SOUTH HILLS, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE

Ashley Spahn, MSW, LCSW

  • Licensed Clinical Social Worker
  • EMDR Trained
  • ERP Trained
  • Accepting New Clients

“If you find yourself looking for a genuine therapist who will listen, empower, and work with you — reach out.”

Ashley Spahn is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at CPA Counseling’s South Hills office, also seeing clients by secure telehealth across Pennsylvania. She works with individuals from age sixteen on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and self-esteem, alongside life transitions, codependency, workplace stress, and anger. EMDR and ERP trained, with ongoing CEUs in both.

No program commitments
Aetna · Cigna · Highmark/BCBS · United
Individuals 16+
Telehealth available statewide
In practice since 2020

WHO ASHLEY WORKS WITH

Who she’s for

Ashley works with individuals from age sixteen through roughly sixty — high school, college, early career, and established adults. Individual sessions only. Her caseload is evenly split between men and women, and includes LGBTQ+ clients.

1

People carrying trauma.

Ashley is EMDR trained and works with PTSD directly. EMDR is built for memories the ordinary talking route does not reach — the ones that are still live rather than past.

2

People caught in the loop.

Ashley is ERP trained, the approach with the strongest evidence base for OCD and obsessive thinking. It is a specific training rather than a general approach, and she pairs it with trauma work.

3

People who have lost the thread.

Her own words: sometimes life can be overwhelming and we do not know where to start. Anxiety, low mood, a sense of yourself that has thinned out, a transition that has not landed. You do not need to arrive with it organized.

why work with Ashley

A partnership, not a treatment

Ashley describes the therapeutic relationship as a partnership — one where thoughts, emotions, and behaviors get explored together rather than diagnosed at you. Her stated mission is helping you unlock and reach your full potential.

What brings people in

Anxiety that runs the day. Depression that has outlasted its reason. PTSD that is still present tense. Intrusive thoughts and the rituals built to quiet them. A self-image that has quietly eroded. Or a transition that left you without footing.

How she actually works

Grounded in warmth and empathy, by her own description — and backed by three protocols she is trained and current in: EMDR, ERP, and CBT. The warmth is the room; the training is what gets used in it.

What gets different

Ashley is explicit that the goal is not only navigating the struggle but celebrating and building on strengths and resilience you already have. Practical coping skills that hold up, and the sense of emerging stronger rather than merely intact.

HOW ASHLEY WORKS

Three protocols, warmth underneath

EMDR, ERP, and CBT — her three, kept current with ongoing training rather than collected once. Two of them are protocols most clinicians in the region do not hold. What stays constant is the approach: warm, empathetic, collaborative.

  • EMDR
  • ERP
  • CBT
  • Person-Centered
  • Solution-Focused
  • Mindfulness-Based
  • Strengths-Based

1

When the memory is still present tense

EMDR. Built for trauma that has not filed itself away — where the body reacts as though it is still happening. It does not require you to narrate the event in detail, which matters to people who have tried talking about it and found they could not.

2

When the thought will not let go

Exposure and Response Prevention, the approach with the strongest evidence base for OCD and compulsion. Ashley is ERP trained and takes ongoing CEUs in it, which is uncommon — most clinicians who treat anxiety do not hold it at all.

3

When the thinking is the engine

CBT for the patterns driving anxiety, low mood, and self-esteem — catching them as they run, testing whether they hold, and building something usable on a hard day. The practical counterpart to the trauma work.

CONDITIONS TREATED

What Ashley treats – who Ashley sees

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • PTSD
  • OCD
  • Self-Esteem
  • Trauma
  • Codependency
  • Life Transitions
  • Workplace Stress
  • Anger Management
  • Ages 16+
  • Teens
  • Young Adults
  • Adults
  • Individuals Only
  • Women
  • Men
  • LGBTQ+
  • College Students

For PTSD and OCD

EMDR and ERP — two protocols, rarely held together

Ashley is trained and current in both EMDR and ERP — the leading evidence-based protocols for PTSD and for OCD respectively. The two rarely sit with one clinician, which matters when trauma and obsessive thinking turn up together, as they often do.

“The therapeutic relationship is a partnership.”

CARE PHILOSOPHY

Warmth and empathy. Strengths you already have.

