Individual Therapy in Maryland and Virginia with Bradford Wolf, LCSW
Something keeps happening. You snap at people you care about and cannot explain why, or the flat feeling has been around so long it seems like your personality now, or you are holding everything together and quietly running on empty.
Individual therapy is a format of therapy in which one adult works one-on-one with a licensed therapist to change a pattern like that. The client is you. Not a couple, not a family.
I am Bradford Wolf, a licensed clinical social worker with more than 15 years of experience. I see adults in person in Rockville, Maryland, and by video anywhere in Maryland or Virginia.
This page covers whether individual therapy fits what you are dealing with, how to tell whether to start on your own or with your partner, what the work actually looks like, what I treat, what it costs, and who I am not the right therapist for. Start with the fit question, because everything else depends on it.
Is individual therapy the right fit for what you are dealing with?
Individual therapy fits when the problem travels with you.
That is the clearest test I know. If the same reaction shows up at work, at home, and with your friends, the pattern belongs to you rather than to one relationship, and one-on-one therapy is the right room to work on it.
A few other signals that individual therapy is the right starting point:
You keep landing in the same place despite genuinely trying to change it.
You are carrying something you have never said out loud to anyone.
Something changed, whether that is a divorce, a job, a death, a move, or a diagnosis, and you have not caught up to it.
People around you noticed before you did.
You do not need a diagnosis, a crisis, or a reason that sounds serious enough. That last one stops more people than anything else I see. Most of the adults I work with came in because something was off and they would rather deal with it now than in five years. That is a complete reason.
Here is the common mistake: waiting until it gets bad enough to justify the appointment. Patterns are easier to change before they harden. If you are weighing whether your situation counts, it counts.
Individual therapy or couples therapy: how to tell which one you need
The decision point is straightforward. In individual therapy, the client is you. In couples therapy, the client is the relationship. Which one you need depends on where the problem actually lives.
Start with individual therapy when:
The pattern follows you into every relationship, not only this one.
You cannot say what you actually think with your partner in the room.
Your own anxiety, anger, or low mood is driving the cycle between the two of you.
You are still deciding whether you want to stay, and you need somewhere to think that through first.
Start with couples work when:
The problem lives in the pattern between you: how you fight, how you repair, how you stopped talking.
Both of you are willing to show up, even reluctantly.
You are each managing your own lives reasonably well, and the relationship is the thing that is stuck.
Sometimes the answer is both, running at the same time.
I do both kinds of work, which means I have no stake in which one you choose. Tell me what is going on in a consultation and I will tell you which I would start with. Sometimes that answer is couples therapy with both of you in the room rather than individual sessions with me, and I will say so.
What individual therapy with me actually looks like
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We talk on the phone. You describe what is going on in whatever order it comes out, and you do not need to have it organized. I ask a few questions, tell you honestly whether I think I can help, and answer whatever you want to ask about how I work. If I am not the right person, I will point you toward someone who is. Nothing to prepare and no obligation at the end of it.
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Fifty minutes, in my office or by video. I ask what brought you in, what you have already tried, and what you want to be different. You do not need a tidy story or a clear diagnosis. Most people arrive with a mess and we sort it out together. You set the pace on what you talk about and when.
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We name two or three things you actually want to change and work out how you would know they were changing. That matters more than it sounds, because progress in therapy is easy to miss while it is happening. From there the work is steady: notice the pattern, understand where it came from, practice something different, adjust.
People stay for different lengths of time. Some come for a few months around a specific problem and some stay longer. I would rather tell you that honestly than hand you a number I cannot stand behind.
I draw on cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and psychodynamic work, and I am trained in M-TREM, a structured trauma recovery and empowerment model. I am also trained in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing). An important and ground breaking model for trauma, depression, anxiety, anger management, and other areas of focus. Which of those shows up depends on what you are working on rather than on a house method. You can read more about my training and background if that matters to you.
Individual therapy with me is a conversation with a direction. It is not a formal interview, and it is not just venting into the room for fifty minutes. Here is the actual sequence.
What I work with, and where to go for the details
Most of what I see falls into a handful of areas. Each line below describes a situation rather than a condition, so read them the way you would describe your own week and see which one lands.
Anxiety and panic. Your mind runs ahead of you and will not stop, and your body has started keeping score.
Depression. Things you used to care about have gone flat, and getting through an ordinary day takes everything you have.
Stress and burnout. You are functioning and you are empty. Nothing is technically wrong, and you are done.
Anger. Your reactions land bigger than the situation, and you are usually the one apologizing afterward.
Trauma. Something happened, and your body still responds as though it is happening now. If talk therapy has stalled for you, I also offer EMDR therapy.
