Sumi Holman, MSW, LCSW-C
Sumi is a licensed clinical social worker with 15 years of experience in the mental health field. Throughout her career, Sumi has taken a special interest in learning how to provide empathic and supportive counseling to individuals who have a history of anxiety, depression, and other chronic mental health issues.
Sumi enjoys working with teens and young adults. She finds it very rewarding to provide support to this age group as they navigate important transitional times in their lives. Sumi has a specialization in working with complex trauma and domestic violence. She is also open to working with individuals who have a history of substance abuse and are in active recovery, and welcomes clients who are LGBT and BIPOC.
Sumi also takes a special interest in working with women, men, and prospective parents who are contemplating starting a family. She provides a non judgmental space for individuals to explore their feelings regarding starting a family, fertility issues, adoption, anxieties about prenatal care, labor, and delivery, post-partum recovery, post-partum anxiety and depression, and transitions into parenthood.
Sumi is a psychodynamically trained therapist. Her therapeutic style is active, supportive, energetic, and direct. She believes that developing an open, honest, and collaborative relationship with each client helps to enhance the therapeutic work being done. Sumi engages with her clients, provides them with helpful feedback, assists with problem-solving, and collaborates with each individual on how to reach treatment goals in a realistic and customized way.
Some clients may be looking for alternatives to pure talk therapy. Sumi also offers journaling exercises, CBT an DBT exercises, expressive art activities, and sand tray therapy available to all her clients should they be interested.
Sumi's work history has taken her many places over the years. She was a clinical intern at Sheppard Pratt Hospital in the Adolescent Inpatient Unit, as well as at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center where she provided individual and group counseling, and Hotline services. Sumi also served as a sexual assault advocate at the Washington Hospital Center. She proudly worked at the Betty Ann Krahnke Center for domestic violence as a lead individual counselor on the residential clinical team, and has provided individual and group counseling to over 300 domestic violence survivors. Throughout her career, Sumi has provided counseling to a diverse population of clients in the community mental health setting as well as within a group private practice.
Sumi is a native to Montgomery County, MD. Although she went out of state for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees, she always found herself returning home!
Sumi is licensed in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Louisiana.
Educations & Certifications:
- Master of Social Work: Smith College School of Social Work, Northampton, MA
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology: Albright College, Reading Pennsylvania (Cum Laude)
Treatment Areas:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Mood
- Trauma including sexual assault
- Adoption related issues
- Marital Issues (supplementary to couples counseling)
- Expectant and new mother emotional health & life transitions
- Substance abuse (for clients in active recovery)
- Life transitions of adolescence & young adulthood
Presentations, Groups, & Workshops:
- Expressive Women's Therapy Group
- Covid-19 Healing and Recovery Group
- Clinical Training: Understanding the Dynamics of Relationship Abuse, treatment options to consider
- Walter Johnson High School 2017 Health and Wellness Summit: Stress Management for Adolescents
- 2020 Group Facilitator for The National Institute of Health (NIH) Office of Intramural Training and Education