Group Psychotherapy
Group psychotherapy offers the opportunity for you to process emotional or social challenges in a supportive environment with other clients who are experiencing similar challenges. All groups are led by experienced and licensed psychotherapists. Many of our groups focus on LGBTQ+ issues of identity and expression, while some groups focus on behavioral health issues like relationships, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), or understanding problematic behaviors and emotions.
Group therapy is available to both existing medical patients and non-patients. For non-WWH patients, find out more about how to become a patient here:
There are two main ways to learn more about groups, find out about openings, and begin the screening process. Please note that for certain groups, the facilitator may ask you to complete an additional screening before joining the group:
- For current Health Center patients, you can request a behavioral consult for a group from your medical provider. Just let your provider know that you would like to speak with a Behavioral Health Specialist.
- Non-patients of the health center can get more information about groups by emailing Adam Chavis at achavis@whitman-walker.org.
Current Therapy Groups
When Words Aren’t Enough
This is a space for BIPOC folx to explore, heal, and grow using the power of creativity.
Join us for an 8-week expressive arts therapy group. This is a space for BIPOC folx to explore, heal, and grow using the power of creativity. Learn to communicate feelings through paint, collage, movement, drama, talk, and more. This is a safe space; no artistic or creative background necessary.
For more info, contact Nakea at: njeffers@whitman-walker.org
Aging with PRIDE
This group is designed for people 60+ who identify as part of the LGBTQ community.
The group addresses mental health concerns as we age in our society. This is a process group that provides a place to share, learn, get support, and connect with others facing similar challenges. Some topics include managing multiple medical conditions, isolation/loneliness, coping with loss, sex/dating as a senior, our legacy, and staying active/socialization.
To learn more, contact: dfacenda@whitman-walker.org
Mask Off
This space is for Black cismen, transmen, and non-binary individuals who feel a connection to manhood and masculinity.
- Process personal barriers to growth (e.g., shame, anger, etc.)
- Increase self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence
- Cultivate a sense of belonging and social interest…
Pen Paper Process
Come to understand how emotions, actions, and problems shape the stories that we hold. Your story is welcome here
Come to understand how emotions, actions, and problems shape the stories that we hold. Your story is welcome here. This is a:
- Safe space to process diverse narratives
- Way to heal life’s stuck-points and conflicts through creative writing
- Place to understand life conflicts like depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, hardship, heartbreak, and relationships
- Creative opportunity to bring closure to endings and pen new beginnings
Wednesdays 4:30PM – 5:45PM
Group Facilitator: Nicole Armstead-Williams
For more information contact Nicole, narmstead-williams@whitman-walker.org
A Compassion Series: For the Souls of Black Women
Please join us for a special series for Black, African-American, Caribbean, African, and all women of African Descent who identify as woman, female, and/or femme.
Group Facilitator: Nicole Armstead-Williams
Please join us for a special series for Black, African-American, Caribbean, African, and all women of African Descent who identify as woman, female, and/or femme. This series will aim to invite compassion while holding space for issues that uniquely impact Black women – including, but not limited to: racism and colorism, (hair) texturism, trauma, grief and loss, relationships, love, sex and intimacy, physical and emotional labor, misogyny, isms, phobias, stereotypes, mental health and minority stress. Special space will be given to honoring identity, exploring personal narratives and disrupting the stories that no longer serve, and celebrating deliberate joy and self-care.
This group is open to all Black women and embracing of our transgender and non-binary sisters. We intend to create a healing space to find support, to build community, and to reclaim our voice.
Group Facilitator: Nicole Armstead-Williams
To learn more, contact: narmstead-williams@whitman-walker.org
Understanding Your Use
Understanding Your Use is a group at Whitman-Walker Health that is designed to be a first step in thinking about/receiving addiction treatment at Whitman-Walker.
