Dipika Daga
I’m a relational, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed therapist who works with adults navigating anxiety, trauma, relationships, grief, identity, and major life transitions. I have a particular interest in women’s mental health, the perinatal period, immigrant experiences, and working with people whose identities and experiences have not always been fully understood or represented in traditional mental health spaces.
What brings me to this work is personal, too. My own experiences navigating womanhood, family dynamics, immigration and acculturation, and the push and pull between collectivism and individualism have shaped the therapist I am today. I understand what it can be like to hold multiple worlds at once; to deeply love where you come from while questioning parts of what you inherited, to balance family and cultural expectations with your own needs, and to figure out who you are when different parts of your identity seem to ask different things of you.
Those experiences are part of why I believe therapy should be a place where you don’t have to leave pieces of yourself at the door.
In our work together, I want you to feel that there is room for all of you: your culture and family, your relationships, your identities, your contradictions, the parts of you that are hurting, and the parts that have worked incredibly hard to keep you going. I bring warmth, curiosity, humor when it fits, and cultural humility into the room. I don’t believe my role is to tell you how to live your life. Instead, we get curious together about what has shaped you, the patterns that keep repeating, and what you may be ready to understand, heal, or do differently.
I don’t see therapy as a quick fix or a set of techniques used to make uncomfortable feelings disappear. Instead, we slow down and become curious together about the patterns that keep showing up and the experiences underneath them. We may explore why you overthink, people-please, disconnect, struggle to set boundaries, feel responsible for everyone around you, or find yourself repeating patterns you intellectually understand but still can’t seem to change. Sometimes we’ll work with concrete coping skills. Other times we may explore attachment, family and cultural patterns, different parts of yourself, creativity, or experiences that simply need to be witnessed differently.
I draw from Relational-Cultural Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), attachment-based approaches, mindfulness, and Expressive Arts Therapy. I don’t approach therapy with a fixed formula. I want our work to make sense for you, your history, your culture, your relationships, and the life you actually live.
I see healing as something deeply human rather than something that makes us “fixed.” We are all continually learning, unlearning, and making sense of what we’ve lived through. My own experiences have taught me the importance of that process, and it is a privilege to sit alongside someone as they begin to understand themselves with more compassion, choice, and freedom.
Education & Credentials
I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and hold a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Johns Hopkins University School of Education.
Alongside my clinical work at Bethesda Counseling Services, I serve as an adjunct faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, where I teach master’s-level counseling students.
Additional Training
Internal Family Systems (IFS), Level 1
Maternal/Perinatal Mental Health training
Postgraduate training in Expressive Arts Therapy
Grief counseling
Ongoing professional development in culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and relational approaches to counseling