My goal is to create a calm and healing therapeutic environment. In this atmosphere, you are allowed to explore areas of challenges and personal growth.

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.

Typically I work with clients who have unresolved trauma and is still stuck in problematic behavioral patterns. They have often done some "talk therapy" in the past but didn’t really find it that helpful. I use more experiential methods to help you make lasting changes that improve your quality of life, not just provide stabilization. I’ve found that talk therapy can be one of the slowest ways to do therapy, and that if you ignore sensory input from the body, then you’re only doing therapy from the neck up. Whether you’re facing new challenges or struggling with ongoing circumstances, you may be feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, helpless, or anxious. You may also have slipped back into unhealthy patterns of behavior that you worked hard to change. I take a collaborative approach to therapy, and I’ll tell you up front that I don’t have a crystal ball or magic wand! I believe that we each have a unique journey, and while I do have education and training as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Maryland, I haven’t lived your life, and I’m not an expert on YOU.

Youth Crisis Residents provides short-term, stabilization-focused behavioral health treatment for adolescents and transitional-aged youth experiencing acute mental health symptoms, substance use concerns, or significant functional impairment. Our goal is to reduce crisis intensity, restore safety, and support youth in returning to home, school, and community with a clear, individualized plan. Our program provides partial hospitalization (PHP) and intensive outpatient (IOP) mental health and substance use services for adolescents (12-17) and transitional-aged youth (16-25). Services are offered virtually or in person in Maryland.

Life often presents us with difficulties and struggles. Sometimes having someone who is willing to listen without judging what you are going through can help you with sorting out your problems and difficulties. Telling your story enables you to come to terms with your current experiences. You may be dealing with difficult life events, feeling sad, anxious or depressed. Therapy can help you to learn coping skills and techniques to solve problems. I encourage you to reach out today to see how I can be of help to you. I have worked with clients with anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions and mood disorders. I enjoy helping those who struggle with a desire to change behaviors. I am passionate about working with those who are experiencing stress or anxiety and helping those dealing with problems with self-esteem or difficulties in their current or past relationships.

WE CAN HELP HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIP. "Why does my partner overreact?" "Why do I get so triggered?" "How come the punishment doesn't fit the crime?" “Why can’t he be more supportive?” “Is anything I do ever enough for her?” While you are feeling hurt, you have an added layer of confusion. You simultaneously love your partner and even hope to stay in this relationship to keep your love, family, and dreams intact. You are torn in a tug-of-war of emotions and desire to feel understood, accepted, and embraced by your partner. HEAL YOUR RELATIONSHIP AT ITS ROOT! Your dynamic is being driven by vulnerable and deep emotions. Those deep emotions are sensitive ‘raw spots' that are easily provoked and can cause you intolerable emotional discomfort- and leads to a “fight-or-flight” (anxious, angry, avoidant) response. This starts a negative cycle that creates more distance between you. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE! In therapy with us, you will learn strategies to respond differently and avoid slipping into old negative cycles of criticism, questioning, defensiveness, shutting down, and avoidance. We’ve helped HUNDREDS of people experience EMOTIONAL INTIMACY by learning how to effectively share and receive each other’s deeper emotions.

From my perspective life is about learning and growing. We have continual opportunities to learn and grow. Sometimes this means accepting ourselves and our situation with more realistic expectations- grieving or forgiving ourselves or others. Sometimes this means making a conscious choice about how we want to live differently and having the courage to make the first steps in that direction. As my mentor therapist used to say---- a therapist's role is to comfort the discomforted and discomfort the comfortable- we need both at different times. My role is to help guide you and walk with you in your journey. Thank you for the privilege and honor of walking with you and helping you navigate life in more balanced and authentic ways!

At Starobin Counseling we focus on helping people repair and strengthen their relationships with themselves and their relationships with others. We regard relationships as central to the therapeutic process. Some challenges in life are purely personal, but most problems express themselves in the intersections people have with other people. Therapy helps people repair their inner selves, often injured by relational ruptures, and learn and practice being in relational health with one another. Therapy helps people hear themselves think, experience feelings, gain new perspectives. We help people recognize and strengthen their own vitality and resiliency so they can unlock their capacity for compassionate and meaningful connections. We are a neurodiversity-minded, neurodiversity-affirming, gender-affirming, and culturally aware and sensitive practice.

I take a holistic approach that incorporates mind, body, and spirit. I believe it's important to integrate life meaning into counseling. I respect all faith backgrounds (including none), work within personal belief frameworks, and have appreciation for alternative paths as well as mainstream religions. I'll work with you to set goals and the proper pacing of therapy. Therapy is a collaboration, as ultimately the power to change rests within you. I emphasize unconditional positive regard, respect, a safe and caring therapeutic relationship, individual strengths, and taking control over choices.

If you’ve gone through something hard, and you’re having difficulty enjoying things, experiencing intrusive thoughts, anxiety, depression, or just not feeling like yourself, I will listen, help you find your footing, and guide you toward feeling like yourself again. Using a warm and supportive approach, I help adult women and men at all life stages who are coping with trauma and life stressors, toward symptom relief and more peace of mind. I have a special interest in reproductive mental health, including pregnancy and postpartum, as well as reproductive loss and trauma, and I am trained and certified as a perinatal mental health counselor (PMH-C) by Postpartum Support International.

There are times in all of our lives where we find ourselves at a crossroads. Do I continue on the path I am on, or is it time to pause, dig in, and face my fear, addiction, compulsion, hesitancy, anger, patterns, issues, struggles, etc.? This can be a very frightening crossroads, and having the courage to face ourselves, our past and what may be before us can be very fleeting. I meet people at this crossroads, and together we "dig in", and begin to explore what needs exploring, mend what needs mending, fight what needs fighting and forgive what needs forgiving. As they say in AA, I believe we are spiritual beings in physical world and as a Pastoral Counselor I am able and willing to explore how these two realities are integrated in our lives. Please feel free to give me a call with any of your questions or concerns.

Do you get extra nervous around other people—especially new people or people that you do not know very well? Do you find yourself overthinking everything you say because you are worried about saying the "wrong thing"? Or after a conversation, you replay the entire conversation in your mind and get stuck on worrying that you embarrassed yourself? Perhaps there is a social activity that you would like to do, but you avoid it due to how anxious it makes you feel? Everyone can have experiences like these sometimes, but if you find that anxiety about interacting with other people is interfering with your life, then social anxiety may be the cause. If so, then I can help: I specialize in working with people who are struggling with social anxiety. First, we'll do a thorough assessment just to make sure that social anxiety is the best explanation for what you are experiencing. If it is, you will learn to identify and challenge the thoughts and beliefs that are feeding into your anxiety, reduce the power of your thoughts and feelings, gradually confront the very situations that are making you feel so anxious, and move toward your values. By doing this, you can start to feel better. While that does not always mean that your anxiety will completely go away, it means that the anxiety will likely be much more manageable—you will be able to do more of what is important to you and actually enjoy it. To help determine whether working together would be a good fit, the next step is to schedule a free, 15-minute phone consultation—no pressure, just a conversation. You can schedule online by going to my website, send me a message (best way to reach me), or give me a call. I will get back to you very quickly, usually within 24 hours!