Group Facilitator: Chad Wheeler, LICSW
Understanding Your Use is a group at Whitman-Walker Health that is designed to be a first step in thinking about/receiving addiction treatment at Whitman-Walker. This group is designed as a safe space to talk about participants’ relationship with substance use and the behaviors they may wish to change (Abstinence based/WWAS) or reduce (Harm Reduction). Work through psycho-education for identifying potential addictive behaviors within yourself and treatment options either in Whitman-Walker’s Addiction Services/Harm Reduction programs. We can also refer you to other programs within the community. Participants will discover tools, learn about the disease of addiction, self‐assess where they are in the stages of change and readiness for treatment. This group is open to anyone and pre‐screens are required.
To learn more, contact: cwheeler@whitman-walker.org or 202-207-2386
Group Facilitator: Chad Wheeler, LICSW
Understanding Your Nervous System
Learn how to work with your natural nervous system responses instead of against it.
Time TBD
Group Facilitator: Agustín Aguirre Herrera
Learn how to work with your natural nervous system responses instead of against it. In this short-term psychotherapy group, you’ll learn the basic concepts of self-regulation through mind-body education and experiential exercises. You will develop the tools to be better partners with your body, allowing for increased healing and emotional well-being.
Group Facilitator: Agustín Aguirre Herrera
To learn more, contact: aaguirreherrerra@whitman-walker.org
Trans Stress Reduction Group
This weekly therapy group emphasizes mindfulness practices and stress reduction skills.
Tuesday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Nicole Armstead-Williams, LICSW
This weekly therapy group emphasizes mindfulness practices and stress reduction skills. This group is intended to be held for all people who identify as trans — this includes non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender expansive, or even just in the beginning stages of exploring gender identity. This group aims to invite more compassion and less judgment when approaching experiences of dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and even trauma/grief – so that members can experience being fully present for their transition and journey toward living authentically.
Tuesday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Nicole Armstead-Williams, LICSW
To learn more, contact: narmstead-williams@whitman-walker.org
Families in Transition
Are you the parent, guardian or caregiver of a transgender or gender-expansive youth? This is a psychoeducational/psychotherapy group to help support you with some of your questions and challenges in raising a young person going through gender transition.
Thursday Evenings
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW
Are you the parent, guardian or caregiver of a transgender or gender-expansive youth? This is a psychoeducational/psychotherapy group to help support you with some of your questions and challenges in raising a young person going through gender transition. Group is held 3-4 per year for 4 session cycles.
Thursday Evenings
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org
Sexual Compulsion for Gay Men
This group focuses on out-of-control sexual behavior, sexual compulsion issues, love addiction and love avoidance.
Thursday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Dr. Randy Pumphrey, LPC, BCC
This group focuses on out-of-control sexual behavior, sexual compulsion issues, love addiction and love avoidance. Group members must make a commitment to a minimum of 12 sessions. An initial screening appointment with the group facilitator is necessary for admission.
Group Facilitator: Dr. Randy Pumphrey, LPC, BCC
To learn more, contact: rpumphrey@whitman-walker.org
Thriving with HIV
This group is designed for people who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years.
Thursday Mornings
Group Facilitator: David Facenda, LICSW
This group is designed for people who have lived with HIV for more than 10 years. The group addresses issues of being a long-time survivor of HIV and aims to help members improve their quality of life. Some topics include aging with HIV, managing multiple medical conditions, dealing with intimacy and coping with loss.
Thursday Mornings
Group Facilitator: David Facenda, LICSW
To learn more, contact: dfacenda@whitman-walker.org
Freedom from Eating Disorders
Freedom from Eating Disorders is designed to be a safe space to talk about one’s relationship with food, their body, and recovery.
Tuesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW
Freedom from Eating Disorders is designed to be a safe space to talk about one’s relationship with food, their body, and recovery. This is a process group for frank discussions about disordered eating/eating disorders/negative body image and following one’s path to wellness. Members can display a variety of symptoms, such as restricting food, binging where large quantities of food is consumed in a short period of time, purging behaviors using diuretics, laxatives, over exercising, and/or vomiting. Group participants can expect non-judgmental support and compassion from two trained clinicians. This group is open to anyone in the LGBTQ community.
Please note this is not a weight loss or dieting support group, but rather a space to develop healthy ways to understand and cope with eating disorders and eating disorder behaviors (such as restriction, over exercise, binge eating, purging, etc.).