Ashley describes her core mission as helping you unlock and reach your full potential, and her approach as grounded in warmth and empathy. The therapeutic relationship is a partnership — somewhere thoughts, emotions, and behaviors get explored together, in an environment that is safe enough to do it in.

The goal, in her words, is not just to navigate through your struggles but to celebrate and build upon the strengths and resilience you already carry. That is a meaningful distinction: the work starts from what is already working rather than from a list of what is broken.

Her current caseload centres on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and self-esteem. Life’s complexities can feel insurmountable — her stated belief is that with the right support it is possible to emerge stronger and more empowered, not merely to cope.

ABOUT ASHLEY

Walking alongside you on your journey

Ashley Spahn is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker whose core mission is helping clients unlock and reach their full potential. Her approach to therapy is grounded in warmth and empathy, and she treats the therapeutic relationship as a partnership rather than something administered.

Her current caseload centres on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and challenges with self-esteem. Life’s complexities can feel insurmountable, but with the right support and guidance she believes it is possible to emerge stronger and more empowered.

Her three main modalities are EMDR, ERP, and CBT. She is trained and current in both EMDR and ERP, taking ongoing continuing education in each rather than treating them as completed credentials. Holding the leading protocol for PTSD alongside the leading protocol for OCD is an unusual combination to find in one clinician, and it matters because the two often arrive together.

In her own words: sometimes life can be overwhelming and we do not know where to start; if you find yourself looking for a genuine therapist who will listen, empower, and work with you, reach out. She holds an MSW from California University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Clinical Psychology from Kutztown University, has practiced since 2020, and sees individual clients at the South Hills office and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.

CREDENTIALS & TRAINING

DEGREE

MSW · Clinical Social Work

California University of Pennsylvania

CERTIFICATIONS

EMDR Trained · ERP Trained

ALSO TRAINED

BS Clinical Psychology · Kutztown University

FOCUS

PTSD · OCD · Anxiety, Depression & Self-Esteem

IN PRACTICE

LCSW

South Hills · Telehealth

SERVES

South Hills

via Telehealth – Pennsylvania

EMDR

& ERP Trained

Both current, ongoing CEUs

✦

PTSD & OCD

Two protocols, one clinician

∞

Personalized Care Plans

No program commitments required

CONDITION GUIDE

Therapy guides from Ashley Spahn

  • Patient Zero

    Mental Health

    What Taylor Swift Teaches Us About Parasocial Connection

    Why millions feel they truly know someone they’ve never met — the psychology of parasocial connection, when it’s comforting, and when it’s telling you something.

  • woman lost in thinking about to do items shown on the image

    Anxiety

    When Anxiety Starts Making the Rules

    Anxiety rarely announces itself as anxiety — it arrives as good judgment, feeling like being careful, responsible, or thinking ahead, and by the time you notice, it may have been making your decisions for years. OCD is mostly internal: intrusive thoughts, mental checking, rumination, reassurance-seeking. Both respond well to treatment.

  • Accessibility

    Information

    CPA Counseling Accessibility Statement

    Our commitment to an accessible website — WCAG 2.1 AA, keyboard operability, high contrast — and a direct contact if you encounter any barrier.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about working with Ashley Spahn

What new clients ask most often before their first session.

Ashley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker working with individuals aged sixteen and over. Her current caseload centres on anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, and self-esteem, alongside life transitions, codependency, workplace stress, and anger. Her three main modalities are EMDR, ERP, and CBT, and she is trained and current in both EMDR and ERP.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — a structured, evidence-based trauma therapy. Using guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation while recalling a difficult memory, it helps the brain file that memory as past rather than present. It does not require describing the event in detail, which makes it workable for people who have found talking about it impossible.

Yes, and it is one of her main focuses. Ashley is ERP trained — Exposure and Response Prevention, the approach with the strongest evidence base for OCD. It works by gradually facing the trigger without performing the compulsion, until the anxiety loses its grip. She takes ongoing continuing education in it, and few clinicians in the region hold it at all.

Yes. Ashley is accepting new individual clients aged sixteen and over, at the South Hills office and through telehealth across Pennsylvania. She is in network with Aetna, Cigna, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, and United. Request an appointment online or call 412-439-1416.