Jennifer Schugam

My name is Jen, and I am a LCSW-C and Maryland board certified clinical supervisor with over 25 years of experience as a clinician. My clinical experience spans community psychiatric care, inpatient settings, non-traditional healing practices, spiritual exploration, mind body connections, and holistic total whole person healing across all aspects of the human experience. Our work together is to help women recover from mental illness, addiction, and feeling stuck in their lives.

I specialize in a whole-health approach to mental health, drawing on brain energy theory and the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry, recovery, and neuroscience. I work within recovery 12-step frameworks that explore shame and toxic self belief systems. I prefer to work with women who are ready for a real shift in how they think about their health, life, and what it means to be a human living and being. I work with female adults of all backgrounds.

Credentials: LCSW-C, Maryland board certified clinical supervisor.

Sessions with me tend to be honest, warm, and forward-moving. I want to understand not just what's going on symptom-wise but what your whole life looks like: your health habits, your relationships, your sense of meaning and alignment.

My approach integrates evidence-based techniques with what I know from the metabolic psychiatry field. That means we may look at how sleep, movement, nutrition, and recovery practices are connected to what you're experiencing mentally. This is not about adding to your to-do list. It is about helping you see the full picture.

I hold space for difficult emotions while also keeping an eye on momentum. We will set goals together and revisit them as our work evolves. I am a good listener, and I take my time before jumping to conclusions or recommendations.

I came to social work because I love working with people. That sounds simple, but for me it has been the thread through everything.

I spent years in community psychiatric services working with folks navigating serious mental illness, trauma, and real hardship. Then I moved into the payer side of behavioral health, which gave me a different kind of education but took me away from direct service.

Now I am in what I think of as the most meaningful phase of my career, and I am coming back to what I love: sitting with someone who is ready to make a real change and helping them do it.

That is the work I was made for.