Is there an EMDR therapy office in Washington DC?

No. Washington DC clients are seen virtually by secure video. Clients who prefer in-person therapy have many options within the District.

What is the difference between PTSD and complex PTSD?

PTSD typically follows a discrete traumatic event or events. Complex PTSD develops from prolonged, repeated exposure, often in childhood and often involving a caregiver or someone the person depended on. Complex PTSD more pervasively affects identity, emotional regulation and relationships, and requires a longer, more carefully paced treatment approach.

I tried EMDR before and it did not help. Is it worth trying again?

Often yes. The most common reason EMDR stalls is that reprocessing began before the client had sufficient stability to tolerate it, which is a preparation problem rather than a sign that EMDR is ineffective for that person. Other common causes include incorrect target selection, unrecognized dissociation, and looping misread as resistance.

Can my therapist still see me if I move from DC to Maryland or Virginia?

Only if the therapist is licensed where the client is physically located during sessions, since telehealth licensure follows the client's location. Jordan Nodelman is independently licensed in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, so a move within the DMV does not interrupt care.

How much does EMDR therapy cost in Washington DC?

The intake session is $250 and ongoing 60-minute sessions are $225. Some commercial insurance plans are accepted in Washington DC. Superbills are available for out-of-network reimbursement, and private pay is an option for clients who prefer that nothing be submitted to an insurer.

Do you take insurance in Washington DC?

Yes, some commercial insurance plans are accepted for Washington DC clients. Participation changes over time, so the practice's insurance and FAQ page is the authoritative source. Superbills for out-of-network reimbursement and private pay are also available.

Why are sessions 60 minutes instead of 50?

EMDR reprocessing does not reliably fit within a 50-minute session, and ending a session while a client is still processing is clinically poor practice. The 60-minute session length is a clinical decision rather than a billing one.

EMDR Therapy in Washington, DC

Q: Do I have to describe my trauma in detail during EMDR?

No. EMDR does not require detailed verbal narration of events. A client needs to be able to bring the memory to mind, not describe it. This is one reason EMDR suits people whose work is classified, privileged or otherwise confidential.

Q: How long does EMDR therapy take?

It depends on what is being treated. A single-incident trauma in an otherwise stable adult may resolve in relatively few reprocessing sessions. Complex or developmental trauma takes considerably longer, largely because the preparation phase does.

Trauma and PTSD treatment from an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant — virtual, licensed in DC, Maryland and Virginia

I’m Jordan Nodelman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LCSW, BCD. I treat trauma, PTSD and anxiety using EMDR, and I work with Washington DC clients by secure video.

Two things worth knowing before you read further. My practice is virtual for DC clients — I don’t have an office in the District. And it’s just me. You won’t be assessed by an intake coordinator and assigned to whoever has a Thursday slot. The person you talk to first is the person you work with.

[Request a consultation → Click Here] or Call 754-946-6600

What EMDR actually is

EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — is an evidence-based treatment for trauma recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the World Health Organization.

The premise is that some memories never finish processing. Rather than settling into the past as something that happened, they stay live — holding their original emotional, physical and sensory charge. Recalling them isn’t remembering so much as re-entering. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation while you hold the memory in mind, which appears to let the brain complete processing it couldn’t finish at the time.

The memory doesn’t disappear. What changes is its grip on your body.

The Standard EMDR Protocol is not a technique. It’s an eight-phase treatment, and the phases matter:

History and treatment planning — what happened, how you adapted, what we’re actually targeting
Preparation — building the internal resources and regulation capacity to do this safely
Assessment — identifying the specific memory, image, belief and body sensation
Desensitization — reprocessing with bilateral stimulation
Installation — strengthening the adaptive belief that replaces the old one
Body scan — checking for residual physical activation
Closure — returning you to stability at the end of every session
Re-evaluation — checking what held, and what surfaced

Most EMDR that fails, fails in phases 1 and 2. Which brings me to the thing I most want you to understand. EMDR is more than just about the Standard Protocol, which is why seeking out an EMDRIA Approved Consultant for your care matters.

Why EMDR sometimes doesn’t work

I’m an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant — credentialed to train and certify other clinicians in EMDR. Therapists pursuing EMDRIA certification complete their required consultation hours with people at this level, and a significant part of my professional life is helping other clinicians untangle cases that have stopped moving.

So I see the failure patterns constantly, and they’re consistent:

Reprocessing started too early. The most common one by far. A client who couldn’t yet tolerate the activation was taken into phase 4 anyway, destabilized, and concluded EMDR doesn’t work for them. What actually happened is that phase 2 was rushed.