All participants must be in treatment with a medical provider and ideally, also seeing an individual therapist.
Tuesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org
Eat & Engage
Eat and Engage is an opportunity to use a lunch hour and improve one’s relationship with food and eating over your lunch break.
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Emily Gerlach, MS, RDN, LD
Eat and Engage is an opportunity to use a lunch hour and improve one’s relationship with food and eating over your lunch break. We will work on concrete strategies to find greater peace with eating and to learn to trust your body with an introduction to Intuitive Eating. This group is ideal for people who have struggled with an eating disorder or disordered eating and want a supportive environment to eat in with others to re-discover the fun in eating. Please note this is not a weight loss or dieting support group, but rather a time to learn new ways of thinking about food and your health. Come ready to share what you are eating with the group each week.
Group Facilitators: Jen Bindeman, LICSW, LCSW-C, LMSW & Emily Gerlach, MS, RDN, LD
To learn more, contact: jbindeman@whitman-walker.org or call at 202-939-7666
Cognitive Behavioral Strategies
This is a 12-16 week, didactic group with 75-90 minute sessions that teaches skills for addressing problematic thinking and behavioral patterns which contribute to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, avoidance, and more.
Wednesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Dr. Matt Salmon
This is a 12-16 week, didactic group with 75-90 minute sessions that teaches skills for addressing problematic thinking and behavioral patterns which contribute to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, avoidance, and more. The group is for people with motivation to change, who would either benefit from learning and practicing such skills as identifying & labeling troublesome thoughts, fostering acceptance & willingness, goal setting, problem solving, motivation, mindfulness and boundary setting. It is a great group for those with a specific goal in mind or just want to improve mental health in general. This group is not a group for processing past experiences; rather it focuses on the here and now, addressing the ways those past experiences detract from living a fulfilled and meaningful life.”
Wednesday Afternoons
Group Facilitator: Dr. Matt Salmon
To learn more, contact: kwaldorf@whitman-walker.org
Walking with Grief
Walking with Grief is an ongoing process group for anyone experiencing the death/loss of a loved one.
Monday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Chad Wheeler, LICSW
Walking with Grief is an ongoing process group for anyone experiencing the death/loss of a loved one. There is not a wrong way to grieve. This group is designed to provide a safe space to grieve, talk about the process, and the many stages of grief. Psycho-education will be incorporated into how we think about grief using a scientific and holistic lens with a focus on mindful meditation. This group is to learn from and support others as we explore the many ways we can grieve and heal.
Monday Evenings
Group Facilitator: Chad Wheeler, LICSW
To learn more, contact: cwheeler@whitman-walker.org or 202-207-2386
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Group
DBT focuses on teaching participants how to manage difficult emotions, suicidal thoughts, self-harming and other impulsive or damaging behaviors to improve relationships.
Group Facilitators: James Johnson, LPC, Joseph Wrenn, LICSW, Esette Negussie, LGPC, Dr. Kevin Waldorf-Cruz, LICSW Wednesday Afternoon DBT Skills- 24 week group Friday Afternoon DBT Skills- 12 week group Tuesday Evenings DBT Process Group
DBT focuses on teaching participants how to manage difficult emotions, suicidal thoughts, self-harming and other impulsive or damaging behaviors to improve relationships.
The group members are introduced to four modules of specific skills:
- Mindfulness
- Distress Tolerance
- Emotion Regulation
- Interpersonal Effectiveness
The group is run more like a workshop where the group leaders teach the skills, assign homework for clients to practice using the skills in their everyday lives and review the assigned work regularly. Although sharing is part of the group experience, the sharing is focused on practicing the skills in daily life or in group with an emphasis on ways of enhancing mastery and efficacy.
The group members are required to have access to an individual therapist or psychiatrist for the duration of group membership. An initial screening appointment is necessary for admission.
Wednesday Afternoon DBT Skills- 24 week group
Friday Afternoon DBT Skills- 12 week group
Tuesday Evenings DBT Process Group
To learn more, contact: achavis@whitman-walker.org
