Group Psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy offers the opportunity for you to process emotional or social challenges in a supportive environment with other clients who are experiencing similar challenges. All groups are led by experienced and licensed psychotherapists. Many of our groups focus on LGBTQ+ issues of identity and expression, while some groups focus on behavioral health issues like relationships, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), or understanding problematic behaviors and emotions.
Group therapy is available to both existing medical patients and non-patients. For non-WWH patients, find out more about how to become a patient here:
There are two main ways to learn more about groups, find out about openings, and begin the screening process. Please note that for certain groups, the facilitator may ask you to complete an additional screening before joining the group:
- For current Health Center patients, you can request a behavioral consult for a group from your medical provider. Just let your provider know that you would like to speak with a Behavioral Health Specialist.
- Non-patients of the health center can get more information about groups by emailing Adam Chavis at achavis@whitman-walker.org.
Current Therapy Groups
When Words Aren’t Enough
This is a space for BIPOC folx to explore, heal, and grow using the power of creativity.
Join us for an 8-week expressive arts therapy group. This is a space for BIPOC folx to explore, heal, and grow using the power of creativity. Learn to communicate feelings through paint, collage, movement, drama, talk, and more. This is a safe space; no artistic or creative background necessary.
For more info, contact Nakea at: njeffers@whitman-walker.org
Aging with PRIDE
This group is designed for people 60+ who identify as part of the LGBTQ community.
The group addresses mental health concerns as we age in our society. This is a process group that provides a place to share, learn, get support, and connect with others facing similar challenges. Some topics include managing multiple medical conditions, isolation/loneliness, coping with loss, sex/dating as a senior, our legacy, and staying active/socialization.
To learn more, contact: dfacenda@whitman-walker.org
Mask Off
This space is for Black cismen, transmen, and non-binary individuals who feel a connection to manhood and masculinity.
To that little Black boy who was never shown patience and grace, who never felt seen or heard, or who was never taught the language or tools to embody love and liberation, this group is for you. For that Black man who never felt permission to express yourself, the freedom to find yourself, or the inspiration to share your light with the world, this group is for you. This space is for Black cismen, transmen, and non-binary individuals who feel a connection to manhood and masculinity. This is a behavioral health space with a barbershop feel. Cuss, cut up, feel, heal – take your Mask Off.
- Process personal barriers to growth (e.g., shame, anger, etc.)
- Increase self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence
- Cultivate a sense of belonging and social interest…
Through restorative play, emotion-focused experiencing, and counter-storytelling.
Facilitator: DeLante Fludd, LGPC
For more information: dfludd@whitman-walker.org
Pen Paper Process
Come to understand how emotions, actions, and problems shape the stories that we hold. Your story is welcome here
Come to understand how emotions, actions, and problems shape the stories that we hold. Your story is welcome here. This is a:
- Safe space to process diverse narratives
- Way to heal life’s stuck-points and conflicts through creative writing
- Place to understand life conflicts like depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, hardship, heartbreak, and relationships
- Creative opportunity to bring closure to endings and pen new beginnings
Wednesdays 4:30PM – 5:45PM
Group Facilitators: Ayushi Bansal, LPC & DeLante Fludd, LGPC
For more information: dfludd@whitman-walker.org
A Compassion Series: For the Souls of Black Women
Please join us for a special series for Black, African-American, Caribbean, African, and all women of African Descent who identify as woman, female, and/or femme.
Group Facilitator: Nakea Jeffers
Please join us for a special series for Black, African-American, Caribbean, African, and all women of African Descent who identify as woman, female, and/or femme. This series will aim to invite compassion while holding space for issues that uniquely impact Black women – including, but not limited to: racism and colorism, (hair) texturism, trauma, grief and loss, relationships, love, sex and intimacy, physical and emotional labor, misogyny, isms, phobias, stereotypes, mental health and minority stress. Special space will be given to honoring identity, exploring personal narratives and disrupting the stories that no longer serve, and celebrating deliberate joy and self-care.
This group is open to all Black women and embracing of our transgender and non-binary sisters. We intend to create a healing space to find support, to build community, and to reclaim our voice.
Group Facilitator: Nakea Jeffers, LGSW
To learn more, contact: njeffers@whitman-walker.org
Understanding Your Use
Understanding Your Use is a group at Whitman-Walker Health that is designed to be a first step in thinking about/receiving addiction treatment at Whitman-Walker.
Group Facilitators: Emily Marion & Agustin Aguirre
Are you struggling with the impact of substance use on your life? This group is designed as a safe and non-judgmental space to talk about your relationship with substance use. Explore the behaviors you may wish to adjust, change, or revise. Discover tools, learn about addictive processes, self‐assess where you are in the stages of change, and take control of the changes you want to see. Please join us in this space for support.
