SOUTH HILLS, PA · TELEHEALTH STATEWIDE

David McAnallen, M.Ed., Psychologist

  • Licensed Psychologist
  • EMDR Certified
  • 35+ Years Experience
  • M.Ed. · University of Pittsburgh
  • Accepting New Clients

“Like energy attracts like energy.”

David McAnallen is a licensed psychologist at CPA Counseling, seeing clients at the South Hills office and by secure telehealth across Pennsylvania. Thirty-five years with individuals, couples, and families on anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, relationships, grief, and life transitions. EMDR certified, with a strength-based, integrative, and results-oriented approach.

No program commitments
11 insurance plans accepted
Adults, couples, families & veterans
Telehealth available statewide
In practice 35+ years

WHO DAVID WORKS WITH

Who he’s for

David works with adults, teens, young adults, couples, seniors, veterans, and college students. Thirty-five years across individuals, couples, and families.

1

People carrying something unresolved.

David is EMDR certified. EMDR is built for memories that have not filed themselves away — where the body still reacts as though it is happening. It does not require narrating the event in detail, which matters to anyone who has tried talking about it and found they could not.

2

Couples, and the pattern between them.

Thirty-five years with couples and families. He draws on Emotionally Focused Therapy alongside family systems work — reaching the attachment need underneath a recurring argument rather than relitigating the argument itself.

3

People who want to understand the why.

His stated aim is increasing awareness of the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns shaping how you respond to stress, relationships, and transitions. As awareness increases, you can make more intentional choices — the insight comes first and the change follows from it.

why work with David

Thirty-five years, and still absorbing new thinking

Three and a half decades is long enough to settle into one method, and he has not. David works with emerging neuroscience, mindfulness, and the mind-heart-body connection alongside the evidence-based therapies he trained in — which is a different thing from having stopped in 1995.

What brings people in

Anxiety that has taken over the planning. Depression that has flattened things out. A marriage running the same argument on a loop. Something that happened and has not settled. A transition at work or at home. Or the particular un-ease of knowing something is off without being able to name it.

How he actually works

Strength-based, integrative, and results-oriented — his own three words. He draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and solution-focused work, and incorporates holistic and mindfulness-based practice alongside them.

What gets different

Shifting limiting beliefs, regulating difficult emotional states, and moving toward greater ease, health, and personal fulfillment — the outcomes he names. Practically: fewer automatic reactions, more intentional choices, and a different relationship with whatever brought you in.

HOW DAVID WORKS

Ten approaches, and the judgment to choose

A wide toolkit, and long enough in the work to know which part suits which person. EMDR is the certified one. The rest get selected around whoever is in the room rather than applied in sequence.

  • CBT
  • Solution-Focused
  • Person-Centered
  • Motivational Interviewing
  • Strengths-Based

1

When the memory is still present tense

EMDR, which David is certified in. Built for trauma that has not processed — where the body reacts as though the event is still happening. It works without requiring you to describe the event in detail, which is the part that keeps many people out of therapy entirely.

2

When it is between two people

Emotionally Focused Therapy and family systems work. EFT goes at the attachment need under a recurring argument; family systems widens the frame when the pattern runs past the couple. Thirty-five years of couples work sits behind both.

3

When the belief is older than the problem

CBT and TF-CBT for the beliefs that shape your response before you have chosen one, paired with mindfulness-based and existential work on the larger question of what you want this part of life to look like. Motivational interviewing where you are not yet sure.

CONDITIONS TREATED

What David treats – who David sees

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Trauma
  • ADHD
  • Marriage & Couples
  • Life Transitions
  • Grief & Loss
  • School / Academic
  • Workplace Stress
  • Self-Esteem
  • Adults
  • Teens & Adolescents
  • Young Adults
  • Individuals
  • Women
  • Men
  • College Students

For trauma

EMDR certified — and the only psychologist here

David is the one psychologist in the practice and he is certified in EMDR, the leading evidence-based treatment for trauma. Thirty-five years of clinical experience sits behind both — with individuals, couples, and families, across the full range of what people bring in.

“Therapy can increase awareness of the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns that shape how you respond to stress, relationships, and life transitions.”

CARE PHILOSOPHY

Awareness first. Then intentional choice.

David’s approach focuses on shifting limiting beliefs, regulating difficult emotional states, and moving toward greater ease, health, and personal fulfillment. He incorporates holistic and mindfulness-based practice, integrating the mind-heart-body connection, emerging neuroscience, and principles of intentional awareness.

ABOUT DAVID

Toward greater ease and fulfillment

David McAnallen is a seasoned clinician with more than thirty-five years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families. His approach is strength-based, integrative, and results-oriented.

He draws from evidence-based therapies including cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and solution-focused therapy, and incorporates holistic and mindfulness-based practice alongside them — integrating the mind-heart-body connection, emerging neuroscience, and principles of intentional awareness.

His stated aim is to increase awareness of the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns that shape how you respond to stress, relationships, and life transitions. As that awareness grows, more of the response becomes a decision rather than a reflex, and clients can practice new ways of thinking and behaving. The goal he names is shifting limiting beliefs, regulating difficult emotional states, and moving toward greater ease, health, and personal fulfillment.

David holds an M.Ed. from the University of Pittsburgh and is certified in EMDR, the leading evidence-based treatment for trauma. He is the only psychologist in the practice, and sees clients at the South Hills office and by telehealth across Pennsylvania.

CREDENTIALS & TRAINING

DEGREE

M.Ed. · Psychology

University of Pittsburgh

CERTIFICATIONS

Licensed Psychologist · EMDR Certified

ALSO TRAINED

EFT · Mindfulness & Holistic Practice · Neuroscience-Informed

FOCUS

Trauma & EMDR · Couples & Families · Anxiety & Depression

IN PRACTICE

35+ years

South Hills · Telehealth statewide

IN NETWORK

Aetna · Blue Cross Blue Shield · Capital Blue Cross · Carelon · Cigna/Evernorth

Geisinger · Highmark · Independence Blue Cross · Optum · Oscar · Oxford

35+

Years in Practice

South Hills & Telehealth

✦

EMDR Certified

The only psychologist here

∞

Personalized Care Plans

No program commitments required

CONDITION GUIDE

Therapy guides from David McAnallen

  • 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 David McAnallen

What new clients ask most often before their first session.

David is a licensed psychologist with more than thirty-five years of experience. He works with adults, teens, couples, seniors, and veterans on anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, marriage and couples concerns, life transitions, grief and loss, school and academic stress, workplace stress, and self-esteem, drawing on EMDR, CBT, TF-CBT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, family systems, solution-focused, person-centered, mindfulness-based, existential, and motivational interviewing approaches.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — a structured, evidence-based trauma therapy. Using guided 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. David is certified in it.

Awareness, then choice. You work on the thoughts, beliefs, and patterns shaping how you respond — and as awareness grows, more of the response becomes a decision rather than a reflex. David incorporates mindfulness and holistic practice alongside the evidence-based work.

Yes. David is accepting new clients at the South Hills office and through telehealth across Pennsylvania. He is in network with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Capital Blue Cross, Carelon, Cigna and Evernorth, Geisinger, Highmark, Independence Blue Cross, Optum, Oscar Health, and Oxford. Request an appointment online or call 412-439-1416.