Meet Emily Francis, MS, LCPC

Attachment Focused-EMDR and DBT Therapist & Parent Coach

Emily Francis, MS, LCPC Attachment Focused-EMDR and DBT Therapist & Parent Coach

Emily Francis, LCPC is a Certified EMDR therapist as well as a Parent Coach who is passionate about working with you to get to the root of your struggles and helping you heal the deepest wounds so you can thrive in your life.

About Emily (She/Her)

Hi!  I am an attachment-focused EMDR psychotherapist with a background in both behavioral and psychodynamic approaches to therapy and a passion for integrative therapy.  My style is warm, direct, and affirming and I bring humor and genuineness to my work with clients.  

Do you struggle with intense emotions including anger, sadness, or shame?  Feelings of chronic emptiness, numbness, or existential dread?  Do you struggle with impulses or destructive behavior?  Feeling out of sync with others or the world?  

Trauma from childhood attachment wounds, abuse and neglect, chronic invalidation, and loss can become stored in our bodies and encoded in our way of viewing the world and ourselves.  This can then manifest in difficult to understand intense emotional states, numbness, or destructive behaviors.  We can carry shame around these experiences, yet often any of our present struggles can best be understood as adaptations to trauma or loss that helped us survive.  

In working with trauma, I rely on Attachment-Focused EMDR, parts work, attachment theory, and relational psychotherapy to help clients access, reprocess, and integrate trauma memories and states as well as develop and increase their access to inner resources and adaptive information.  This sort of trauma work can free us to be able to engage in new ways with ourselves and the world as we release old patterns and beliefs and create the neural structures associated with integration and secure attachment.  

My approach to therapy is unapologetically affirming, collaborative, and strengths-focused.  I believe our current challenges are opportunities to heal and grow.  As a trauma therapist, I seek to sit with my clients in the hard places, bringing warmth and authenticity, and providing relational safety and containment to allow clients to do the hard word of reconnecting with the exiled or frightened parts of themselves.  

If you feel hopeless, I will hold the hope for you.  If you struggle with anger, shame, or deep and confusing pain, I will join you there.  There is nothing so terrible that cannot be seen or named in the context of a strong and affirming therapeutic relationship.  

I have a particular interest in working with adults and teens with attachment wounds and those who have suffered from religious, spiritual, or narcissistic abuse and survivors of cults or high demand groups.  

I also have lived experience navigating the joys and challenges of raising neurodivergent kids and kids with high emotional and medical needs in an imperfect world.  I love working with parents of kids of all ages on accepting themselves and their kids as they are and building a life that works.  In this work I lean heavily into Ross Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions Model and integrate attachment theory, DBT mindfulness and radical acceptance skills as well as EMDR as needed. 

If I sound like I might be a good fit for you, please reach out to request an appointment!  I look forward to hearing from you!

Emily earned her masters degree in Pastoral Counseling (spiritually-integrative Clinical Mental Health Counseling) from Loyola University in Maryland.  She has worked with teens and adults in psychiatric in-patient settings, military installations, community mental health, and private practice.  She has experience providing comprehensive DBT as well as Attachment-Focused EMDR to support adults and teens struggling with the effects of trauma including self-harm and behavioral addictions.  She is an EMDRIA EMDR Certified Therapist.

Specialities

  • Attachment trauma and childhood abuse and neglect and associated symptoms including hypervigilance, intense emotions, and feelings of chronic emptiness or disconnection

  • Recovery from Narcissistic, Religious, and Spiritual Abuse 

  • Embracing and navigating neurodivergence

  • Parent coaching / Parenting Challenges including navigating the impact of past trauma or neglect on parenting and parenting high-needs kids and teens

  • Relationship Concerns including working with individuals in the LGBTQIA+, polyamory, and kink communities

Emily currently has limited availability for new teen and adult clients for virtual and in person sessions.