Online counseling in Virginia
Counseling for Professional Moms in Arlington, Virgina
Therapy For overwhelmed working Moms
The meeting ran long, which means the train you wanted is already gone, and the next one’s going to put you at the daycare door late, again. You stand on the platform doing the math. Late fee versus Uber. Sweaty in a wrinkled blazer versus the look the assistant director gives you when you walk in last.
You walk in late anyway. Your kid’s at the table by the window, and he doesn’t look up the second time. The assistant director says, “Pickup’s at six sharp, Mom,” and you’ve heard that sentence enough times now that it sits in your chest like a bruise.
On the walk home you try to fix it with a cookie. He takes it, and three steps later he’s having a meltdown anyway. He didn’t want the cookie. He wanted you. You crouch down on the sidewalk and try to say all the right things, but what comes out is, “I just bought you a cookie, what else do you want?” His face crumples. The guilt hits before he even starts crying, and you apologize three times before you get to the door.
At bedtime you let him stall on water and bathroom and one more book because you’re still trying to make up for the sidewalk. By the time he’s asleep you’ve eaten a granola bar over the sink, opened the laptop because two emails have to go out tonight, and noticed your jaw’s been clenched long enough that it aches into your temple. You’re more wiped than if you’d just held the bedtime line. Tomorrow you’ll snap again.
You think I can’t keep doing this, but you keep doing it.
The same anxiety that’s making you snap at your kid is what got you here. The residency or the MBA or the bar. The security clearance, the senior promotion, the partner track at the firm or the lead job on a program nobody else wanted. You didn’t end up here by accident, you worked your way here. You learned to stay three steps ahead, to read the room and adjust before anyone noticed you had to. That was the skill, and it still is.
Now your body stays alert all day, every day. It reacts to your whiny three-year-old in the kitchen the same way it reacts to a tough meeting at work. Same urgency, same braced shoulders. The snap arrives before you’ve decided to snap.
Your body has been sending the same message for months: the wakeups, the jaw, the chest tightness. You’ve been telling yourself it’s just the season.
Why the Books, the meditation App, and the Last Therapist Didn’t stop the snapping
You’ve read Burnout and Fair Play and Drop the Ball, and you can explain them at a dinner party. You downloaded Headspace, bought the magnesium glycinate, tried the weighted blanket. You did therapy a few years ago and it was nice and you understood yourself better, and you’re still snapping at your kid and still waking up at 3am.
None of it stopped the snapping because the snap happens before you’ve had a chance to think. By the time you remember the technique from the book or open the meditation app, the snap has already happened.
What Changes in Your Week After Six to Twelve Months of Therapy With Me
You sleep through more nights than not, and you wake up with energy. Mornings stop being a slow drag toward coffee. You play with your kid for twenty minutes before work. You’re on the floor with him and you’re not mentally writing a Slack message.
You walk in to pick him up, and when you crouch down he tells you a long winding story about something that happened on the playground, and you hear it. You laugh at the part where a kid named Marcus told Lila she had to stop calling herself the line leader. You eat dinner together at the kitchen counter, and you remember it. The walk home is when you find out who your kid is becoming, not when you recover from work.
You have the conversation with your partner you’ve been avoiding for months, the one about how you’re splitting the work. You stay in it, you say what you mean, and by the end of it you’ve worked out a plan that changes something concrete about Tuesdays and Thursdays. You watch TV together that night instead of going to bed angry on opposite sides of the bed.
You sit through a tough meeting with the executives and your thoughts stay in the room. You’re not mentally working through your kid’s bedtime logistics while someone’s asking you a question. Your jaw’s loose, you hear what’s being said, you contribute, and you leave the meeting feeling like you said what you meant.
Sundays come back. The Sunday dread that used to start in the afternoon doesn’t show up anymore. By the time your kid’s in bed you’ve read forty pages of a book that has nothing to do with parenting or productivity. You make plans with a friend on Saturday night, and you don’t cancel.
The late-evening Slack notification still happens. You see it, you decide it can wait until morning, and you close the laptop. There’s no internal argument about whether to respond, no ten minutes of convincing yourself to put it down.
