Specialized Psychotherapy for Anxiety, Trauma, and Chronic Pain
Depth-focused therapy for anxiety, trauma, and relational patterns — going beyond symptom management to resolve what's underneath.
Joseph Cooper, PhD
Going Beyond the Surface
Most therapy focuses on managing what's difficult — developing coping strategies, building insight, learning to tolerate distress. That work has value. But for many people, especially those who are intelligent, driven, and self-aware, it doesn't go far enough.
You've probably already read the books, tried the techniques, and understand your patterns better than most. What hasn't changed is the anxiety that won't fully quiet, the relationships that keep hitting the same walls, or the physical tension your body won't release.
My work is focused on what's underneath: the emotional conflicts, attachment wounds, and unconscious patterns that keep symptoms in place regardless of how much insight you've accumulated.
Drawing on Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) and somatic approaches, I work actively and collaboratively with clients to produce change that is deep, lasting, and real.
Areas of Focus
I provide specialized treatment for individuals experiencing persistent psychological distress, including:
Anxiety & Chronic Worry — Persistent anxiety, panic, rumination, and stress that hasn't resolved with coping-based approaches
Trauma & PTSD — Unresolved developmental, relational, or acute trauma driving anxiety, depression, or emotional dysregulation
Relationship & Attachment Patterns — Recurring difficulties with closeness, trust, conflict, or emotional intimacy
Chronic Pain & Somatic Symptoms — Medically unexplained pain, tension, headaches, or GI symptoms with emotional underpinnings
Depression & Internalized Shame — Persistent low mood, self-criticism, or deep-seated beliefs of inadequacy that haven't responded to standard treatment
Please see my FAQ’s to learn more about length of sessions, how I work, fees, etc.
Therapy Services
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Learn about the treatment of anxiety, stress, and worry in Washington, DC.
Anxiety that doesn't respond to coping strategies usually has deeper roots — in emotional conflict, learned patterns of self-protection, or unresolved experience the mind keeps circling. Anxiety therapy focuses on what's driving the symptoms, not just managing them.
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Learn about the effects and symptoms of trauma and its treatment in Washington, DC. .
Trauma reshapes how the nervous system works — and talking about it isn't always enough to change that. I use ISTDP and somatic approaches to work with trauma at the level where it actually lives: in the body, in emotion, and in the relational patterns it created.
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Learn about common relationship problems and their treatment in Washington, DC.
Relationship problems tend to repeat because they're driven by attachment patterns formed long before the current relationship. Therapy focuses on understanding those patterns deeply enough to actually change them — not just manage their fallout.
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Learn more about the treatment of somatization and chronic pain in Washington, DC. .
When pain persists without a clear medical explanation, the nervous system and emotional experience are usually part of the story. Chronic pain therapy explores the psychological and somatic drivers that standard medical treatment doesn't address.