Veronica Thornton, LPC
Therapist
Veronica Thornton, LPCClinical Supervisor, EMDR Trauma Therapist & Holistic Psychotherapist
"Trauma changes us and the way we see the world. Surviving it makes you resilient — but it can also leave you feeling disconnected."
Book a 30-minutes consultation call with Veronica
Veronica's Specialties
Young Professionals
Women in Mid-life
BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ Clients
Who she works with
You've done the therapy. You understand your trauma. So why does it still feel like you're living with it? Maybe you can recognize your triggers, explain your attachment patterns, and understand exactly how your childhood or trauma shaped you. Yet you still find yourself stuck in painful relationships, struggling to trust, shutting down or feeling intense emotions take over, feeling disconnected from yourself or have a harsh negative inner voice, or feel like something is holding you back from the life you've worked so hard to build. You've learned how to survive and function, but you still find yourself struggling and are tired of it.
Veronica specializes in helping women heal from complex trauma, childhood and developmental trauma, attachment wounds, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. She understands how deeply these experiences can shape your sense of safety, self-worth, relationships, and even your physical well-being. Whether you're struggling with persistent anxiety, emotional disconnection, chronic stress, attachment/ relationship anxiety, or patterns of emotions/ reactions rooted in past trauma such as appeasing others, making yourself small, protecting yourself, pushing others away, Veronica helps you go beyond identifying patterns to processing the experiences that created them. Her work is especially suited to women who have tried therapy before, gained valuable insight, but are now ready to do the deeper work of healing to overcome the recurring distress —so their past no longer has to dictate what's possible in their future.
Women Navigating Racism, Discrimination & Workplace Harassment
When you're experiencing racism, discrimination, or harassment at work or in your everyday life, it can feel like you're constantly having to choose between standing up for yourself and protecting your peace, relationships, or career. You may find yourself questioning whether to speak up, worrying about the consequences, second-guessing your experiences, or feeling angry, anxious, and exhausted from having to navigate it all. Veronica supports women experiencing racial trauma, workplace harassment, and discrimination, helping them make sense of what's happening, validate their experiences, navigate difficult decisions, establish boundaries, and develop strategies to protect their emotional well-being. Together, you'll explore how to reclaim your voice, confidence, and sense of agency while navigating circumstances that may not be entirely within your control.
Grieving a Complicated Loss or Navigating Painful Family Relationships
What happens when the person you've lost was your only safe place in the world? Or when the person you're grieving was also someone who hurt you? Grief isn't always straightforward, especially when a death leaves behind unresolved conflict, complicated attachment, trauma, or feelings of guilt, anger, and love that are difficult to reconcile. You may feel stuck between missing someone deeply and struggling with painful memories of the relationship, or find yourself grieving not only the person who died but also the relationship you wished you'd had.
Veronica supports women navigating complex grief, traumatic loss, and the death of loved ones with whom they shared complicated relationships. She helps clients make space for conflicting emotions, process unresolved relational wounds, and find ways to carry their loss without feeling consumed by it. She also works with women navigating difficult family dynamics, the emotional burden of loving someone with significant mental health challenges, and the loneliness that can develop after years of painful or unsafe relationships. Her work helps clients explore how these experiences have shaped their connections with others and begin building relationships, community, and a sense of belonging that feel safe and fulfilling.
How she works
Veronica's approach takes therapy beyond simply understanding your trauma to changing how it continues to affect your life. As an EMDR trauma therapist, she helps clients process painful experiences that continue to shape how they feel, relate to others, and see themselves—often keeping them stuck in patterns they understand but struggle to change. Drawing on EMDR, somatic interventions, mindfulness, psychodynamic therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Veronica helps clients work through trauma at a deeper level, addressing the emotional and physical responses, as well as the negative beliefs about themselves and the world, that can persist long after an experience is over.
Education is also an important part of working with Veronica, but it goes beyond simply identifying your patterns. She helps you understand how trauma affects the brain, body, and nervous system, why certain responses persist, and what's happening as you work through them in therapy. Whether she's explaining the connection between trauma and physical symptoms or exploring how cultural experiences and racial identity influence your sense of self, Veronica makes complex psychological concepts accessible and relevant to your life and healing. Clients often tell her, “I always learn so much in our sessions.” She believes you deserve to understand the work you're doing together—not just be told what techniques to practice. Her goal is to help you not only process what you've been through, but also develop the knowledge, confidence, and tools to navigate challenges independently, long after therapy ends.
[Needs Veronica's own quote — nothing invented here yet. Pull from her "What it's like to work with her" answer once she supplies one.]
Training & Credentials
MS in Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina
Master's in Counseling, Regent University
Licensed Professional Counselor — Washington, DC
Specialized Postgraduate Training in EMDR Therapy
What a first session is like
After your free 30-minute consultation, if it feels like the right fit, you will schedule your first full 50–55-minute session.
For individual therapy, the first few sessions are a chance to begin developing a fuller, more holistic understanding of what you are facing now. John will learn about your history, when the current concerns began or became more difficult, what has shaped them, and what you have already tried. Together, you will start to make sense of the larger context around your experiences and identify where the work can begin.
If that sounds like what you are looking for, book a 30-minute consultation call with Veronica.
Questions people ask Veronica
-
Yes. You do not need to decide whether your experience “counts” as trauma or be ready to describe every detail before beginning therapy. Veronica offers trauma-informed therapy at a pace that feels manageable, helping clients make sense of how past experiences may be affecting their safety, relationships, body, or daily life. You remain in control of what you share and when.
-
EMDR is a structured form of trauma therapy that can help people process distressing memories and reduce the impact those experiences continue to have in the present. Veronica is trained in EMDR and will begin by getting to know you, your goals, and what feels manageable before deciding together whether EMDR is a good fit for your therapy. You do not need to be ready to recount every detail of what happened to begin the conversation. You can read more about EMDR here.
-
No. Veronica works with the many ways trauma and attachment disruption show up — in mood, in the body, in how safe a relationship feels — whether that traces back to one event or to a longer pattern.
-
Veronica currently only has availabilty for self-pay clients at our practice. We provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance plan for possible out-of-network reimbursement and have also partnered with Reimbusify to make this process seamless.
You can check your out-of-network benefits here. This can tell you whether therapy is covered in our Out-of-network benefits and what reimbursement may be available to you through your insurance for your session fees.
We understand therapy can be a investment in yourself and do not take that lightly, which is why our therapists are specialized and will make sure they have the tools to help you meet your goals.
-
Yes. You do not need to have a label for what happened, decide whether to report it, or know exactly how to talk about it before reaching out. Veronica works with survivors of sexual violence and offers a confidential, nonjudgmental space to explore your experience at your own pace. She will explain the limits of confidentiality in terms of legal and crisis safety-related exceptions to confidentiality at the beginning of your work together so you know.
-
We set goals at the outset, look t progress together and how much distress you’re feeling. When you’re done, you’ll experience significantly less distress.
-
Memory is flat, loses its emotional charge, may feel more like in the background. eveyone’s brain has a different way of being done with a memory. you’l walk away with a empowered, helpful self-belief walking away from the memor.
Book a free consultation call
No waitlists and no phone tag. Pick a time that suits you to speak to Veronica.
