ROBINSON & SOUTH HILLS, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE

David Como, NCC

  • NCC · National Certified Counselor
  • M.Ed. · University of Pittsburgh
  • In Counseling Since 1990
  • Accepting New Clients

“I walk alongside you — it is your journey, and you do not take it alone.”

David Como is a National Certified Counselor who has worked in counseling since 1990, seeing clients at CPA Counseling’s Robinson Township and South Hills offices and by secure telehealth across Pennsylvania. He works with adults, couples, seniors, and veterans on relationship difficulty, anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, grief, addiction, and life transitions. His approach is eclectic and rooted in the mind-body connection.

No program commitments
BC/BS Highmark · Cigna · United · Aetna · Incident billing
Adults, couples, seniors & veterans
Telehealth available statewide
In counseling since 1990

WHO DAVID WORKS WITH

Who he’s for

David works with adults, couples, seniors, veterans, and college students. Since 1990, across school counseling, private practice, and graduate teaching — which is a long time to watch what actually helps.

1

Couples doing the real work.

Relationship difficulty is where David spends most of his time. He draws heavily on the Gottman Method, and is direct that the couples who get somewhere are the ones willing to be uncomfortable rather than the ones who are most agreeable in session.

2

Adults carrying several things at once.

Anxiety on top of a loss on top of a transition, with a body that stopped cooperating somewhere in the middle. More than three decades means David has seen the combinations, not just the categories.

3

Seniors and veterans.

Two groups most practices do not name. Caregiver strain, grief, identity after a role ends, and the specific weight of having been responsible for other people for a long time.

why work with David

Since 1990, and still pattern-matching

Most of what brings people in is not unprecedented — it only feels that way from inside it. David has been doing this since 1990, across schools, private practice, and training other counselors. That depth is the thing you are actually buying.

What people bring in

A marriage that has gone quiet. Anxiety that has started showing up in the body. A loss that reorganized everything. A transition you did not choose. Or several of those at once, which is more common than any one of them alone.

How he actually works

Eclectic by choice, not by default — thirteen approaches and a clear view of which fits what. The through-line is the mind-body connection: distress shows up physically long before people name it, and ignoring that half of it slows everything down. He is warm and he is also direct that this requires you to lean into discomfort.

What gets different

Couples stop having the same argument in different costumes. The physical symptoms loosen as the thing underneath gets named. And the balance David talks about stops being an aspiration and starts being how the week actually runs.

HOW DAVID WORKS

Thirteen approaches, and he knows which

Eclectic is an easy word to say and a hard thing to do well. David has had more than three decades to learn which approach suits which person, and he teaches this material to graduate students.

  • CBT
  • DBT
  • Gottman Method
  • IFS
  • Family Systems
  • Somatic
  • Existential
  • Psychodynamic
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Mindfulness
  • Solution-Focused
  • Person-Centered
  • Strengths-Based

1

When it is between two people

Gottman Method for couples, with family systems alongside when the pattern runs wider than the two of you. Structured work on how conflict actually unfolds — what starts it, what each of you does next, and where it reliably lands — rather than relitigating the subject.

2

When the body is carrying it

The mind-body connection is the through-line in David’s work. Somatic and mindfulness approaches for distress that arrives as a tight chest, a bad stomach, or a night of no sleep before it ever arrives as a thought you can argue with.

3

When the question is larger

Existential and psychodynamic work for the things that do not resolve into a symptom list — meaning, mortality, who you are once a role ends, patterns older than the current situation. Taken seriously rather than managed.

CONDITIONS TREATED

What David treats – who David sees

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Trauma
  • ADHD
  • Marriage & Couples
  • Family Issues
  • Addiction
  • Controlling Relationships & Gaslighting
  • Life Transitions
  • Grief & Loss
  • Codependency
  • Men’s Mental Health
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiver Stress
  • School / Academic
  • Workplace Stress
  • Chronic Pain
  • Self-Esteem
  • Anger Management
  • Adults
  • Couples
  • Individuals
  • Women
  • Men
  • Seniors
  • Veterans
  • LGBTQ+
  • College Students

For couples

Gottman Method — and decades of watching it work

Relationship work is where David has spent most of his career. Structured, research-backed, and paired with the mind-body view that makes it possible to see what a conflict is doing to you physically while it is happening.

“Ready to roll up your sleeves and lean into vulnerability — even when it is uncomfortable.”

CARE PHILOSOPHY

Alongside you. Not ahead of you.

