My communication style is calm, caring, and supportive. I feel my role is to support not judge my clients. I am aware that each person is unique and has different needs. My goal is to make each person feel comfortable and validated.

YOU are in the driver’s seat. YOU are the expert when it comes to the vision you have for your life. As your Therapist, my goal is to come alongside you on your life journey—-in the passenger seat, so to speak, and offer insights and options for living your best life. I want you to feel safe, heard, understood and valued.

Many people come to therapy because they are tired of surviving. They may be struggling with the effects of trauma, grief and loss, relationship challenges, anxiety, depression, or life transitions that have left them feeling disconnected from themselves and others. I believe our struggles make more sense when they are understood within the context of our life experiences, relationships, and the environments that shaped us. The ways we learn to trust, protect ourselves, connect with others, and understand our worth are often influenced by experiences that occurred long before we recognized their impact. My approach is trauma-informed, attachment-based, and culturally responsive. I work with individuals, couples, and families to explore patterns that may no longer serve them, heal unresolved wounds, strengthen relationships, and build a greater sense of clarity, connection, and purpose. I integrate EMDR and other evidence-based approaches to help clients process difficult experiences while developing new ways of relating to themselves and others. Therapy is not about fixing what is broken. It is about understanding your story, recognizing your strengths, and creating space for healing, growth, and meaningful change.

It is my highest responsibility to provide a safe environment that induces my client's trust and alliance. I am on my client's journey without being judgmental. Each client is unique and each client well-being is of the uttermost importance. My client's needs and desires are highly considered. The therapy I provide allows my clients to address their concerns, fears, and issues. I assist my clients in finding ways to better communicate and to resolve issues without engaging in conflict. My client's who seek relationship counseling engage in a process that requires their active participation so that they are able to utilize coping skills, techniques, and mechanisms they can use outside of counseling. My office enables my clients to experience an environment that is safe, tranquil and serene. Clients are able to learn more about themselves, their partners, and their families.

My clients describe me as warm, accepting and non-judgmental. I believe that finding the right therapist for you is an important part of having a positive experience in therapy. I work collaboratively with my clients with the goal of helping them better understand themselves and lead a more balanced and fulfilled life. I help my clients to think about their problems and relationship in new ways by offering support and feedback about behavioral and relationship patterns. While I do not offer direct advice, I am active and participatory in each session with my clients.

If there is one thing I hope you take away from an encounter with me, it is this: you are precious and valuable. That belief is at the heart of what I call Treasure Therapy. I believe every person has inherent dignity and worth, even when life, relationships, failure, shame, conflict, or loss have made it difficult to feel that way. My passion is engaging people in deeper therapeutic encounters that lead toward hope, meaning, connection, growth, and healing. I am especially passionate about helping people understand the deeper patterns shaping their lives and relationships. Rather than focusing only on symptoms or surface-level solutions, I work from a whole-person perspective that considers your emotions, relationships, history, body, beliefs, values, sexuality, spirituality, and the systems you are part of. Couples therapy is one of my primary specialties, and it has been for more than 15 years. With a PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy, I am trained to understand not only each partner individually, but also the relational system they create together: the patterns of attachment, conflict, intimacy, communication, and protection that can keep even loving couples stuck. My role is not to decide who is right or wrong. It is to understand the relationship itself, help each partner feel heard, identify the cycle underneath the conflict, and help you create a healthier, more connected way of relating. I work with couples dealing with recurring conflict, emotional disconnection, communication difficulties, trust injuries, sexual and intimacy concerns, differences in desire, parenting stress, life transitions, attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) and neurodivergence within relationships, and questions about whether or how the relationship can move forward. I also enjoy working with couples who are not in crisis, but want greater closeness, emotional safety, intimacy, and depth. I also work with individuals around relationships, ADHD and neurodivergence, self-worth, anxiety, depression, sexuality, intimacy, identity, spiritual questions, life transitions, and the challenge of integrating the different parts of ourselves into a more satisfying life. I have been counseling individuals, couples, families, and groups since 2007. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Maryland, Washington, DC, and California, and I am approved by Maryland to provide clinical supervision to therapists in training. My approach is evidence-based, but I also believe therapy should feel human. You should not feel like a diagnosis, a checklist, or a problem to be fixed. Good therapy should involve curiosity, honesty, compassion, challenge, and real engagement. I want to understand not only what is happening in your life, but also what it means to you, and what kind of life and relationships you want to create. Because I am also a former pastor, I can integrate faith and spirituality into therapy for clients who want that. For some people, faith is a central source of meaning, hope, identity, and strength. For others, religion may be complicated, painful, or not important at all. You do not need to share my beliefs, or hold any religious beliefs, to feel welcome here. I work with people of many faiths, backgrounds, identities, cultures, relationship experiences, and life choices. My goal is not to impose my worldview on you, but to understand yours and help you live more fully in alignment with what matters to you. Outside the therapy room, I have been married for nearly two decades, and I am the father of two boys. I understand personally that relationships do not happen in a laboratory. Marriage, parenting, work, stress, health, sex, money, faith, family history, and ordinary exhaustion all interact in real life. If you are looking for a therapist who will go deeper than surface-level advice, who understands the complexity of relationships, and who will engage you with warmth, honesty, and respect, I would be glad to work with you. Whether you are trying to repair a relationship, deepen one that is already good, rediscover intimacy, understand yourself better, heal from something painful, or simply become more fully who you are, I believe there are treasures within you worth discovering.

