Vienna · Virginia
Trauma therapy in Vienna, VA
Trauma therapy with an AASECT-certified specialist, for individuals and couples in Vienna and across Vienna, Tysons and central Fairfax County.
Trauma therapy in Vienna treats the lasting effects of frightening or violating experience — hypervigilance, numbness, intrusive memory, and the way intimacy and sex often carry the cost. The work is paced by you, held by secure video, and the first 15-minute consultation is free.
Who you would be working with
Vanessa Cushing, LPC, NCC, MS — AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist, MS from Johns Hopkins University. Fewer than one in a thousand licensed therapists in the United States hold AASECT certification.
If this is the year you deal with it, start with a conversation rather than a commitment.
Why Vienna clients come here
Vienna clients are frequently dual-career couples in their thirties and forties whose relationship works well administratively and has been quietly sexless for a year or more. Nothing is in crisis, which is exactly why it goes unaddressed for so long.
Vienna sits inside Vienna, Tysons and central Fairfax County, and the practical problem is supply rather than demand: there are very few AASECT-certified clinicians in the region, and most general therapists list intimacy as one interest among twenty. That gap is why this work is done by video for clients across Virginia rather than out of a single office.
What trauma therapy treats
- Sexual assault, coercion and boundary violation, recent or decades old
- Childhood sexual, physical or emotional abuse
- Sexual difficulty that traces back to something that happened, not to anything wrong with your body
- Dissociation, freezing or leaving your body during sex
- Hypervigilance, startle, sleep disruption and intrusive memory
- Medical and birth trauma, including procedures that were experienced as violating
- Betrayal trauma after infidelity or discovered deception
- Shame that has been carried privately for years without being said out loud
How the work is structured
- Stabilisation first. Before any detailed account of what happened, the work is on capacity — sleep, grounding, what to do when the reaction arrives. Going faster than that re-injures people, which is why some previous therapy has made clients feel worse.
- You decide what gets told, and when. There is no requirement to narrate the event to be treated.
- Parts-based and IFS-informed work, then a gradual return to intimacy and sex where that is part of the picture — at a pace you set, with an explicit right to stop.
Pacing is the treatment. Nothing is pushed, no account is required, and the explicit right to stop or slow down is part of the frame rather than a concession.
Sessions, privacy and location
The Virginia licence covers the whole Commonwealth, so clients in Richmond, Virginia Beach, Roanoke and Charlottesville are seen by secure video on the same terms as clients in the D.C. suburbs.
There is no in-person office in Vienna. Sessions are held by secure, HIPAA-compliant video — which is how the majority of this practice's clients are seen, by preference rather than necessity. No waiting room, no drive across Vienna, Tysons and central Fairfax County, and the exercises get practised at home where they belong.
Also available in Vienna
- Sex therapy in Vienna — sexual difficulty specifically
- Couples therapy in Vienna — the pattern between you
Nearby in Virginia
- Trauma therapy in McLean — McLean, Great Falls and the Fairfax County corridor
- Trauma therapy in Great Falls — Great Falls and western Fairfax County
Worth reading first
- Trauma therapy across Virginia
- What sex therapy actually is
- AASECT-certified vs. non-certified
- Does insurance cover therapy like this?
- Out-of-network benefits, explained
Questions Vienna clients ask
Do you see clients in Vienna?
Yes. Vanessa Cushing is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, so anyone physically located in Virginia at the time of the session can be seen — Vienna included, along with Tysons, Oakton, Falls Church. Sessions are held by secure video; there is no office in Vienna, and that is stated plainly rather than implied otherwise.
What does the free consultation involve?
Booking is a free 15-minute consultation, held by video, with no obligation to continue. You will speak with Vanessa directly rather than an intake coordinator, and you can ask about fees, confidentiality and whether Vienna residents are seen before committing to anything.
Do I have to describe what happened?
No. Plenty of effective trauma work happens without a detailed account. What is needed is your read on how it still affects you now. If and when you want to say more, that becomes possible rather than required.
Why see someone who is also a sex therapist?
Because the sexual consequences of trauma are where most general trauma therapy stops, and most sex therapy is not trauma-trained. Holding both means you do not have to split the problem across two clinicians who each treat half of it.
Do you take insurance?
This is an out-of-network practice. Superbills are provided on request and many plans reimburse a share of the fee under out-of-network benefits; the insurance guide walks through how to check yours before your first session. Fees are discussed openly in the free consultation.
How private is this?
Sessions are held over a HIPAA-compliant video platform, records are kept to the clinical minimum, and nothing is disclosed to an employer, an insurer you have not billed, or anyone else without your written authorisation. This comes up constantly with Vienna clients and it is a fair question to ask in detail during the consultation.
Trauma therapy in Vienna starts with a free 15-minute consultation with Vanessa — not an intake form, not a waiting list.