Kathryn Zimmerman

After my first career as a leader in a healthcare organization managing clinicians and envying their work, I decided to become a care provider myself.  This was the best professional decision of my life. It is a privilege to spend my days helping clients build fulfilling lives.

My work is informed by my years of professional, interpersonal, and parenting experiences. Before joining BCS, I worked as an outpatient therapist at a community mental health agency, as a first responder for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, and as an individual and family therapist in a DBT intensive outpatient program for adolescents and young adults.  I am an LGBTQIA+ ally who has worked with queer and transitioning kids and their families. I celebrate all backgrounds, beliefs, and world views.

I offer individual, family, and group therapy to adolescents and adults, as well as parent coaching services. I specialize in helping clients better understand and manage emotions, improve relationships, gain self-acceptance, change self-defeating behaviors, manage life transitions, and tolerate stress. I operate from a family systems perspective, which simply means we explore how we are impacted by, and have an impact on, the people around us. This approach enables me to help clients function better in complex relationships. In session, I draw from an array of additional interventions, including Narrative Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Internal Family Systems (IFS). I also offer walk and talk sessions: sometimes you can most easily be your authentic self when we are out in nature together.

When I am not working, I also can be found in nature. I love to hike, ski, snowshoe, kayak, paddleboard, practice yoga, and garden. When it’s time to sit, I enjoy music (I’ve been known to travel for a good live show) and I am a bookworm (fiction and essays are my passion, and cookbooks too–but someone else can do the cooking).

I received an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a Master of Social Work with a concentration in Clinical Behavioral Health from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where I serve on the Alumni Board.

Clinical Licensure: Licensed Master Social Worker (Maryland) and Licensed Graduate Social Worker (DC)

Additional Trainings: family systems, internal family systems, crisis intervention, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, group therapy, grief counseling

Availability: I am accepting new clients for both in person and virtual sessions.