The target was wrong. Memories were sequenced by chronology rather than by charge. The earliest memory isn’t automatically the right first target.

Dissociation went unrecognized at intake and surfaced mid-protocol.

Looping was read as resistance. Processing that circles rather than resolves is usually telling you something — a feeder memory, a blocking belief, a part of the system that hasn’t agreed to this.

If you’ve tried EMDR before and it didn’t go the way you hoped, that history is diagnostic information, not a verdict. It’s often the most useful thing you bring me.

I spend real time in phases 1 and 2. With complex trauma, that groundwork is the treatment, not the throat-clearing before it.

Who I work with in DC

Washington runs on people who are capable, discreet, and practiced at not showing strain. My practice is built around that.

Federal employees and the contracting world — including, in recent years, people navigating genuine instability in careers they’d expected to be stable.

Congressional and committee staff — young, chronically overextended, working in a culture where admitting you’re struggling reads as a liability.

Lawyers, lobbyists and policy professionals — where the hours are the job and the pressure is constant.

Journalists and advocacy workers — including people exposed to traumatic material as a routine condition of the work. Vicarious and secondary trauma is real, it accumulates, and it’s frequently dismissed by the people experiencing it because “I wasn’t the one it happened to.”

Defense, intelligence and cleared professionals — see below.

LGBTQ+ clients — a substantial part of my practice. [More on LGBTQ+ affirming therapy → Click Here]

What usually brings people in isn’t a crisis. It’s that the strategies that built the career — compartmentalizing, pushing through, staying three steps ahead — have started costing more than they return.

Will therapy affect my security clearance?

One of the most common reasons people in this city delay getting help, so let’s be direct.

According to Department of Defense guidance, seeking mental health care is not by itself a reason for a clearance to be denied, and an interim clearance cannot be denied solely because someone answered “yes” to Question 21 on the SF-86. Adjudicators are concerned with whether a condition impairs judgment or reliability — and official guidance frames seeking treatment as evidence of good judgment rather than the opposite.

Question 21 asks about consultations with a health care professional for an emotional or mental health condition in the past seven years. It carries specific exceptions, including counseling for marital, family or grief concerns not related to violence by you, adjustment following service in a military combat zone, and being a victim of sexual assault.

I’m not a clearance attorney and can’t advise on your specific circumstances — your facility security officer or a clearance attorney is the right source. But this concern comes up often enough that I’d rather address it here than have it keep someone from calling.

If your work can’t be discussed

A lot of Washington’s work is classified, privileged, embargoed or simply off the record. Many people assume that rules therapy out.

EMDR doesn’t require detailed verbal disclosure. You need to be able to bring an experience to mind. You do not need to narrate it to me. We work with what it did to you — the physical response, the belief it installed, the thing your nervous system now does automatically — rather than the operational content.

For cleared professionals, attorneys, journalists protecting sources and people in diplomatic roles, that distinction is often what makes treatment possible at all.

What I treat

PTSD and complex trauma — single incidents, and the accumulated developmental kind that never had a name.

PTSD triggers — a sound, a smell, a tone of voice, and your body responds as though the original event were happening now. Triggers aren’t overreactions; they’re a threat-detection system that learned something and was never told it was over. [More on PTSD triggers → Click Here]

High-functioning anxiety — invisible from outside, which is how most of this city carries it. Constant scanning, difficulty being still, physical symptoms with no medical explanation.

Imposter syndrome and negative core beliefs — endemic in a place organized around proximity to power. “If they really knew me” doesn’t respond to reassurance, because it wasn’t installed by argument. [More on imposter syndrome → Click Here]

Compartmentalized trauma — sealed away years ago so you could function, now surfacing. It tends to fail gradually and then suddenly. [More on compartmentalizing trauma → Click Here]

Burnout and moral injury — particularly for people who came here to do something that mattered and found the institution wouldn’t let them. Burnout responds to rest. Moral injury doesn’t. [More on moral injury → Click Here]

ADHD and the shame of masking — especially in adults who compensated well enough that nobody noticed, including them. [More on ADHD and shame → Click Here]

Licensed in DC, Maryland and Virginia

Telehealth licensure follows where you are physically located during a session — not where your therapist is, and not where you live.

In most of the country that’s trivia. Here it decides whether your therapist can legally see you. You might live in Silver Spring, work downtown, and spend Thursdays at a client site in Tysons. A therapist licensed only in DC cannot hold your session from your kitchen table in Maryland.

