SOUTH HILLS, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE

Autumn Staszak, MAEd, LPC

  • Licensed Professional Counselor
  • TF-CBT Trained
  • Gottman Method Trained
  • In Practice Since 2005
  • Accepting New Clients

“Healing begins when people feel safe enough to be seen, heard, and understood.”

Autumn Staszak is a Licensed Professional Counselor at CPA Counseling, seeing clients in person in the South Hills and by secure telehealth across Pennsylvania. In practice since 2005, she works with adults on depression, anxiety, life transitions, work-related stress, grief and loss, and women’s health — and with couples on communication, connection, intimacy, and repair after an affair. TF-CBT and Gottman Method trained.

Autumn Staszak
No program commitments
Aetna · BCBS · Cigna · Highmark · Medicare · UHC · UPMC
Adults, couples & seniors
Telehealth available statewide
In practice since 2005

WHO AUTUMN WORKS WITH

Who she’s for

Autumn works with adults, young adults, seniors, veterans, college students, and couples. Women, men, and LGBTQ+ clients. In practice since 2005.

1

Adults carrying something that has not lifted.

Her primary focus: depression, anxiety, life transitions, grief and loss. The things that arrive without a single cause and stay longer than anyone expected, and which she has seen a great many versions of since 2005.

2

Adults carrying work home.

Work-related stress is a named focus, not an afterthought. Years in community mental health before private practice mean she has seen what sustained pressure does to people who cannot simply leave the job.

3

Women navigating a change in their health.

Menopause and perimenopause, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, miscarriage, and intimate partner violence. Autumn works with what these actually do to a person day to day, rather than treating them as medical events someone else is handling.

why work with Autumn

Safe enough to be seen

Her stated belief is that healing begins when people feel safe enough to be seen, heard, and understood. She builds the room first and the work second, because the second does not happen without the first.

What brings people in

Depression that has flattened things out. Anxiety that has taken over the planning. A transition that landed harder than expected. Grief that has not moved. A job that has stopped being survivable. Or a change in your health that nobody is treating as a loss.

How she actually works

Warm, collaborative, and practical — her own three words. She believes healing happens through genuine connection, insight, and tools you can actually apply between sessions. The practical half is what stops insight from staying theoretical.

What gets different

Feeling more like yourself. Tools that hold up on an ordinary Tuesday rather than only in the room. And enough clarity about what is actually happening that the next decision is yours to make rather than one that happens to you.

HOW AUTUMN WORKS

Nine approaches, and the judgment to choose

Autumn is trained in TF-CBT and in the Gottman Method — one for trauma, one for couples. The rest get selected around the person rather than applied in sequence.

  • TF-CBT
  • Gottman Method
  • CBT
  • Person-Centered
  • Solution-Focused
  • Psychodynamic
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Strengths-Based

1

When the trauma is still shaping things

TF-CBT, which Autumn is trained in. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy works on the trauma and the thinking it produced at the same time, rather than treating them as separate problems. Structured and well-evidenced, and it takes as long as it takes.

2

When it is between two people

Gottman Method, built on decades of research into what distinguishes relationships that last. It starts by assessing the relationship rather than relitigating the last argument — which matters most where trust has already been broken.

3

When emotion arrives faster than thought

DBT skills for emotional regulation and distress tolerance — what you do when feeling gets there before thinking does. Practical, learnable, and usable between sessions rather than only inside them.

CONDITIONS TREATED

What Autumn treats – who Autumn sees

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Trauma
  • Marriage & Couples
  • Abuse
  • Controlling Relationships & Gaslighting
  • Codependency
  • Grief & Loss
  • Life Transitions
  • Women’s Mental Health
  • Workplace Stress
  • Self-Esteem
  • Adults
  • Young Adults
  • Couples
  • Seniors
  • Veterans
  • Individuals
  • Women
  • Men
  • LGBTQ+
  • College Students

For women’s health

Menopause to miscarriage — a named focus

Autumn works with menopause and perimenopause, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, miscarriage, and intimate partner violence. These are routinely treated as medical events with no emotional dimension, and they are not.

