It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
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Staff Profile
Ginny Graham, MS, LPC
Office: Arlington
Phone: 202.449.3789 x 715
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I use an eclectic, psycho-spiritual approach to my therapeutic work with clients. Because I am grounded in a faith-based tradition, I understand that many people want to look at the challenges they face in the context of God as Love (1Jn4:16). I try to help clients find ways to become more present to what love is, especially when they find themselves stuck in what feels like such misery. I believe that psychological and spiritual wholeness requires us to become more and more awake, but I also know the frustration, confusion, and fear that can be part of that journey. Because of this, I put a high value on creating a relationship where clients can feel safe and comfortable being themselves in session.
In addition to my Pastoral Counseling degree from Loyola University in Maryland, I am also certified by the ecumenical Shalem Institute for Spiritual Guidance. In this capacity I bring over thirteen years as a spiritual director to my clinical practice of Pastoral Counseling. For clients who are interested, I can help clarify the often-blurry lines between spiritual and psychological issues.
My practice extends to individuals, and couples who are challenged by depression, anxiety, life transitions, bereavement, food disorders and sexual abuse. I appreciate that people are intrinsically relational and I like to help clients get smarter about behavioral and emotional patterns that get in the way of healthily connecting to both themselves and others.
As a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, I help struggling couples value the conflict in their lives as opportunities for growth. I know that in order to reconnect partners have to learn to BE with each other in more centered ways. I like to help couples get past the blame game. That is, that they not only get smarter about how and why they trigger each other, but also how they can more quickly get back on track when the stuff of life throws them off course.
Before becoming a therapist, I taught English and Creative Writing for twenty-two years to local high school students. This experience informs my overall philosophy of counseling: I see the counseling relationship as a profoundly creative healing experience. I do believe that love is central to who we are, but I know that living into this mystery can be a tall order. Therapy becomes an experience of entering more fully into that reality - one that can open each of us to the very real opportunities available through every life crisis.
As a wife, mother of three grown children, and grandmother of six, I know that life centered in love includes many challenges and I credit the longevity of our 43-year-old marriage to good counseling. I frankly don’t know how anybody can navigate the complexities of relationships without a good therapist.
A long time fan of applying Bowen Family Systems Theory, and more recently Dick Schwartz’ Internal Family Systems to my personal life, I also find these approaches invaluable as a way to help clients understand themselves more fully as they grow in greater self-awareness.
Phone: 202.449.3789 x 715