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.

My communication style shifts to try to accommodate each person I work with. I try to create a collaborative relationship with each client.

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 am a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) with 8 years of experience providing psychiatric care. My background includes inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care, as well as experience working with geriatric patients in long-term care settings. I specialize in medication management and support individuals experiencing anxiety, depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive challenges (OCD), personality-related challenges, and autism. I also work with clients navigating substance use, trauma, parenting challenges, caregiver burnout, and major life stressors. My goal is to create a supportive environment where clients feel heard and understood.

Our world continues to change, with its weight sometimes growing overwhelming and crushing. You are not alone. Together we’ll explore your feelings & thoughts while comprehending patterns in your history and life experience that have shaped you up to this moment. We’ll find a new space that feels more authentic, free, and connected through this work. We’ll manage and reduce your feelings of anxiety, depression, and other distressing thoughts. It is never too late to take control and redefine yourself in a controlled, safe, and open place. Whether this is your first time or you've decided to return to therapy, this is a strong data-backed investment into yourself and your future. You’ve already taken the first step by searching for a therapist. While reaching out to me can be difficult and anxiety-provoking, it can also empower, potentially defining the next chapter of your life. After advanced psychoanalysis training in NYC, I moved to Washington, DC, where I've lived and worked for over eight years with a broad and diverse variety of patients just like you. Together we'll create a space in which you’re fully heard and seen, where we start the process of uncovering exactly how you show up in your life. Thank you for taking the time.

It's time now to genuinely feel and function better. In order to do that, it's essential to pay close attention to your internal responses to the difficulties and patterns that have been cropping up in your closest relationships, your work, and with respect to your own self-concept, and to do so with someone who can help you see things differently and perhaps more accurately. Together, we will create an open, accepting, safe space, where you also will feel helpfully and persistently challenged to know yourself much better from the inside out, and as quickly as possible.

I am approved EMDRIA consultant. I provide a warm, empathic environment that allows you to explore the issues that have brought you to therapy. After this exploration I work with you to gain insight to the issues whether it be feeling "stuck" in the past, suffering with depression or anxiety, or a relationship, work or college concern. With this knowledge I work collaboratively with you to see you move to a place of action, to either process old memories that are keeping you "stuck", or to learn new skills to help you move forward. . I believe there is always hope and change is possible.

My work combines my personal knowledge and experiences of the special challenges and gifts that define the creative experience with insight work and mindfulness-based psychotherapy. I've worked with writers, musicians, dancers, painters, computer programmers, tattoo artists, and more, to help them work through creative issues, relationship problems, anxiety, and many other concerns. In my experience, people who have spent their lives developing their creativity have a unique skillset which is often overlooked as a place from which to draw strength and guidance in building relationships, coping with stress, and making life decisions. I tend to focus on strengths: you might be surprised at what you already know. You can read more about my work with creative people at my external site, linked at left.

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."

At Kaltum Counseling & Recovery, PLLC, I believe therapy should be a safe, supportive, and nonjudgmental space where clients feel heard, understood, and empowered. I specialize in working with teens, adults, and couples who are dealing with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, emotional burnout, relationship concerns, substance use challenges, and life transitions. Using a compassionate, culturally sensitive, and evidence-based approach, I support clients in strengthening coping skills, improving emotional wellness, and working toward meaningful healing, growth, and healthier relationships. My goal is to help clients feel supported while creating lasting, positive change.

My communication style is warm, open, and empathetic. I strive to create a safe space where you feel comfortable expressing yourself without fear of judgment. I believe in the power of active listening and am committed to understanding your unique experiences and perspectives.

My primary treatment approach is cognitive-behavioral which is solution-focused and generally shorter-term, however, in reality, we all generally benefit from a variety of therapeutic strategies and i will often utilize complementary and eclectic techniques that enables a more personalized treatment approach and relies on best practices for your specific issues. You will find me to be an active and engaged therapist and we will work together in a team-oriented and collaborative style. I often recommend activities to practice between sessions, and these might include a journal, trying out new communication skills and problem-solving or coping techniques that we have practiced, brief reading assignments, some research, relaxation techniques, and a variety of other options. I believe humor is an important element in the therapeutic process, and to life in general, and I strive to create a relaxing and trusting environment with my clients. I am very happy to answer any questions you might have, and if I am unsure, I will do all that I can to help point you in the right direction. I consider it an honor to assist clients on their personal journey in therapy. Participating in therapy is an important step in reclaiming your happiness and satisfaction and I take me role in providing assistance on that journey seriously as I appreciate the time, cost, and emotional investment of this choice.