Meet Ingrid
About Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT
Washington-based therapist specializing in religious trauma and faith deconstruction, chronic pain, and couples therapy.
Many of my clients have already tried therapy by the time they find me.
Maybe you've done some therapy before, and some of it was useful, but the conversations stayed at the level of coping skills and communication techniques without ever getting to what was underneath.
That's usually because the issues were more connected than they appeared. The chronic pain and the trauma are connected, the faith transition and the marriage tension are connected, the way your body responds during an argument and the way you learned to handle emotions as a kid are connected. Most of the time, these things aren't separate problems. They're one situation showing up in different parts of your life, and having a therapist who treats it that way makes all the difference.
That's what I've built my practice around.
My clinical training taught me how to help people. My own life taught me why this work matters. I've been through my own faith transition and chronic pain recovery. I don't lead with that in sessions, but it shapes the way I listen, and my clients tend to feel the difference.
How I work
Your body is part of the conversation.
In our sessions, I pay close attention to what your body is doing while we talk. The tension in your chest when you mention your marriage, the way your shoulders climb toward your ears when your parents come up, the knot in your stomach when you think about going to church, those reactions are telling us something important, and I’ll ask you about them directly.
My primary modalities are Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples, EMDR and somatic therapy for trauma, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy for chronic pain, and I weave them together based on what’s happening in the room.
With the couples I work with, that means I’m tracking the trauma responses that show up during arguments so we can work with what’s driving the conflict at the root, not just the words used on the surface.
With my chronic pain clients, I’m working with the way your brain and nervous system have learned to produce pain even when there’s no structural damage, which means the pain itself can shift, not just your ability to tolerate it.
With my individual clients, I’m paying attention to your body, your relationships, and your beliefs all at once, because they’re usually all part of the same picture.
A lot of my clients come to me because their situation feels layered, chronic pain tangled up with religious trauma, a faith transition straining a marriage, a couple where one partner's trauma history keeps surfacing in fights neither of them fully understands.
If your life feels like it needs someone who can hold the whole picture at once, that’s exactly what I do.
Who I work with
I specialize in three areas that often overlap in my clients’ lives:
Chronic pain that medicine hasn't been able to fully explain or resolve, back pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, IBS, tension headaches, and other conditions where the nervous system is driving the pain rather than structural damage. I use Pain Reprocessing Therapy, an evidence-based approach that treats the source of neuroplastic pain rather than just managing symptoms.
Religious trauma and faith deconstruction for people navigating the loss of a belief system that shaped everything, from their identity and relationships to their understanding of their own body. I bring both clinical training and lived experience to this work.
Couples navigating faith differences for partners where one person is deconstructing and the other is holding on, or where the beliefs you once shared no longer align and neither of you knows how to talk about it without it turning into a fight. Faith transitions don't just change what you believe, they change how you parent, how you spend your weekends, who your friends are, and what your marriage is built on. I help couples work through all of that together.
Couples therapy for partners whose conflicts are driven by more than just miscommunications. They are often going through trauma responses, faith transitions, or chronic health issues. I use Emotion-Focused Therapy as my foundation and integrate somatic and trauma-informed interventions.
What to expect
My website is designed to give you a clear picture of who I am and how I work, but nothing replaces being in the room together. That’s why our first session is a real session. We’ll get into what brings you to therapy, I'll start paying attention to what's happening in your body, and by the end of the hour you'll have a clear sense of what working together will look like long-term
Most clients work with me weekly, and the average course of treatment is about a year, though some people need more or less depending on what they’re working through.
My background
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Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) — trained in the evidence-based approach developed by Alan Gordon for treating neuroplastic pain, grounded in the landmark Boulder Back Pain Trial published in JAMA Psychiatry.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) — 40-hour basic training through the EMDR Institute (2021), plus advanced training in complex trauma and dissociation with Carol Forgash (2023).
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) — ongoing advanced training in the primary evidence-based modality for couples therapy, rooted in attachment theory.
Somatic Therapy for Trauma — over 20 hours of specialized training with Abi Blakeslee through PESI, covering foundational body-based techniques, healing implicit trauma memories, and creating healthy attachment through somatic work (2024).
Gottman Method Couples Therapy — Level 1 trained.
Sex Therapy — completed the Sexual Attitude Reassessment (SAR), Advanced Clinical Sexology (46 hours), and Out of Control Sexual Behavior training through AASECT-approved programs.
Additional specialized training includes:
Polyvagal Theory, Mindful Self-Compassion, Internal Family Systems, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, OCD treatment (including Pure O subtypes), suicide assessment and intervention, telehealth best practices, family law for mental health professionals, and ethics in spirituality and religion.
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Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy Seattle Pacific University, 2016
Certificate in Medical Family Therapy and Collaborative Medicine Seattle Pacific University, 2016
Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication University of Washington, 2004
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) Washington State License #LF61033631
Medical Family Therapist (MDFT) Advanced certification in collaborative, integrative healthcare
Clinical Research Associate Seattle Children’s Research Institute
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American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) — the leading professional organization for marriage and family therapists, requiring adherence to a strict code of ethics and ongoing professional development.
