Roxanna is a Clinical Psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience. She has studied and trained at the University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, where she got her License in Clinical Psychology, then trained at Massachusetts Mental Health Center, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, Boston; Massachusetts Institute of Spain, Madrid; The Ackerman Institute for the Family, New York; and the Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, DC.
She is licensed as a Clinical Professional Counselor in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. She has worked with individuals, couples and families using a psychodynamic, interpersonal approach and trauma informed therapist, working with adults and adolescents from diverse multicultural backgrounds.
Over the last 25 years, she has lived in the Washington, DC area, where she established her private practice. For 11 years, she worked in the Counseling Unit at the World Bank Group and IMF. These opportunities have helped her gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and richness of living in a different culture.
Most recently, she trained at the Washington Baltimore Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy. Drawing from her training, Roxanna employs an Attachment Theory approach to couples therapy. Her goal is to help couples reconnect with the feelings that brought them together, creating new strong connections, and changing negative patterns that create distress and detachment.
Roxanna loves helping her patients to gain a better understanding of their feelings and inner conflicts, make positive changes and healthy decisions, and reinforce their strength and confidence.
When we feel love, we feel more connected and secure.
SANDRA COHEN, MS, LCPC
Sandra is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in the State of Maryland and Washington, DC. She has practiced psychotherapy since 1990, and has experience working with adults, adolescents, couples, and families in a wide range of settings.
She received her Master's degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling from San Francisco State University. She trained at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto and the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, DC. Most recently, she trained at the Washington Baltimore Center for Emotional Focused Therapy.
Sandra has worked in a variety of settings including The Family Therapy Institute, Montgomery County Social Services, in public schools, and in private practice. She has been in the Washington, DC area for the last 28 years where she established her practice and continues to learn.
Sandra was born in Argentina and came to the United States in 1986. As an immigrant, she appreciates the complex process of adaptation many people go through when they come to this country. She realizes this is a process of learning and growing from the experience of starting a new life in a new culture. As your therapist, Sandra hopes to help you develop and attain goals that are important to you. She believes that by learning to be compassionate and to communicate with each other, we can create the conditions to make change possible.
Laurence Fabre-Welmond MSW-MSPH, LCSW-C
Laurence has a dual training in France as a clinical psychologist and in the U.S. as a clinical social worker. She is licensed in Maryland. She obtained a masters degree at the Ecole des Psychologues Praticiens in Paris. She also has a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
She has practiced as clinician for over thirty years. Laurence has worked with very young children, elementary, middle school and high school children, and adults in group and couple therapy settings. She has extensive international experience providing therapy services to national and international populations in France, the U.S., Vietnam, Benin and Côte d’Ivoire. She is bilingual, French and English.
With children, she has worked on sleep, feeding, and emotional self-regulation issues; ADHD; anxiety; learning differences; and adjustment to new cultures. She has also worked with children on the autism spectrum and has a certificate from the University of California in Davis in this area. With adults, she has worked on issues of anxiety, depression, adjustment disorder, and low self-esteem. In addition, she has provided parental training. She has also conducted couples therapy using non-violence communications approach.
Laurence has extensive experience and training using cognitive behavioral therapy, Rogerian play therapy, Acceptance Commitment Therapy, and psychodynamic short-term therapy. Laurence is committed to helping individuals, couples and families to understand their internal functioning and set goals to meet their full potential.
ROUA HIJAZI, MA, LPC, NCC
Roua is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Washington, DC, and is a certified counselor by the National Board for Certified Counselors.
She holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Counseling from the George Washington University (GWU), and has trained at the GWU Community Counseling Services Center. Over the past 4 years, she has been working as a counselor at the Health Services Department of the World Bank Group in Washington DC, has provided counseling services to other international organizations including the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Roua works in several modalities and settings, offering psychotherapy in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic to individuals, couples and families from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Roua finds that her experience in a multicultural setting informs and facilitates her work with diverse populations. Roua has experience helping individuals and couples cope with the challenges of transition and adaptation, acculturation, stress management, depression, anxiety, parenting concerns, and relationship conflict. Roua also has specialized training and experience in helping clients dealing with trauma and domestic abuse.
Roua strongly believes that providing a supportive and safe space for her clients to explore emotions, deal with challenges, and connect with their strengths, will help them make the desired changes.
Maria Loreto Valdes, LCPC
Maria Loreto received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology at Diego Portales University in Chile. Her postgraduate studies include a training program in psychodynamic therapy for children and adolescents, a certificate program in play therapy, and a certificate program in relational psychoanalysis for children and adolescents.
Maria has spent the vast majority of her career, which spans 20 years, in Chile, where she worked in diverse organizations as well as in her private practice. She lived in the Washington, DC area from 2004 to 2008, where she had the opportunity to work in a school environment and in a community clinic.
She is excited about being back in the Washington, DC area and continuing her practice here. Maria is expanding her horizons by dedicating her time to topics such as adult trauma and relational psychoanalysis.
