing. Do I really need therapy?

"High-functioning" anxiety is real — and it's exhausting precisely because you're maintaining so much while carrying so much. The fact that you're managing doesn't mean this is as good as it gets. Most of my clients describe themselves exactly this way before they start: holding everything together, doing fine on the outside, but privately running on fumes. Therapy isn't for people who are falling apart. It's for people who are tired of working this hard just to stay okay.

Do you only see clients in Northern Virginia, or anywhere in Virginia?

Anywhere in Virginia. All sessions are by secure video, so I work just as readily with clients in Fairfax, Arlington, McLean, Reston, Alexandria, Herndon, Centreville, and Woodbridge as I do with clients in Richmond, Charlottesville, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, or rural parts of the state. You only need to be a Virginia resident.

PSI Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional (PMH-C)
Specialized training

Certified by Postpartum Support International

PMH-C is the leading certification in perinatal mental health. For anxiety and OCD that show up during pregnancy and postpartum, that training is essential — generalist OCD care often misses what's happening, or treats it in ways that backfire during the perinatal period.

Learn more about PSI →
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What clients & colleagues say

Clients who found their calm.

★★★★★

"Geraldine is a compassionate perinatal therapist that specializes in pregnancy and postpartum support for new moms. She helps clients heal from perinatal OCD and trauma using EMDR therapy, offering a warm, empowering space for growth. Highly recommend."

— J.L.B.
★★★★★

"Geraldine is a warm, dedicated therapist who supports women through the transition into motherhood. She helps with postpartum depression, pregnancy anxiety, trauma, perinatal OCD, and the many challenges new moms face — always with compassion and care."

— K.R.

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You've been managing long enough

What if you didn't have to
work this hard just to be okay?

A free 15-minute consultation is the first step — no commitment, no pressure. Just a conversation about where you are and whether this feels like the right fit.

Book via Headway Free 15-min consultation

Telehealth · Virginia licensed · OCD & ERP trained · PMH-C certified · Currently accepting new clients