Compulsive behavior. A habit has taken more room than you meant to give it, and stopping on your own has not worked.
Life transitions. A divorce, a career change, a new baby, a move, a loss. The change already happened and you have not caught up to it.
Young adulthood. The twenties and thirties version of everyone else appearing to have figured this out.
Two more that come up often enough to name:
Therapy for men, if you are a man who has been putting this off, or your partner asked you to go and you are here reluctantly.
Faith-integrated therapy, if you are Catholic and want your faith in the room rather than parked at the door.
What it costs, and how out-of-network works
A 50-minute individual session is $225.
I am out-of-network with insurance companies, which means I am a non-participating provider and do not bill your insurer directly. In practice it works like this:
You pay for the session at the time of the appointment.
I give you a receipt, called a superbill, containing everything your insurance company needs.
You file that receipt with your insurer and they reimburse you directly.
What comes back varies more than most people expect. It depends on whether your plan includes out-of-network benefits at all, how much of your out-of-network deductible you have met this year, and what percentage your plan reimburses once you have met it. Some plans cover a substantial share and some cover nothing.
The only way to know your number is to call the member services line on your insurance card and ask what they reimburse for an out-of-network outpatient mental health session with a licensed clinical social worker. That one phone call is worth making before you start anywhere, with me or with anyone else.
I work this way because it keeps decisions about your care between the two of us rather than with a claims reviewer. See how fees, superbills, and reimbursement work for payment methods, good faith estimates, and the rest of the logistics.
If the cost works and the rest of this page sounds like the right fit, the next step is a conversation. Book the free 15-minute consultation.
Who I am not the right therapist for
I would rather tell you now than three sessions in.
I do not prescribe or manage medication. I am a licensed clinical social worker, not a psychiatrist or a nurse practitioner. If medication looks like part of the picture, I will say so and help you find a prescriber to work alongside the therapy.
I work with adults. I do not see children or teenagers, and I will refer you to someone who does.
I do not provide detox, inpatient, residential, or intensive outpatient care. If that is the level of care the situation calls for, I will tell you plainly and help you find it rather than take you on and hope.
And if we talk and I am simply not the right fit, for reasons that have nothing to do with any of the above, I will say that too. Finding a therapist you can be honest with matters more than filling my calendar.
In person in Rockville, online across Maryland and Virginia
I see clients in person at my office at 27 Wood Ln, Rockville, MD 20850, and by video anywhere in Maryland or Virginia.
The two-state limit is a licensing rule rather than a preference. Therapists are licensed state by state, and I hold licenses in Maryland and Virginia. That means I can work with you if you are sitting in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Potomac, Arlington, Alexandria, or Fairfax County. It also means I cannot see you if you are in the District, even though it is a short drive away.
Video sessions run the same fifty minutes and do the same work. Most of the people I see by video chose it for the commute rather than the distance.
Common questions about starting individual therapy
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Individual therapy is a format of psychotherapy in which one adult meets one-on-one with a licensed therapist to work on emotional, behavioral, or relational patterns. Sessions are private and the focus stays on you. It is also called one-on-one therapy, individual counseling, or talk therapy, and those terms all describe the same thing.
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Individual sessions run 50 minutes. Most people start weekly, because momentum matters early on, and some move to every other week once things are steadier. We decide that together based on what you are working on rather than on a fixed schedule.
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It depends on what you came in for, how long the pattern has been running, and how much you practice between sessions. A focused piece of work around one specific problem often takes a few months. Longer-standing patterns take longer. I will not give you a session count, because anyone who does is guessing.
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No. You do not need a diagnosis, a referral, or a specific condition to begin individual therapy. Plenty of people start because something is off and they want to understand it. If you plan to seek insurance reimbursement, your insurer may require a diagnosis on the superbill, and I will explain that clearly before it happens.
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Yes, with narrow legal exceptions that I explain in the first session. Therapists are required to act if there is a serious risk of harm to you or someone else, and in certain situations involving the abuse of a child or a vulnerable adult, or a court order. Outside of those, what you say in the room stays there.
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I am out-of-network with all insurance plans and do not bill insurers directly. You pay at the time of the session and I provide a superbill you can file for reimbursement. How much comes back depends on your plan, so call your insurer and ask before you start.
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If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which is staffed 24 hours a day. Therapy is not an emergency service, and my practice is not set up for urgent response between sessions.
Starting individual therapy in Maryland or Virginia
Individual therapy works best when you start with someone you can actually talk to, which is why the first step is a conversation rather than a form.
The consultation runs 15 minutes, costs nothing, and is the right place to ask whatever is still unanswered, including whether you should be here at all or working on this with your partner instead. I currently have openings and no waitlist.