David describes his role as walking alongside you rather than leading — which sounds soft until you hear the second half of it. The clients who get the most out of this are the ones ready to roll up their sleeves and lean into vulnerability, including the parts that are uncomfortable. He will make the room safe. He will not make it easy.

The orientation is holistic in a specific sense: mind and body are treated as one system, because distress reaches the body long before most people have words for it. Ignoring that half is how people spend years managing a symptom instead of addressing what is driving it.

A career since 1990 sits behind all of it — school counseling, private practice, and teaching graduate counseling students at Waynesburg and Duquesne. What that buys you is someone who has seen your particular combination before and is not improvising.

ABOUT DAVID

Since 1990, and still curious

David Como is a seasoned mental health professional with over thirty years of experience helping people navigate the most difficult stretches of their lives. His empathetic, person-centered approach gives clients a supportive space to explore what they are feeling, find some clarity, and move toward change that holds.

He brings a background in both communication and psychology, which shows in how he works — a blend of insight, creativity, and clinical judgment. He specializes in relationship matters, anxiety, ADHD, stress, overwhelm, and emotional distress, using an eclectic style rooted in the mind-body connection.

David is a Nationally Certified Counselor and a doctoral candidate in Counseling Education and Supervision. Alongside his individual and couples work at CPA Counseling, he spent years as a high school counselor in Avonworth, Hampton, and Mt. Lebanon, and has taught graduate and undergraduate counseling courses at Waynesburg University and Duquesne University.

He holds certifications in trauma and crisis, anxiety and stress, grief and loss, and solution-focused practice, and stays active in the American Counseling Association and the American School Counselor Association. Through tailored support and compassionate care, he helps clients unlock their potential and build fuller, more balanced lives.

CREDENTIALS & TRAINING

DEGREE

M.Ed. · Counseling

University of Pittsburgh

CERTIFICATIONS

Trauma & Crisis · Anxiety & Stress · Grief & Loss · Solution-Focused

ALSO TRAINED

Doctoral candidate, Counseling Education & Supervision · Adjunct faculty, Waynesburg & Duquesne

FOCUS

Couples & Relationships · Mind-Body · Grief

IN PRACTICE

Since 1990

36 years in counseling

OFFICES

Robinson · South Hills · Telehealth

BC/BS Highmark · Cigna · United · Aetna

1990

In Counseling Since

Robinson & South Hills

✦

Couples & Relationships

Gottman Method · mind-body

∞

Personalized Care Plans

No program commitments required

CONDITION GUIDE

Therapy guides from David Como

  • Trauma addiction

    Addiction

    Trauma and Addiction Therapy in Pittsburgh

    Trauma and addiction can be connected, though not everyone who struggles with substance use has experienced trauma. For some people, alcohol or drugs become a way to manage painful memories, anxiety, difficult emotions, or distress — something that began as relief gradually starts making choices for them. Ashley Spahn, LCSW works with trauma and substance use at CPA Counseling in Pittsburgh’s South Hills and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.

  • Being Capable is exhausting

    Women

    When Being the Capable One Becomes Exhausting

    Some women become so good at holding everything together — work, family, everyone else’s needs — that they lose track of their own. Autumn Staszak helps women who are quietly running on empty make room for what they need, without abandoning the people who count on them.

  • Infertility

    Women

    Infertility and Mental Health: Grief, Relationships and Living With Uncertainty

    Infertility can affect your identity, your relationships, your intimacy, and your plans for the future. Rachel Nash explores how therapy helps you carry the grief and uncertainty of fertility struggles — without pretending it’s easy and without false certainty.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about working with David Como

What new clients ask most often before their first session.

David is a National Certified Counselor who has worked in counseling since 1990. He works with adults, couples, seniors, and veterans on relationship difficulty, anxiety, depression, ADHD, trauma, grief and loss, addiction, caregiver strain, and life transitions. He holds certifications in trauma and crisis, anxiety and stress, grief and loss, and solution-focused practice.

Yes — it is the largest part of his practice. David draws on the Gottman Method and works on how conflict actually unfolds between two people rather than relitigating the subject of the last argument. He also sees individuals whose presenting concern is a relationship, which is often the more realistic starting point when only one partner is ready.

It means your physical symptoms are treated as information rather than a side effect. Distress reaches the body early — chest, stomach, sleep, jaw — often well before you have words for what is wrong. David uses somatic and mindfulness approaches alongside talking work so both halves get addressed, because working on one without the other tends to leave the job half done.

Yes. David is accepting new clients at the Robinson Township and South Hills offices and through telehealth across Pennsylvania. He is in network with Blue Cross Blue Shield Highmark and Cigna. Request an appointment online or call 412-439-1416.