Working from a trauma-informed, non-pathologizing, strengths-based, systems model of care, I work to help you better understand the impact of trauma on mental health and relationships. I specialize in the treatment of trauma across a full spectrum of conditions, including the use of dissociation, addictions, self-harm, and eating disorder behaviors, as well as challenged family systems, mood disorders, and maternalparental mental health issues. I have many years of advanced trainings and experience to help clients in therapy make and maintain positive changes, find needed resources, and work from personal strengths. You can learn much more about my style of care by reading the articles on our website blog - I have been writing those for 5+ years.

My philosophy and approach to helping clients is to do a thorough assessment and develop a treatment plan that is characteristic of that client and guide clients through therapy to healing. Each client has a uniqueness about them and my work is finding it and helping that client realize it and live in it. Perception is the key to understanding. Awareness is the key to realization.

Erica is licensed in the state of Virginia as a licensed professional counselor, a licensed addictions treatment practitioner, and a board-certified art therapist. She has an extensive history of working with clients suffering from co-occurring disorders. Erica feels that the therapeutic value of art has the opportunity to heal, empower, and engage those isolated due to their addiction, depression, anxiety, fears, anger, and pain.

I help people change through developing a greater awareness for all of themselves, which allows them greater resources to deal with the struggles that they are experiencing. As clients develop greater awareness of themselves, including their wants, needs, emotions, and ways of relating to others, they tend to develop a wider range of choices in their lives. They learn to recognize what they do that keeps them from being their best selves. They also learn to tap into and use their own internal wisdom to help guide their choices, developing a greater authenticity in their lives. In relationships, couples and families develop greater intimacy and ability to use conflict to further their relationship through their greater awareness of themselves and their other family members. People I work with also learn with guidance and coaching to experiment with new ways of being with themselves and others in the world, which furthers their growth and development into more happy, fulfilled human beings. As an experienced psychotherapist and former graduate psychology professor, I have developed a wide range of expertise in helping others. I am honored and humbled by the courage and spirit of the people I work with and the struggles they face. I feel privileged to help people come to terms with pain, face challenges, and change their lives.

If you are interested in scheduling an appointment with one of our therapists, please use the contact form on our WEBSITE www.imaracounseling.com and a member of our intake team will be in touch with you within 24 business hours. Unlike many other practices you reach out to, we will respond and do our best to schedule you with someone who can assist you.

I’m a Psychologist who uses a contemporary psychoanalytic approach that looks beneath the surface to understand patterns, emotions, and the deeper story shaping your life. My style is warm, curious, and collaborative. I don’t just listen; I help you connect the dots. Together, we make meaning of your struggles, fostering lasting change, healing, and a more authentic way of living.