“Healing begins when people feel safe enough to be seen, heard, and understood.”

CARE PHILOSOPHY

Connection first. Then the tools.

Autumn’s approach is warm, collaborative, and practical, and she is explicit about the sequence: healing happens through genuine connection, then insight, then tools that work in everyday life. Skipping to the tools is how therapy ends up feeling like a worksheet.

Her goal is a space where clients feel heard, understood, and empowered to create meaningful change. With couples the aim is greater clarity, understanding, and healthier patterns of connection — which is deliberately not the same as staying together.

She understands that relationships can be deeply rewarding and incredibly complex at the same time. Whether you are overwhelmed, emotionally stuck, struggling in your relationship, or simply seeking growth, the work is to process, heal, and move forward with more confidence and balance.

ABOUT AUTUMN

Heard, understood, and empowered

As a licensed professional counselor, Autumn Staszak is passionate about helping adults and couples navigate the challenges that can impact emotional well-being, relationships, and overall quality of life.

She specializes in working with individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, work-related stress, and women’s health concerns, including the emotional and life transitions that often accompany different stages of adulthood. Her goal is a supportive, compassionate space where clients feel heard, understood, and empowered to create meaningful change.

In her work with couples, Autumn helps partners improve communication, rebuild trust, strengthen emotional connection, and navigate difficult relationship transitions. She has experience supporting couples on healthy communication, building connection and stronger intimacy, and repair after an affair — and understands that relationships can be deeply rewarding while also being incredibly complex.

Her approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and practical. She believes healing happens through genuine connection, insight, and the development of tools that clients can apply in everyday life. Autumn holds an MAEd from The University of Akron, is trained in TF-CBT, the Gottman Method and women’s health, and sees clients in person in the South Hills and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.

CREDENTIALS & TRAINING

DEGREE

MAEd · Counseling

The University of Akron

CERTIFICATIONS

LPC · Licensed Professional Counselor

ALSO TRAINED

TF-CBT Trained · Gottman Method · Women’s Health

FOCUS

Depression & Anxiety · Life Transitions · Women’s Health

IN PRACTICE

Since 2005

South Hills in person · Telehealth statewide

SERVES

South Hills

Aetna · BCBS · Cigna · Highmark · Medicare · UHC · UPMC

2005

In Practice Since

South Hills · Telehealth statewide

✦

Depression, Anxiety & Women’s Health

TF-CBT and Gottman trainedified · Gottman trained

∞

Personalized Care Plans

No program commitments required

CONDITION GUIDE

Therapy guides from Autumn Staszak

  • 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 Autumn Staszak

What new clients ask most often before their first session.

Autumn is a Licensed Professional Counselor in practice since 2005. She works with adults, couples, seniors, veterans, and college students on anxiety, depression, trauma, marriage and couples concerns, emotional abuse, controlling relationships and gaslighting, codependency, grief and loss, life transitions, women’s mental health, workplace stress, and self-esteem. She is trained in TF-CBT and the Gottman Method.

Yes. Autumn names affairs explicitly as part of her couples work, alongside recurring conflict and emotional disconnection. She is Gottman Method trained, which provides structure for rebuilding trust rather than relitigating what happened. Her focus with couples is healthy communication, stronger connection and intimacy, and repair — and she also works with couples who are deciding what comes next.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — a structured, well-evidenced approach that works on the trauma and the thinking it produced at the same time, rather than treating them separately. It is skills-based, and it is structured and skills-based. Autumn is trained in it.

Yes. Autumn is accepting new clients in person at the South Hills office and through telehealth across Pennsylvania, including clients of the Robinson office seen virtually. She is in network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna and Evernorth, Highmark, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare, and UPMC Health Plan. Request an appointment online or call 412-439-1416.