Carrie Sullivan

Hi! I am Carrie Sullivan, a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Social Work. I work with children, adolescents, and adults navigating anxiety, depression, self-esteem concerns, life transitions, relationship issues, career challenges, and the stress that comes from navigating today’s complex social and cultural climate.

My path to becoming a therapist was not exactly a straight line. Before entering the mental health field, I spent more than 20 years working in television, including serving as a Creative Director at Food Network, Oxygen, and Discovery Channel. My previous career gives me a particular understanding of the pressures that can come with demanding professional lives. Trying to manage a career while also showing up for relationships, family, and yourself can be exhausting, and it is very easy for your own needs to fall to the bottom of the list.

My clinical experience includes providing individual and group therapy to adolescents, young adults, and adults in outpatient and intensive outpatient settings at Healthy Foundations Group/The Heartwood Program. I also trained at Kennedy High School Wellness Center within Montgomery County Public Schools, where I worked directly with adolescents in a school-based setting. These experiences have allowed me to work with people at very different stages of life and reinforced my belief that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to therapy.

My style as a therapist is warm, collaborative, and compassionate. I draw from a variety of approaches, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), mindfulness, and psychodynamic perspectives. Rather than trying to fit every client into a particular model, I believe in getting to know the person sitting across from me and figuring out together what will be most helpful.

Above all, I want my clients to feel comfortable being fully themselves in the therapy room. I believe there is room in therapy for difficult conversations, vulnerability, curiosity, and even humor. My goal is to help clients better understand themselves and the patterns that may be keeping them stuck, while developing healthier and more empowering ways of moving forward. At the heart of my work is a simple idea that I return to often: we could all stand to be a little kinder to ourselves.