About Emily

Dr. Emily Fornwalt, PhD

Practicing therapy since 2005

counseling for Professional moms and women Going through divorce

→ Online in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, & Iowa

Dr. Emily Fornwalt casual outside headshot.

You take good care of everyone else, and I’d like to help you treat yourself the same way.

A lot of women I work with are very good at getting through the day.

You run the meeting, answer the school email, make dinner, manage the next problem, and keep moving. Then the house gets quiet, a text comes in, someone asks one more thing of you, or you finally sit down, and the grief, anger, fear, or exhaustion you’ve been pushing down all day shows up, all at once.

In our sessions, we won’t only talk about those feelings from a distance. I’ll pay attention to what happens as you talk: when your jaw tightens, your hands clench, your voice changes when you get to the part you usually skip over, or you start explaining away a painful moment. I’ll help you notice the point where you start minimizing what hurt, taking care of everyone else’s reaction, or moving immediately into problem-solving.

That’s usually where the part of the story that needs attention gets glossed over.

Over time, you’ll start to notice the warning signs earlier: the clenched jaw, the racing thoughts, the urge to send the harsh reply, or the moment you’re about to snap because one more request feels like too much.

You’ll have more room to pause, understand what’s happening, and decide how you want to respond, whether you’re dealing with a hard conversation at home, a difficult co-parenting exchange, or another demand at the end of a long workday.

What You can expect from me in our sessions:

You can tell me when I get something wrong.

I don’t expect to get everything right. If I misunderstand you, miss the point, say something that lands badly, or accidentally remind you of someone you don’t like, I want to know.

I’ll check in, I’ll listen, and I’ll own it if I got something wrong.

You get to decide what fits your life.

I’ve got training, experience, and a lot of curiosity. You’re the expert on your own life.

That doesn’t mean you have to know exactly what you need or have everything figured out. It means I’m not going to act like I know you better than you know yourself. I won’t hand you a list of rules for who you should be, either.

We’ll figure things out together, including what feels useful, what feels like too much, and what you want from the therapy process.

You can bring all of who you are into our sessions.

I don’t know your exact experience of living in the world, but you are welcomed fully as you are.

Depending on your ethnic identity, gender identity and expression, neurodivergence, sexual orientation, relationship structure, and all the other overlapping ways that you are you, we likely experience the world very differently.

I will work hard to understand as best as I can what your experience is like, while also understanding that I can never know fully. This means I acknowledge that I move through the world with more ease than many people who experience racism and other oppressive systems and we can talk about that in our sessions.

→ Click here to read more about my education, credentials, and professional background.

Tree with multicolored hiking blazes painted on its trunk.
Close up of several sunflowers in a large field of sunflowers.
A collage of 5 casual images of Dr. Emily Fornwalt, entitled "Who is Emily?" One depicts hiking, another running, another traveling.

My background

I’ve spent over 20 years teaching, supervising, and providing therapy.

  • I’m trained in providing several types of therapy which allow me to approach our work integratively, but with purpose. These include:

    • Interpersonal Neurobiology

    • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

    • Play Therapy & Child-Parent Relationship Therapy

    • PhD in Counseling, UNC Charlotte

    • Tennessee: LPC-MHSP #5318

    • North Carolina: LCMHC-S #S6459

    • Virginia: LPC #0701013449

    • Iowa: LMHC #140678

    • South Carolina: Professional Counselor Telehealth Provider #TLC 214 PC

    • Registered Play Therapy Supervisor: RPT-S #T2008

    • Board-certified TeleMental Health Provider: BC-TMH-3701

    • National Provider Identifier (NPI): 1083745434

    • Board Certified Telemental Health Provider

    • Approved Clinical Supervisor

    • National Certified Counselor

    • Level II AEDP Therapist

let’s get started.

If you’re looking for a skilled and seasoned therapist who will take you seriously, be straight with you, laugh with you when it fits, and make room for the complicated parts of your life, I’d love to work with you.

Contact Emily