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Anu Rao, Psy.D. is a post-doctoral resident at The Center for Cognitive Therapy and Assessment in Fall Church, VA and Alexandria, VA. Dr. Rao has experience working with individuals across the lifespan and has a particular interest in anxiety, mood disorders, grief, trauma, ADHD, interpersonal and relational issues, and life cycle transitions. Additionally, Dr. Rao provides comprehensive psychological assessments for individuals of all ages.
Dr. Rao received her doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and has years of experience with individual, couple, and family therapy. She has been trained in Gottman Couples Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). She has experience in various and diverse treatment settings such as private practice, school-based therapy, and community mental health. Most notably, she worked in an elementary and middle school setting following the COVID-19 pandemic, providing therapy to children, adolescents, and parents faced with grief/loss, attentional, and behavioral challenges as a result.
Dr. Rao prides herself on her use of integrative evidence-based practices (e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic, DBT, etc) combined with an individualized and collaborative approach to treatment. She believes in approaching from a place of curiosity to understand an individuals and/or family’s unique challenges and stressors by meeting them where they are. She further believes in creating a safe, warm, and trusting environment to encourage clients development of self-empowerment and coping skills.
As the Center for Cognitive Therapy and Assessment celebrates our 20th anniversary, we are also announcing that starting this fall, we will be changing the name of our practice to Expand Psychology. This change reflects our commitment to meet the ever evolving mental health needs of our clients and the community.
Since our founding, our clinical team has developed to include specialists who provide a wider range of evidence-based therapies, allowing us to serve additional client populations from infancy through adulthood, expanding our ability to work with the entire family system. Our new name captures the depth of our current services, including our ability to provide psychological testing and autism evaluation for all ages.
A new website will launch on October 3, 2025 – with a wider scope of mental health services to support you.
We continue to accept new clients during the transition and you can reach out to us via our online form at on current site, at contact@centerforcbtva.com, or phone at 703-618-0900.
