Alexandra Wojda-Burlij, Ph.D.

I am a licensed clinical psychologist, providing virtual care in the state of Pennsylvania. I started Compass & Anchor Psychotherapy because I believe that the quality of your close relationships — and your sense of yourself within them — shapes everything: how you feel, how you function, and how much of your life you are able to fully inhabit. My work as a therapist is built on that belief.

I bring a cognitive-behavioral perspective to both individual and couple therapy, which means I am interested in the function of behavior — not just what you do, but why and what purpose it has been serving you. I take your context seriously — your relationships, your values, your environment — and I work with you to understand the patterns that have been keeping you stuck, so that together we can begin to shift them.

About Me

I earned my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, I trained with Dr. Don Baucom, co-founder of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) — a formative experience that has deeply shaped my clinical approach and expertise. Since 2018, my work in couple therapy has spanned clinical, supervisory, and educational roles. I have taught workshops on CBCT and supervised therapists at a wide range of experience levels. For over two years, I served as a clinical consultant for the National Health Service in England to support therapists learning behavioral couple therapy for depression.

I completed my predoctoral internship at the Durham VA Medical Center and advanced postdoctoral training at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. Together with my experiences at UNC, I have received extensive training in a variety of settings (e.g., outpatient, primary care) with multiple different populations (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma, emotion dysregulation) and in a variety of evidence-based treatments. These include cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression, exposure therapy for anxiety disorders, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD, Conjoint Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT).

In addition to being the founder of Compass & Anchor Psychotherapy, I am also a researcher at New York University (NYU) studying couple and family relationships. Over the past 10 years, I have published peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and have received grant funding for my work on romantic relationships.

Education, Training, & Research

  • As a researcher at NYU, I study romantic relationships, with a particular focus on couples coping with stress, family maltreatment, and difficult life transitions. My work lies at the intersection of “basic science” (examining relationship behaviors, like couples’ communication) and intervention development and dissemination.

  • Under the supervision of Dr. Steven Sayers (former director of the Philly VA’s Couple Therapy Clinic), I continued my research on couples coping with stress and trained intensively in Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT).

  • I received intensive training in individual and group-based treatments for trauma, PTSD, and related problems, including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), Conjoint Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Here, I also received training to provide therapy for older adults experiencing chronic health problems.

  • I trained under the mentorship of Dr. Don Baucom (co-founder of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy [CBCT]), where I developed my expertise as a clinician, researcher, and educator on romantic relationships. I received additional clinical training at UNC Hospital and Duke University, and helped direct UNC’s Couple Therapy Clinic for over two years, where I trained and supervised other students in CBCT.

  • I was raised in Brooklyn, New York and attended Hunter College. This is where my passion for studying couples and families all began.

  • Wojda-Burlij, A. K., Otto, A. K., Heyman, R. E., Xu, S., Lapshina, N., & Reblin, M. (2026). Testing the generalizability of couple communication typologies: A multi-site replication and extension study. Journal of Family Psychology, 40(4), 603-613. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001438

    Wojda-Burlij, A. K., Swinkels, C., Dedert, E. A., Sayers, S. L., & VA VISN 6 Mid-Atlantic MIRECC Workgroup. (2026). Comorbid psychopathology symptoms and relationship functioning among post-9/11 veterans: A latent profile analysis. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000301

    *Article featured in Auburn University’s Military REACH Newsletter (June 2026)

    Baucom, D. H., Wojda-Burlij, A. K., & Fischer, M. S. (invited submission 2024). Weekly outpatient conjoint treatment for adult psychopathology. In L. Reuman & J. Thompson Hollands (Eds.), Enhancing CBT through peer and family engagement. Springer Nature.

    Falconier, M. K., Wojda-Burlij, A. K., & Conway, C. A. (2024). Dyadic coping moderates the association between financial stress and psychological well-being among low-income couples. International Journal of Stress Management, 31(4), 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000338

    Wojda-Burlij, A. K., Baucom, D. H., Weber, D. M., & Christensen, A. (2024). The heterogeneity of intimate partner violence and its associations with distressed couples’ emotional communication. Journal of Family Psychology, 38(7), 1051–1062. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001242

    Wojda, A.K., Baucom, D. H., Weber, D. M., Heyman, R. E., & Slep, A. M. S. (2022). The role of intimate partner violence and relationship satisfaction in couples’ interpersonal emotional arousal. Journal of Family Psychology, 36(3), 385-395. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000911

    Weber, D. M., Wojda, A. K., Carrino, E. M., & Baucom, D. H. (2021). Love in the time of COVID-19: A brief report on relationship and individual functioning among committed couples in the United States while under shelter-in-place orders. Family Process, 60(4), 1381-1388. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12700

    Wojda, A. K., Heyman, R. E., Slep, A. M. S., Foran, H. M., Snarr, J. D., & USAF Mental Health Division. (2017). Family violence, suicidality, and substance abuse in Active Duty military families: An ecological perspective. Military Behavioral Health, 5(4), 300-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/21635781.2017.1343698

Let’s work together.

If you’d like to see whether we might be a good fit, sign-up for a free 15-minute consultation. Your journey starts here.

Book a Consultation