Group Facilitators: Emily Marion, LICSW & Agustin Aguirre, LICSW
Coming This Summer
For more information: aguirreherrerra@whitman-walker.org
Understanding Your Nervous System
Learn how to work with your natural nervous system responses instead of against it.
Time TBD
Group Facilitator: Agustín Aguirre Herrera
Learn how to work with your natural nervous system responses instead of against it. In this short-term psychotherapy group, you’ll learn the basic concepts of self-regulation through mind-body education and experiential exercises. You will develop the tools to be better partners with your body, allowing for increased healing and emotional well-being.
Group Facilitator: Agustín Aguirre Herrera
To learn more, contact: aaguirreherrerra@whitman-walker.org
My Own Creation
A support group for individuals seeking gender affirming surgery.
My Own Creation is a support group for individuals seeking gender affirming surgery. Our goal is to provide support through the surgery preparation process and recovery by helping participants make conscious decisions about surgery, increase self-advocacy, and plan for recovery. We will use mindfulness and creative reflection tools to increase self-awareness and enhance the mind-body connection. This group is open to all individuals seeking gender affirming surgery and is not limited to one identity or type of surgery.
Contact AJ Holt to find out more: aholt@whitman-walker.org
Trans Stress Reduction Group
This weekly therapy group emphasizes mindfulness practices and stress reduction skills.
Tuesday Evenings
Group Facilitator: AJ Holt
This weekly therapy group emphasizes mindfulness practices and stress reduction skills. This group is intended to be held for all people who identify as trans — this includes non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender expansive, or even just in the beginning stages of exploring gender identity. This group aims to invite more compassion and less judgment when approaching experiences of dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and even trauma/grief – so that members can experience being fully present for their transition and journey toward living authentically.
Tuesday Evenings
Group Facilitator: AJ Holt, LPC
To learn more, contact: aholt@whitman-walker.org
Families in Transition
Are you the parent, guardian or caregiver of a transgender or gender-expansive youth? This is a psychoeducational/psychotherapy group to help support you with some of your questions and challenges in raising a young person going through gender transition.
Thursday Evenings
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW
Are you the parent, guardian or caregiver of a transgender or gender-expansive youth? This is a psychoeducational/psychotherapy group to help support you with some of your questions and challenges in raising a young person going through gender transition. Group is held 3-4 per year for 4 session cycles.
Thursday Evenings
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org
Sex Drive
Sex Drive is a sex-positive process group designed to explore your relationship with sex.
Thursday pm – via Zoom
Group Facilitator: James Johnson
Sex Drive aims to help you get back into the driver’s seat and approach sex in ways that feel right for you. This is a sex-positive process group to explore your relationship with sex and your personal definition of a healthy and fulfilling sex life. We will work on noticing the differences between present and disconnected sex, improving communication with current and potential partners, defining enjoyable solo sex, examining any behaviors you consider compulsive, and identifying old messages about sex that no longer work for you.
Thursday pm – via Zoom
Group Facilitator: James Johnson
For more information email: jjohnson@whitman-walker.org
Thriving with HIV
This group is designed for people who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years.
Thursday Mornings
Group Facilitator: David Facenda, LICSW
This group is designed for people who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years. The group addresses issues of being a long-time survivor of HIV and aims to help members improve their quality of life. Some topics include aging with HIV, managing multiple medical conditions, dealing with intimacy and coping with loss.
Thursday Mornings
Group Facilitator: David Facenda, LICSW
To learn more, contact: dfacenda@whitman-walker.org
Freedom from Eating Disorders
Freedom from Eating Disorders is designed to be a safe space to talk about one’s relationship with food, their body, and recovery.
Tuesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW
Freedom from Eating Disorders is designed to be a safe space to talk about one’s relationship with food, their body, and recovery. This is a process group for frank discussions about disordered eating/eating disorders/negative body image and following one’s path to wellness. Members can display a variety of symptoms, such as restricting food, binging where large quantities of food is consumed in a short period of time, purging behaviors using diuretics, laxatives, over exercising, and/or vomiting. Group participants can expect non-judgmental support and compassion from two trained clinicians. This group is open to anyone in the LGBTQ community.
Please note this is not a weight loss or dieting support group, but rather a space to develop healthy ways to understand and cope with eating disorders and eating disorder behaviors (such as restriction, over exercise, binge eating, purging, etc.).
All participants must be in treatment with a medical provider and ideally, also seeing an individual therapist.
Tuesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org
Eat & Engage
Eat and Engage is an opportunity to use a lunch hour and improve one’s relationship with food and eating over your lunch break.
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Emily Gerlach, MS, RDN, LD
Eat and Engage is an opportunity to use a lunch hour and improve one’s relationship with food and eating over your lunch break. We will work on concrete strategies to find greater peace with eating and to learn to trust your body with an introduction to Intuitive Eating. This group is ideal for people who have struggled with an eating disorder or disordered eating and want a supportive environment to eat in with others to re-discover the fun in eating. Please note this is not a weight loss or dieting support group, but rather a time to learn new ways of thinking about food and your health. Come ready to share what you are eating with the group each week.
