Hi, I’m Danielle (she/her).
Most of my work is about relationships, sex, and intimacy — helping individuals and couples get closer to each other and to what they really want. I’m a licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) and a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP-II) in Washington, DC.
How I Work
Therapy with me is a collaboration. Clients tell me I’m warm and easy to talk to, and that our work feels less clinical than therapy they’ve had before.
We’ll look at where your patterns came from. Many of the ways we cope were learned in our families and early relationships, and they made sense at the time: they kept you safe and got you here. Some of them may now be in the way of the closeness you want. We’ll honor that and find a way to move toward what you want now.
Insight is important. And changing a pattern usually takes the body, too. Many of the people I see are thoughtful and accomplished — very good at analyzing their lives, and less practiced at noticing what they feel. So a lot of my work starts there. The body registers stress and emotion before we can put words to it. Learning to read those signals gives you more flexibility to respond instead of reacting out of habit.
I welcome all of who you are, and I pay attention to how identity, power, and privilege shape our lives and what happens in the therapy room. That includes race and culture. Whether you’re navigating predominantly white workplaces, cultural expectations from family, or a relationship across cultures, you won’t have to explain why it matters. As a clinician, I stay curious and treat you as the expert on your own experience. When I get something wrong, I’ll own it.
My Approach
I draw on research-informed approaches, including attachment, somatic, and mindfulness-based work and Internal Family Systems (IFS). My couples work is grounded in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), an attachment-based approach backed by more than two decades of research. I also draw from the Gottmans and Imago therapy.
I’m sex-positive, kink-affirming, LGBTQIA+ affirming, neurodivergent-affirming, and I work with people in monogamous, polyamorous, and other ethically non-monogamous (ENM) relationships. My practice is culturally responsive, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist. My clinical training includes a nine-month rotation at Whitman-Walker Health, and all of my work is trauma-informed.
Why This Work
Therapy is my second career. For more than a decade I worked in advocacy at Planned Parenthood and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That work was about freedom: having the information and care you need to be well in your body and to make your own decisions about your life and future. It’s still what I care about, now in a room with one or two people at a time. That background also means I know the particular pressures of professional life in DC, especially for people working in policy, politics, and nonprofits.
I bring that social justice lens into the therapy room, too. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and economic inequality do real harm to people’s safety, health, and opportunities. They show up in quieter ways, too, like shame about sex and pleasure or norms about who’s worthy of asking for what. Therapy can be a place to find and claim the power you do have. Pleasure, rest, boundaries, and naming and owning our needs can all be acts of resistance. So is claiming your identity and your desires on your own terms.
Education and Credentials
- Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), District of Columbia
- Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Level II (CCTP-II)
- MSW, The Catholic University of America
- MA, Art History, The University of Texas at Austin
- BA, Psychology, Austin College
Selected training: Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Externship (ICEEFT); Internal Family Systems Circle (IFS Institute); LGBTQIA+ behavioral health and trauma-informed care (Fenway Institute); Becoming an Antiracist & Anti-Oppressive Clinician with Dr. Han Ren and Dr. Raquel Martin; and race equity training going back to 2016.
Let’s Talk
If this sounds like a fit, reach out. I’m happy to answer questions before you decide anything.
