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Carol F. Blechl, LCSW

703-407-6067

cblechlCTA@gmail.com

 

Carol accepts Anthem PPO, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield and Tricare (as a non-participating provider)

Office Hours Monday thru Thursday

Professional Experience

 

Carol (she/her/hers) has over 20 years providing clinical social work and therapy services in both the public and private sectors of the Northern Virginia area. She started her career in Fairfax County Social Services working with at-risk elderly and incapacitated adults. She then worked for many years in community mental health at Prince William County Community Services Board (CSB) providing outpatient clinical services to seriously mentally ill and dually diagnosed adults. Services included intakes, diagnostic assessments and treatment planning; court ordered mental health evaluations; individual, group and family therapy; active case management services; risk assessment, crisis intervention and DBHDS Certified Preadmission hospital screenings. While at PWC CSB, she was a member of the Critical Incident Stress Management Team and as such was trained to provide psychological first aid, served as a member of the “Adopt a Firehouse” program and was a facilitator for “Emotional Personal Protection” training for PWC Fire/Rescue department.
 

Carol transitioned to the private sector in 2011 and worked as a psychotherapist with Kaiser Permanente, providing behavioral health services to adult patients. Services included psychotherapy evaluations, diagnostic assessments and treatment planning; individual and group therapy; telehealth services; functional assessments, risk assessments, crisis intervention and hospital prescreening. While at Kaiser she served as a member of Behavioral Health Department’s Unit Based Teams in order to improve quality of services and was also the Health and Safety Champion for the Burke Behavioral Health department.
Carol has been working in private practice since 2018.

Education

1. Virginia Commonwealth University; Arlington, VA

Master of Social Work, August 2000 (Micro/clinical concentration)

2. State University of New York/College at Brockport; Brockport, NY

Master of Arts (Psychology), December 1994 (Applied human services/behavior change)

3. State University of New York/College at Brockport; Brockport, NY

Bachelor of Science, December 1991 (Psychology major/Anthropology minor)

Magna Cum Laude

Additional Training

Carol has extensive training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and provides DBT skills training to clients both individually and in groups. DBT's main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions and improve their relationships with others. DBT was developed by Marsha Linehan and originally intended to treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It has since been adapted to treat many mental health struggles including those with emotional regulation difficulties or self-destructive behaviors.  You can find further information regarding DBT at https://behavioraltech.org.


Carol is also trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is a powerful therapeutic model that is shown to ease distress associated with PTSD, mood issues, attachment issues and simple or complex trauma. EMDR helps clients develop positive resources, as well as significantly improve client functioning by working through difficult memories or past experiences. For more information on EMDR please view Linda Curran’s website at https://www.trauma101.com.

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