I hold independent licenses in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, so your care continues wherever you are — and it continues if you move across the river, which in this city people constantly do.

[More on why multi-jurisdiction licensing matters here → Click Here]

Serving Washington DC

Sessions are virtual, so I work with clients throughout the District — Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Navy Yard, Logan Circle, Shaw, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Foggy Bottom, Petworth, Cleveland Park, H Street and the rest.

I also work with clients across [Maryland] and [Virginia]. [More on the DMV practice.]

Fees and insurance

Intake session: $250. This is the longer first appointment where we take history, build a picture of what’s happening, and decide together whether I’m the right clinician for it.

Ongoing sessions: $225 for 55 minutes.

I accept some commercial insurance in DC. Which plans changes over time, so check the insurance and FAQ page for the current list, or ask when you reach out.

If you’re using out-of-network benefits, I can provide a superbill for reimbursement. Some clients prefer private pay so that no diagnosis is submitted to an insurer — that option is always available.

A note on the 55-minute session: the standard in this field is 45 or 50 minutes. EMDR reprocessing doesn’t fit neatly into that, and ending a session mid-processing is both clinically poor and unpleasant. The extra time is a clinical decision, not an upsell.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have an office in Washington DC? No. DC clients are seen virtually by secure video. If in-person therapy is important to you, DC has excellent practices and that may be the better fit.

Is online EMDR as effective as in-person EMDR? For most clients, yes. Virtual EMDR uses adapted forms of bilateral stimulation, and roughly three-quarters of my EMDR caseload has been virtual since 2020. Significant dissociation is the main presentation that warrants careful assessment before proceeding virtually.

Will therapy affect my security clearance? According to Department of Defense guidance, seeking mental health care is not by itself a reason for a clearance to be denied, and adjudicators focus on whether a condition impairs judgment. SF-86 Question 21 carries specific exceptions, including counseling for marital, family or grief concerns not related to violence, and being a victim of sexual assault. For your specific situation, consult your security officer or a clearance attorney.

Do I have to describe what happened in detail? No. EMDR doesn’t require detailed verbal narration. You need to be able to bring the memory to mind, not describe it. This is one of the main reasons people choose EMDR over exposure-based approaches, and it matters especially for people whose work is confidential.

How long does EMDR take? It depends on what we’re treating. A single-incident trauma in an otherwise stable adult may resolve in relatively few reprocessing sessions. Complex or developmental trauma takes considerably longer, mostly because preparation does. Any clinician who quotes you a number before assessing you is overpromising.

What’s the difference between PTSD and complex PTSD? PTSD typically follows a discrete event or events. Complex PTSD develops from prolonged, repeated exposure — often in childhood, often involving someone you depended on. It tends to affect identity, emotional regulation and relationships more pervasively, and it requires a longer, more carefully paced approach. Treating complex trauma on a single-incident timeline is a common way for EMDR to go wrong.

I tried EMDR before and it didn’t help. Is it worth trying again? Often, yes — and the details of what happened are useful. The most common reason EMDR stalls is that reprocessing began before the person had the stability to tolerate it. As an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant I spend a lot of my professional time on exactly these cases.

Do I need a diagnosis to start? No. You need something that isn’t working the way you want it to.

Can you see me if I move to Maryland or Virginia? Yes. I’m licensed in all three jurisdictions, so a move within the DMV doesn’t interrupt your care.

How much does therapy cost? The intake session is $250, and ongoing 60-minute sessions are $225. I accept some commercial insurance in DC; see the insurance and FAQ page for the current list. Superbills are available for out-of-network reimbursement, and private pay is an option for clients who prefer nothing be submitted to an insurer.

Do you take insurance in DC? Yes, some commercial plans. Participation changes over time, so the insurance and FAQ page is the authoritative source — or just ask when you get in touch.

Why are your sessions 60 minutes instead of 50? Because EMDR reprocessing doesn’t reliably fit into 50 minutes, and stopping a client mid-processing to watch the clock is poor practice. The longer hour is a clinical choice.

Get started

A short consultation call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You describe what’s going on; I tell you honestly whether I’m the right clinician for it — and if I’m not, I’ll say so and point you toward someone who is.

You’ll be talking to me, not to an intake coordinator.

[Request a consultation → Click Here] · Call 754-946-6600

Nodelman Counseling & Psychotherapy, LLC is not a crisis service. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. 988 is the free, 24-hour US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.