Trusted experience in the art of evolving lives and the science of intelligent behaviors.

Seeking help is an important decision, and choosing the right person is crucial. My many years of experience successfully helping people and training therapists have honed my therapy skills, but I believe that warmth, respect, and caring are just as vital to foster a therapeutic partnership that works. If you’d like to see whether I can provide a connection that works, please call me at 301.495.4848.

Adult Therapy

My orientation to adult therapy is informed by 25 years of experience as a psychologist and trainer of therapists, as well as the most current research in psychology and brain science. Realistically, the success of therapy is strongly determined by the quality of the connection between therapist and client. Toward this critical prerequisite, the best evidence is personal experience:

Does this therapist understand me?
Does the treatment plan make sense to me?
Do I believe this therapist will help me?
And most important—am I making progress?

Good therapy usually yields positive responses very quickly and noticeable therapeutic progress should follow within a short period of time.

Scientific evidence indicates that effective therapists form a strong therapeutic connection across the range of individuals seen in therapy.

My approach is based in the premise that each person strives toward growth, connection, awareness, and healing. The most effective therapists know and use the research and combine it with a dynamic approach to treatment options. I believe that in order for psychotherapy to work, it must activate and harness the innate curative capacities hard wired in the mind and the body.

These self-righting tendencies require a careful consideration of contextual features such as the following:

The quality of one's relationships
The nature of one's emotional world
Where one is in the cycle of life and physical health
The place of creativity
The recurrent nature of one's cognitions or thoughts
The recurrent or habitual aspects of one's behaviors
The care of one's "soul"—a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things rather than a thing itself. Between us and events, between the doer and the deed, there is a reflective moment, and soul-making means differentiating this middle ground.

"When I first met Dr. Daniel Griffin I was an angry, peri-menopausal married woman with 2 teenage daughters and he was...well, a man. After I overcame my initial skepticism, Dan proved to be a gentle soul, whose wise counsel and male perspective proved invaluable. My husband, my daughters and I are deeply grateful for Dr. Griffin's support during a very difficult time in my life.