Maria believes that the more we are aware of ourselves, the easier it will be for us to walk through the path of life in order to achieve our goals. She also believes that keeping a healthy mental life involves developing positive relationships with the people around us, so we feel connected, loved, and safe in the community we share.
Ivette Rodriguez-Santana, MSW, LCSW-C
Ivette is an enthusiastic psychotherapist with strong clinical skills and a demonstrated commitment to working with culturally diverse populations. She has worked with people from all backgrounds and age groups including young children, teens, and their families. She also has clinical experience and a special interest in working with adults and youth on the autistic spectrum. Fluent in English and Spanish, Ivette has practiced in various settings, including outpatient mental health and school-based clinics, as well as private group and solo practices.
For the last ten years, Ivette has dedicated herself to studying and training in psychoanalysis. In her view, it is an experience that helps us talk through our difficulties and a means of change. Together with her clients, she works to articulate their concerns, address their challenges, and find solutions that works best for them in order to create the future they want. Children use play and art as ways to express themselves, their problems and desires. Ivette holds a Master Degree in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Maryland-Baltimore and is licensed in Maryland and Washington DC. In addition to her MSW degree, she has a MA and a PhD in Sociology from Yale University and has extensive experience working with students in higher academic settings.
GALIT RUTSTEIN, LMSW, LGSW
Galit holds a Master's degree in Social Work from Adelphi University and got her certification as a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She has practiced therapy in various settings, including psychiatric hospitals, day treatment programs and private practices. She has worked with adolescents and adults dealing with anxiety, depression, life adjustments and grief. Galit integrates a holistic approach, viewing each individual as whole, with multiple modalities, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing and the Strength Based Approach to support and guide her clients in achieving their health goals. Galit creates safe space where her clients feel seen and heard, which she believes is paramount to the client-therapist relationship. She's currently licensed in MD and DC and works with adult women, including the elderly.
SARAH KOREISHI, LICSW
I am a licensed clinical social worker (VA/MD/DC) and I was trained extensively in trauma-informed care. My approach leans on cognitive behavioral therapy, but I will meet you where you are, and we can embark on this great journey of self-discovery together. My style is direct and nurturing, and I will follow your lead. By using warmth, humor, and active listening, I hope to create a space that allows you to feel safe to work through your challenges. I focus on building a strong client-therapist relationship where you feel comfortable sharing and growing. I am a first-generation American, which has largely shaped who I am. As a woman of color, there are complexities that have truly shaped my own development, both personally and professionally, which I feel has only enhanced my work as a therapist.. I come to you with a cultural lens based on my own life experiences, hoping to be able to bring that perspective to you.
Cira Canelas, LCPC
I am a clinical psychologist with a specialty in depth psychology and psychoanalysis. My passion in spiritual approaches to psychotherapy brought me to incorporate a variety of different methods that touch on the spiritual realm of our psyche. I am certified in Hakomi, Mindfulness and Meditation, Object Relations Psychoanalysis, and EMDR. I am currently studying Holotropic Grof Breathwork and Psychedelic Therapy.
I believe each of us has an innate wisdom and capacity for self-realization.With trust in these inner resources, I aim to help you connect with your own gifts and healing potential.Like a midwife, I facilitate this birthright.
My thirty years of professional training are grounded in my capacity to sit with my clients with what is present in the here and now, and intuitively access your deep reservoir of resilience and healing.I combine my psychodynamic training with different techniques and methods that I have incorporated throughout my many years of clinical practice such as mindfulness, EMDR, DBT, etc. Our work is to weave a safe environment and work with all that is within. In a space of emotional safety and companionship, we sit with hurt and trauma until the storm passes and clarity arises, and we open the way for healing, growth, and transformation.We work with the invisible and visible threads of the experiences that forms the tapestry of your life.
I invite you to sit together in the space of your deeper self and connect with your own unfolding.
pilar alfaro-palacios, lcpc
Pilar Alfaro-Palacios is a highly experienced and qualified therapist with over 30 years of practice in Bethesda/Chevy Chase, Maryland. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from George Washington University, as well as a Master's degree in Psychology and an equivalent Master's degree in School Counseling from Loyola University. Pilar has also completed two years of training in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is licensed as an LCPC (Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor) and has worked extensively with youth, adults, couples, and families.
Pilar has previously worked for Montgomery County Public Schools and is certified by the state of Maryland as both a School Counselor and a Pupil Personnel Worker. Her areas of specialization include anxiety, depression, cultural adjustment, third culture kids (individuals who have spent a significant portion of their developmental years outside of their parents' culture), cross-cultural counseling, parenting issues, bereavement, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pilar utilizes a variety of treatment modalities, including family systems therapy, mindfulness-based practices, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and trauma-informed interventions. She provides therapy for individuals, couples, and families and is committed to helping her clients achieve positive change and growth.