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Emily Gerlach, MS, RDN, LD
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org or call at 202-939-7666
Cognitive Behavioral Strategies
This is a 12-16 week, didactic group with 75-90 minute sessions that teaches skills for addressing problematic thinking and behavioral patterns which contribute to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, avoidance, and more.
Wednesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Dr. Matt Salmon
This is a 12-16 week, didactic group with 75-90 minute sessions that teaches skills for addressing problematic thinking and behavioral patterns which contribute to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, avoidance, and more. The group is for people with motivation to change, who would either benefit from learning and practicing such skills as identifying & labeling troublesome thoughts, fostering acceptance & willingness, goal setting, problem solving, motivation, mindfulness and boundary setting. It is a great group for those with a specific goal in mind or just want to improve mental health in general. This group is not a group for processing past experiences; rather it focuses on the here and now, addressing the ways those past experiences detract from living a fulfilled and meaningful life.”
Wednesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Dr. Matt Salmon
To learn more, contact: kwaldorf@whitman-walker.org
Walking with Grief
Walking with Grief is an ongoing process group for anyone experiencing the death/loss of a loved one.
Monday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Katie Boleware, LICSW
Walking with Grief is an ongoing process group for anyone experiencing the death/loss of a loved one. There is not a wrong way to grieve. This group is designed to provide a safe space to grieve, talk about the process, and the many stages of grief. Psycho-education will be incorporated into how we think about grief using a scientific and holistic lens with a focus on mindful meditation. This group is to learn from and support others as we explore the many ways we can grieve and heal.
Monday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Katie Boleware, LICSW
To learn more, contact: kboleware@whitman-walker.org or 202-207-2387
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Group
DBT focuses on teaching participants how to manage difficult emotions, suicidal thoughts, self-harming and other impulsive or damaging behaviors to improve relationships.
Group Facilitators: James Johnson, LPC, Joseph Wrenn, LICSW, Esette Negussie, LGPC, Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW Wednesday Afternoon DBT Skills- 24 week group Friday Afternoon DBT Skills- 12 week group Tuesday Evenings DBT Process Group
DBT focuses on teaching participants how to manage difficult emotions, suicidal thoughts, self-harming and other impulsive or damaging behaviors to improve relationships.
The group members are introduced to four modules of specific skills:
- Mindfulness
- Distress Tolerance
- Emotion Regulation
- Interpersonal Effectiveness
The group is run more like a workshop where the group leaders teach the skills, assign homework for clients to practice using the skills in their everyday lives and review the assigned work regularly. Although sharing is part of the group experience, the sharing is focused on practicing the skills in daily life or in group with an emphasis on ways of enhancing mastery and efficacy.
The group members are required to have access to an individual therapist or psychiatrist for the duration of group membership. An initial screening appointment is necessary for admission.
Wednesday Afternoon DBT Skills- 24 week group
Friday Afternoon DBT Skills- 12 week group
Tuesday Evenings DBT Process Group
To learn more, contact: achavis@whitman-walker.org
Stress Reduction
Stress Reduction is an ongoing psychotherapy group for individuals coping with the effects of chronic or acute stress in their lives.
Stress Reduction is an ongoing psychotherapy group for individuals coping with the effects of chronic or acute stress in their lives. This group offers a supportive environment to connect with others and to process mood disorders and the effects of stress on the mind and body. The group is open to anyone with mood disorders, adjustment issues, or other chronic stress. Mindfulness, mind-body relaxation, breathing and other stress reduction techniques will be utilized throughout each session.
Group Facilitator: Jamila Kani, LICSW
Thursdays 2 PM – 3 PM @ virtual- starting in July
For more information: jkani@whitman-walker.org
Behavioral Activation
This group is a way to look at behavioral activation strategies to help you find balance.
Are some behaviors impacting your health and emotional wellness? Do you find that your mood, sleep, relationships, coping, wellness are out of balance? Do you feel that you know what you need to do, but often get in your own way? This group is a way to look at behavioral activation strategies to help you find balance.
Group Facilitator: Emily Marion, LICSW
Tuesdays at Max Robinson
For more information: emarion@whitman-walker.org
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
CPT is effective in treating PTSD across a variety of populations.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is one specific type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It is a 12-session psychotherapy for PTSD. CPT focuses on how your thinking has been impacted by the trauma and teaches you to take a look at your thoughts and help you progress toward recovery. CPT is effective in treating PTSD across a variety of populations.
Group Facilitators: Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW & Jamila Kani
Coming This Fall
For more information: kwaldorf@whitman-walker.org
