Nancy L. Johnston

Nancy L. Johnston, MS, LPC, LSATP, MAC, NCC is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioner in private practice in Virginia, US with 49 years of clinical experience.

She has authored four books on codependency: Disentangle: When You've Lost Your Self in Someone Else 2nd Edition (2020), My Life as a Border Collie: Freedom from Codependency (2012), The Clinician’s Codependency Treatment Workbook: 66 Self-Recovery Strategies for Clients Who Lose Themselves in Others (2024), and You. Here. Today.: 200 Readings for Growth from Codependency to Self-Recovery (2026).

A sought-after speaker and trainer, Nancy has been a faculty member with the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, The Ferentz Institute, and numerous other professional conferences including Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders, the American Mental Health Counselors Association’s Annual Conference, and the Virginia Counselors Association’s Annual Conference. Her work was recently featured in a New York Times article on enmeshment in relationships.

Working with PESI, Nancy has created training seminars for clinicians on treating codependency, including “The Codependency Treatment Guide: CBT, Somatic Strategies and More to Disentangle Clients from Dysfunctional Relationships and Recover Self” (2022), and “Advanced Codependency Treatment: A Complete Guide to CBT, Somatic, and Family of Origin Strategies to Disentangle Clients from Toxic Relationships and Recover Self” (2025).

Nancy also offers online self-recovery workshops and delights in designing and facilitating Codependence Camp biannually at a retreat center in Virginia.