Dr. Barbara Wasowska

I'm a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with 14 years of clinical experience and an unusual professional background. I hold a PhD in biomedicine from the Polish Academy of Sciences and a Master's in Counseling from Johns Hopkins, which means I bring both deep scientific grounding and genuine clinical warmth to every session. I work with adults and older adults navigating some of life's heaviest experiences: mood disorders, depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, relationship difficulties, and major life transitions. I'm also a Polish-speaking therapist, and I see clients entirely online throughout Maryland. If you've been carrying something difficult for a long time and feel like you're just surviving rather than truly living, you're the person I'm here to help.

I believe therapy works best when it's tailored, not fitted to a rigid protocol, but shaped around who you actually are. My approach is integrative and holistic, which means I draw from multiple evidence-based frameworks depending on what will serve you best: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to examine how your thoughts shape your feelings and behaviors, DBT to help you accept uncomfortable emotions without being overwhelmed by them, Existential and Person-Centered approaches to explore meaning and identity, and trauma-focused work when the past is still running the present. My background in biomedicine also shapes how I think. I hold the body and mind as genuinely connected, not separate.

My first priority is building trust, nothing useful happens without it. In our early sessions, I'll invite you to share what brought you to therapy in your own words, at your own pace. There's no agenda to rush through. Together, we'll take a careful look at what's going on and begin building a plan that actually fits your life. Most clients notice a gradual lifting of symptoms within the first few weeks, not because I have a magic formula, but because something shifts when you're finally heard and working toward something concrete. The door is open; I'd be glad you walked through it.