Find a Therapist in Washington, DC

While providing honest, transparent, empathetic, and collaborative communication. I provide a safe, non-judgmental, and supportive space for you to share openly.

I work to foster an environment of open communication, where clients feel safe to express knowing they won't be judged or their concerns disregarded.

If you are struggling in your relationships, navigating a major life transition, or feeling stuck in patterns related to substance or behavioral addictions, you are not alone. Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable adults who find themselves repeating painful relational dynamics or feeling disconnected from the life they want to be living. Therapy can be a powerful place to understand why—and to begin doing something different. I specialize in working with adults from diverse cultural backgrounds who want more fulfilling relationships and a stronger sense of self. Together, we explore the patterns that may be contributing to your needs not being met. I help you to increase awareness of how these patterns developed and how they continue to show up in your life today. Insight is important—but real change happens through new experiences. When appropriate, I connect clients to therapy groups where they can practice new ways of relating and receive meaningful interpersonal feedback in a supportive environment.

I work collaboratively with my clients to help them learn new coping skills, create positive changes, and attain the goals they have for themselves. My clients view me as supportive, nonjudgmental, and practical. I work with professionals, including MDs and attorneys, as well as stay-at-home moms and students. I specialize in helping people manage anxiety and stress, perfectionism, self-esteem issues, codependency and relationship concerns, and depression. I also support clients who are navigating in vitro fertilization (IVF) and a challenging fertility journey. I help my clients create a more balanced, meaningful, and fun life for themselves. This can include managing negative self-talk, learning to be more assertive and set boundaries, and re-evaluating self-care.

Maybe you're a new parent wondering why this doesn't feel the way you expected. Maybe anxiety has been running the show for so long you've forgotten what calm feels like. Or maybe you're in the middle of a life transition — a move, a career shift, a relationship change — and you just need someone in your corner. I'm Shelby, and I get it. I specialize in working with women, couples, and individuals who are navigating the messy, overwhelming parts of life — especially the transition to parenthood, relationship struggles, and those seasons when everything feels uncertain. My approach is warm, collaborative, and grounded in your strengths. I'm not here to fix you — you're not broken. I'm here to help you reconnect with yourself, build skills that actually work, and find your footing again. We'll use mindfulness, practical tools, and honest conversation to help you move from surviving to thriving. I offer telehealth sessions across DC, MD, VA, NY, and FL. If you're ready to feel like yourself again, I'd love to hear from you.

I believe that our most important periods of growth come out of our most painful moments and circumstances. I have chosen this profession because I believe in the power of working though pain to a better end. I consider it a privilege and an honor to participate in your journey to wellness. I work to create a safe, non-judgmental space for you to explore, in-depth, the reasons for unwanted emotions or circumstances, allowing you to overcome your challenges and to be able to better cope. I am truly a generalist, trained to help with a wide range of concerns. However, I do have a few particular specialties. I specialize in the treatment of anxiety, depression, trauma, and disordered eating. I also specialize in couples therapy and in the treatment of children and adolescents. I am a certified Gottman couples therapist, and I use Play Therapy techniques when treating children. I am also trained in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Family Systems, Psychodynamic Treatment, and Trauma-Focused CBT. Please reach out to see if I might be the right therapist for you or your loved one.

I help individuals with issues such as depression, anxiety, relationships challenges, childhood trauma, stress, and families navigating behavioral issues. I teach my clients communication skills that improve their relationships. Those skills boost my clients' power and voice, as well as their intimacy with their significant others. I rely on a number of approaches, including Gestalt, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, somatic experiencing, and experiential dynamic psychotherapy. I help clients dealing with traumatic stress reduce panic, pain, numbness and hyper-arousal in response to life and relationships difficulties. I combine calming and relationship skills to help children, adolescents, and young adults reduce family discord and ADHD, and increase self-efficacy. I help my clients navigate their behaviors, emotions, cognition, and physiology. I help couples and individuals explore the ways that small changes in attitudes and stances can nurture new ways of feeling, thinking, and being in the world. I help my clients find new solutions so they can connect with a sense of joy and competence.

I am an internationally-known couples therapist, workshop presenter, and clinical trainer. In 2010, I founded the Tikkun Learning Center, an educational institution through which I train, supervise, and consult therapists in Encounter-centered Couples Therapy (EcCT). EcCT is an extremely effective method with proven success in teaching couples who to re-create the magic of connection. EcCT is an integrative approach inspired by the philosophy of Martin Buber, as well as a variety of relational methodologies including Imago Relationship Therapy, Appreciative Inquiry, Re-evaluation Counseling, and Relational Neuro-biology. I have developed a unique, customized, transformational two-day private session for one couple. You will receive my full attention, expertise and mastery, and I will introduce you to the groundbreaking and pragmatic principle of the three invisible connectors: "the Space, the Bridge, and the Encounter."

I strongly believe in your inherent ability to grow and change-- to survive neglect, hardship, and trauma and become stronger and more resilient. I help people find their strengths and learn to accept and even love their vulnerabilities. I teach coping skills and I listen intently.

I work with clients experiencing a broad range of concerns, including depression, anxiety, trauma related difficulties, and substance use issues. First and foremost, I believe that you are the most expert person about you. My role is to help you create a plan to reach your goals. I am integrative in my approach, drawing from several evidence-based modalities depending on individual needs and goals. I also believe that there can be therapeutic value in humor during the hard work of therapy. You can visit my website to learn more by clicking on the link.

Do you have the same fights? Does anything ever get resolved? Do you long for a simpler time when things were better between you and your partner? Do you talk only about logistics and the kids? Are you roommates and want to be lovers? Do you feel alone even though you are surrounded? Are you stuck in your relationship? I understand. I've helped numerous couples learn new skills, develop a better process for resolving differences and navigating life so that .... at minimum, you like each other at the end of the day. In my work, I include individual and couples therapy and add group therapy when the time is right. With this 360-degree view of each individual in the couple, the patient is able to see their self-defeating patterns and practice new skills in couples and groups to become a better partner. I also work with individuals in their work roles in a similar fashion.

Psychotherapy can help you claim and enjoy more in your life. We can all use help in finding our way at different times in our lives. You may be ready for more happiness in your life, more satisfaction, creativity, success, confidence, peace, friendships - or greater depth to your relationships. You may not have been able to find it on your own. I have experience, training, compassion and a mindful approach that can help you develop traction on the path that is truly yours. My focus is on helping you develop your ability to see yourself, your circumstances and your challenges with a fresh eye, allowing your to create the changes in your life that you really want. To the work that we can do together, I bring over fifteen years of experience as a psychotherapist, plus a depth of understanding from my experience as a husband and father and from my experience as a firefighter and paramedic. The work that I do is not about being broken or ill; it is about being more alive: * Shifting away from negative anticipation and belief in powerlessness, toward actualizing your own authentic power and vitality * Increasing creativity in your life * Living a life infused with clarity as to the abundance available to you, on place of an expectation of scarcity * Discovering the relief and pleasure in living authentically, honestly, as the "real you" * Feeling your feelings, all of them, more fully and with less fear * Finding the pleasure of taking relationships to a deeper level; enlivening friendships and reinvigorating relationships gone stale * Moving beyond the pain of the past - physical, emotional, spiritual or otherwise; letting go of outdated, limiting ideas or beliefs about yourself and finding joy in being alive. You can do this. We'll work to get you there.