Phone: 202.449.3789 x 704

Email Lena Aburdene
Read Lena's Imago Center Blog

Lena A. Derhally is a counselor who focuses on working with clients who are motivated to make real and lasting changes in their lives. Lena's counseling style is eclectic. She is passionate about helping clients realize their potential through problem solving, goal setting, and solution oriented techniques and strategies. 

Lena is most passionate about helping clients connect to their authentic selves and helps them make choices and decisions that reflect their true core meanings, beliefs and values, regardless of external pressures.

Lena believes that each person has the ability to be happy and fulfilled in their lives and each person can reach the goals they set for themselves. She will help you develop a treatment plan and help you to reach your goals either short-term or long-term.

Lena also believes that as a counselor, compassion, acceptance, encouragement and belief in the client are of the utmost importance. Lena enjoys working with people from all walks of life and all different belief systems.

Some of the issues Lena can help you with:

Lena's specialty is with individual women in their 20's and 30's.

Anxiety: Do you constantly feel worried, anxious and unhappy? Lena works with people who experience abnormally high levels of anxiety, distress and worry by identifying the root of the anxiety and challenging the negative thoughts that spiral out of control.

Relationship issues: Some of the issues Lena will help you work through are, managing relationships, discerning whether your relationship is the right one, learning relationship skills, finding the right relationship, self discovery within a relationship and dating issues.

Self Esteem and Empowerment: Lena works with others to help them develop a strong sense of self while helping conquer fears and inadequacies. She helps people let go of what others think of them and live more authentic lives that are true to themselves.

Difficult life transitions: Lena works with people through the healing process of any life change that feels incredibly difficult. She also helps you create an action plan to move forward. Some of these difficult life transitions are career confusion, job loss, moving, or end of a relationship.

Moms: As a new mom herself, Lena has a special interest in working with mother's who are struggling with guilt and/or anxiety attached to motherhood and balance in their lives. 

Loss and bereavement: Lena has years of experience working in oncology and works with people who have either been diagnosed with a terminal illness or their loved ones.

Couples Therapy

Lena works with couples in their 20's and 30's who want to deepen connection and improve communication. She also does pre-marital counseling.

Support Groups:

Improv Therapy: A group for all ages that uses the skills and practices of improv to help overcome anxiety, worry, stress and shyness. Improv-therapy can also be custom designed as a workshop to your needs. Inquire for futher details.

Quarter Life Crisis Plus 10: For women in their 20s and 30s who want to explore issues related to career, identity, relationships, spirituality, and more.

Education and Experience:

Lena has a Masters in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola College and a Masters in Communications from Fordham University. She has worked as a counselor at Anchor Mental Health and St Agnes Hospital among other clinical settings before joining The Imago Center. She has also worked in patient services at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital.  She currently writes a column for the online Washington DC Examiner on Feminism and Relationships that explores many of the issues that come up for her clients and blogs on meaning and purpose for the popular Washington DC blog, Pamela's Punch

Lena lives with her husband, her newborn son, and her cat Lou.

Lena's professional website: www.therapywithlena.com

You can learn more on Lena's Improv-Therapy workshops and groups here: www.improvtherapydc.com

Phone:  202.449.3789 x 704

Email Lena Aburdene