Jenna Watson

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in both Virginia (LCSW) and the District of Columbia (LICSW) and a Registered Clinical Supervisor with the Virginia Board of Social Work. I earned my Master of Social Work (MSW) at Catholic University and my Master’s in Education (Ed.M.) at Harvard University. I have been working as a therapist for the past ten years and have provided counseling services to diverse child and adult clients in varied private practice, not-for-profit, and medical settings, including extensive experience providing therapy to children and adults who have experienced trauma and abuse.

I fully embrace a strengths-based, person-centered perspective, which means I am committed to engaging clients of all ages with genuine respect, interest, warmth, care, and curiosity, and through unwavering empathy, authenticity, and unconditional positive regard. I strongly believe in the innate capability of both children and adults to self-actualize, working toward becoming their best version of themselves. I value clients’ expertise in their own lives and experiences as a powerful resource in the therapeutic process.

Through my work with survivors of trauma and clients facing other significant mental health challenges, I have also been humbled to witness clients’ remarkable resilience and capacity to recover, evolve, and flourish despite adversity. My experience and training have inspired and prepared me to patiently hold hope for clients, reflect back their unique strengths and gifts, facilitate a collaborative and trusting therapeutic relationship, and support a safe space for healing, self-knowledge, and growth. I believe in the critical importance of the therapeutic relationship and that a significant part of healing occurs through positive interpersonal connection and corrective relational experiences.

I am also a dedicated believer in the “therapeutic powers of play” that have been well substantiated by research to develop personal strengths, improve communication, emotional health, and social relationships, and generate positive life change. Lively, dynamic, creative, and spontaneous may be some words to describe the clinical style I aim for. Although therapy involves hard work, I believe joy, awe, delight, humor, laughter, and fun can be welcome components of that work and promote improved wellbeing and functioning.

Specialized Services

• Anxiety Disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, and specific phobia
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related disorders, including body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) such as excoriation disorder/dermatillomania (skin-picking) and trichotillomania/TTM (hair-pulling)
• Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders, including adjustment disorders in response to life stressors or changes, acute stress disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Clinical Focus and Training

• Play Therapy, with particular interest in Child-Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) and specialized play therapy approaches with traumatized children (for example, TraumaPlay™)
• Other Expressive Therapies, including sandtray, arts-based therapy, and bibliotherapy, as well as Nature-Informed Therapy (NIT)
• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), for treatment of OCD, anxiety disorders, and specific phobia, and Comprehensive Behavioral Technique (ComB), for treatment of BFRBs such as hair-pulling and skin-picking
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Cognitive Behavioral Play Therapy (CBPT), and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)