Online Therapy in Maryland
With Bradford Wolf, LCSW
I am licensed in Maryland and I see people by video anywhere in the state. Baltimore, the Eastern Shore, Frederick, Hagerstown, or ten minutes down the road.
Two things are worth knowing before you book.
The first is whether your situation actually qualifies, because the licensing rule is narrower and stranger than people expect. The second is whether video is genuinely the right choice for you, or just the easier one. Those are different questions and the honest answer to the second is not always yes.
I am Bradford Wolf, a licensed clinical social worker with an office in Rockville, and video sessions across Maryland, as part of my individual therapy practice.
The rule is about where you are sitting, not where you live
Under Maryland's teletherapy regulations, a clinical social worker licensed in Maryland can work with you by video when you are physically in Maryland at the time of the session. The Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners sets it out directly. Your address is not the test. Where you are actually sitting when we start is.
Which produces some situations people do not see coming.
You live in Bethesda and work in the District. At your desk on a Tuesday afternoon, you are outside it, even though your house is twenty minutes from my office. The session has to happen from somewhere in Maryland.
You travel for work. A session from a hotel in Chicago is not covered by a Maryland license, and the Board's own guidance is that you have to look at the rules in whatever state you are actually in. I am not going to tell you a short trip is fine, because that is not what the Board says.
Your kid is at college in Pennsylvania. Home for the summer, fine. Back at school in September, not.
You spend three months a year somewhere warmer. Those three months are a gap unless something is arranged.
None of this is a technicality and there is no clever way around it.
The practical upshot: raise it on the consultation call. It is much easier to plan around a constraint you know about than to run into it in week six.
Video or the office: which one actually fits you
If you are in Cumberland or Salisbury this is not really a choice, and video is simply how it works. Skip ahead.
But a lot of people reading this could drive to Rockville and would rather not, and that is worth thinking about properly rather than defaulting.
I am not going to tell you the two are identical. They are different, and which one suits you depends on you and sometimes on the problem.
Video tends to be the right call when the honest alternative is not going at all. A commute that eats the evening, a workday with no gap in it, small children, a body that does not travel comfortably. Consistency matters more than setting, and the therapy that happens beats the therapy that would have been slightly better in principle.
In person is often worth the drive when what you are working on involves avoidance, because getting somewhere is part of the work rather than an obstacle to it. Also when you know yourself well enough to know you will not take it seriously from the kitchen table with the laptop half closed.
And you can change your mind. Plenty of people start one way and switch, in both directions, once they have a sense of what they are actually doing. Nobody has to declare a format at the beginning and live with it.
What a video session is actually like
Fifty minutes, secure video, a link you click at the appointment time. No app to learn.
The session is the same session. Same length, same work, same confidentiality, and the same person every week. That last part is worth saying plainly, because a good deal of what comes up when you search for this is national platforms and larger group practices where you are assigned a therapist and can be reassigned. Here it is me, start to finish. Different arrangement, not a criticism of theirs.
On the practical side: you need somewhere reasonably private, and that is a genuine problem for some people rather than a detail. If you share a place, or the house is full, or the walls are thin, people take sessions from parked cars more often than you would guess. It works. It is not a failure of arrangement and I am not going to comment on it.
I have been doing this work for over fifteen years, in person and by video. My background covers the training if you want it.
If it sounds workable, you can book a free 15-minute call.
Video is a delivery method, not a category of problem. The substance lives on these pages.
Therapy for men · Therapy for young adults · Catholic counseling
Couples therapy, which works over video more easily than people expect.
If you are actually in Virginia rather than Maryland, online therapy in Virginia covers how that works, since the licensing is separate.
What people work on
What it costs
A 50-minute session is $225, the same as coming into the office.
That surprises some people, so it is worth addressing. The national platforms have trained everyone to expect online to be the cheaper tier. It is not cheaper here because it is not a lesser version — same clinician, same hour, same work, and the only thing that changes is whether you drove.
I am out of network, so you pay at the session, I give you a superbill, and you submit it for reimbursement if your plan has out-of-network benefits. What reimbursement depends on covers the mechanics.
If price is what decides it, the large online services are considerably cheaper and structured differently, with therapists assigned and sometimes changed. That is a reasonable option and a different product. There are also therapists in Maryland on insurance panels. I would rather you got help than got it from me.
Book the free 15-minute consultation if you want to talk any of it through.
When video is not the right call
A few situations where I would tell you so rather than take the booking.
If you are in crisis, or what you need is more support than one weekly hour, remote work with a solo practitioner is not the right structure. If medication is likely to be a central part of this, you need a prescriber and I am not one. And if you genuinely have nowhere private, that is worth solving before we start rather than discovering in session three.
In any of those cases I will say so on the consultation call and help you find the right thing instead.
If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, any time. My practice is not an emergency service and I am not reachable between sessions for crises.
Common questions
-
No. A Maryland license covers sessions where you are physically in Maryland, so a session from another state is not something I can do. The Board directs practitioners to check the rules in whatever jurisdiction the client is in, and short trips are not automatically an exception. Tell me your travel schedule on the consultation call and we can plan around it.
-
Only if you are in Maryland when we meet. Sessions from your Maryland home before or after work are fine. A session from your DC office is not, even though you live here. For a lot of people that just means scheduling early, late, or from home on a remote day.
-
They are different, and which is better depends on you and on what you are working on. Video wins when the alternative is not going at all. In person is often better when avoidance is part of the problem. I would rather help you work out which you are than tell you they are identical.
-
You have to be in Maryland for each session. Where you live matters less than where you will be sitting on a Thursday at four. If you are about to move out of state, say so early, because it changes what we can start.
-
No, it is the same $225 for a 50-minute session. It is the same work with the same person, and the only difference is the commute. The large online platforms are cheaper and are a different kind of service.
-
Yes, with the same narrow legal exceptions that apply in the office, which I go through in the first session. The video platform is secure, sessions are not recorded, and nothing is shared with anyone.
-
Raise it on the call and we will work out whether something is available. Cars, parked somewhere quiet, are the most common solution and they work fine. If there is genuinely nowhere, that is worth solving before starting rather than after.
Starting online therapy in Maryland
The consultation is fifteen minutes on the phone and costs nothing. It is a reasonable place to check the practical questions: where you will be sitting, whether video or the office makes more sense for you, and whether this is worth starting at all.
I do not currently have a waitlist.
Book the free 15-minute consultation, or read more about individual therapy with me.
Sources
Maryland Department of Health, Board of Social Work Examiners, Teletherapy regulations (COMAR 10.42.10). https://health.maryland.gov/regs/Pages/10-42-10.aspx
Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners, Teletherapy FAQs. https://health.maryland.gov/bswe/Pages/Teletherapy_Faq.aspx