Dr. Pamela Kayanan

Dr. Pamela Kayanan is a Virginia-based counselor with 25 years of clinical experience. She holds a PhD in Counseling and Education and maintains professional licensure in Virginia as a counselor, as a marriage and family therapist, and in addictions treatment.

Her primary clinical emphasis is on anxiety and depression, particularly for individuals who have experienced trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She also treats a broad range of addictive behaviors, including substance and drug misuse, alcoholism, exercise addiction, and workaholism.

Over the past 25 years Dr. Kayanan has worked with adolescents, their families, and adults managing addiction and co-occurring disorders. Helping parents navigate teenage substance use is a specific area of expertise. She is the author of Teenland: A Parent’s Guide to Navigating the World of Adolescence, a resource she distributes directly.

Her professional experience includes work with professionals such as doctors, nurses, CEOs, and police officers who face work addiction, along with support for their family members. She has contributed to PTSD treatment through a program called Ponies North, headquartered in Las Vegas, which serves veterans coping with PTSD and other mood disorders. Dr. Kayanan has also treated a range of anxiety presentations, including Social Anxiety Disorder, Body Dysmorphia, and General Anxiety Disorder.

Her clinical methods draw from cognitive-behavioral therapy, person-centered approaches, solution-focused therapy, motivational interviewing, and neuro-linguistic programming. Dr. Kayanan emphasizes that change is possible at any age and approaches therapy as a collaborative partnership - she brings expertise in change and the client brings expertise about themselves.