How Therapy With Me Changes the Snap Itself
I work with women who’ve already figured themselves out and are still snapping at their kids, still waking up at 3am, still doing all the right things and feeling depleted. I don’t do the version of therapy where you sit on a couch and tell the story of your week.
I’m trained in evidence-based approaches that help smart, self-aware women change responses they already understand but can’t seem to stop.
I keep a small caseload, around ten clients at a time, so I know your situation between sessions. If something comes up during the week, you can reach out. I won’t tell you to hold the thought until next Tuesday.
I see clients exclusively by telehealth, with no commute and no childcare for the appointment. You log on from home, from the office, sometimes from the car between meetings.
our sessions will be
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Collaborative: We will figure this out together. It won’t be one more thing your on to-do list for you to accomplish solo.
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Encouraging: Sometimes it’s hard to see your strengths when things feel so overwhelming. I know you have them, and I will help you name them. In case you’re wondering…yes, I have had folks roll their eyes at me for this.
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Real: I'll be honest with you; don’t worry, I don’t like how therapists sound on TV either. I’m confident that, if I inadvertently stumble into therapist cliché territory, one of us will call me out.
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Fun: I can pretty much guarantee we’ll laugh together—maybe even develop some inside jokes; it’s a good brain break and just the stress reliever I know you need.
i’m Emily.
About dr. emily fornwalt
Therapist for Professional Moms
I’m a licensed therapist in Virginia with a PhD in counseling from UNC Charlotte. I spent years in community mental health and academic teaching before opening my private practice, and a lot of those years studying what changes people and what doesn’t. The answer, it turns out, isn’t more insight.
I’m warm, and I’m honest. You can bring me the tired version of yourself, the angry version, the version that just yelled at her kid in the Target parking lot and is convinced she’s ruining her children. I won’t flinch, and I won’t judge you. I’ve sat with women whose lives looked exactly like yours, and not one of them was a bad mother.
Session Length, Fees, and How to Schedule
Sessions are 45 minutes, typically once per week, at $225 per session. Initial sessions are 90 minutes at $450.
Sessions are completely private pay. I don’t bill insurance, and I don’t provide the paperwork some practices give you to submit to your insurance for reimbursement.
I see clients exclusively by telehealth. You can be anywhere in Virginia with a stable internet connection.
how to start
Schedule your first session using the link below, which takes you to my private and secure calendar.
Complete intake paperwork that arrives by email.
Show up. That’s the hardest part, and you’ve done harder things this week.
Schedule Your First Session: Book your first session online here
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No. All sessions are online. Telehealth works for Arlington moms whose schedules don’t have room for a commute on top of everything else. You log on from home with the door closed and headphones in, from the office, or from a car parked somewhere quiet.
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Most of my clients meet during the workday. We can schedule a recurring time that fits your calendar, including over lunch. Some clients use a midday slot from a private office, a parked car, or a conference room they book for the hour. Most clients leave a session steadier than they walked in. We plan around the meeting you can’t move.
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Most clients notice changes in the first few sessions, sleep improving, the snap getting less reactive, the 3am wake-ups less frequent. Bigger changes in stress, parenting, and relationships usually unfold over six to twelve months of consistent work.
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No. I’m completely private pay, and I don’t provide reimbursement paperwork.
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Life happens. My cancellation policy is in the intake paperwork, and we’ll work it out. If something’s truly an emergency, just reach out as soon as you can.
frequently asked questions about online therapy in arlington
Not quite ready to book? Send me a note instead.
Call or Text
423.281.4089
emily@alignedcounseling.com
Office mailing address
404 S Roan St., Johnson City, TN, 37604
areas served in arlington
Online therapy for professional moms in Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, Crystal City, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Shirlington, Virginia Square, Westover, Cherrydale, Lyon Village, Lyon Park, Aurora Highlands, Bluemont, Buckingham, and surrounding Arlington neighborhoods.
also serving professional moms across virginia
I work with professional moms across Virginia, including Alexandria, McLean, Reston, Richmond, and Charlottesville.