BLACK & AFRICAN AMERICAN THERAPY IN DC

Therapy for Black & African American Clients in Washington DC

Individual and couples therapy that understands the context of your life—no translating required.

52 studies found a clear preference for a therapist of one's own race—strongest in studies of Black clients (Cabral & Smith, 2011)
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If you’ve been searching for a Black therapist in Washington DC, you probably know what you don’t want: another hour spent explaining your life before the real work can start. You want someone who understands what it takes to walk into a federal agency, a law firm, or a Hill office as one of the only Black people in the room, and who stays steady when you bring race, family, or faith into the conversation.

At Therapy Group of DC, we offer therapy for Black and African American adults and couples where culture and identity are part of the work from the first session. You can come in for anxiety, a stalled career, a marriage under strain, or grief that never got room, and the context you live in gets taken seriously along with it.

Some people want a therapist who shares their racial background. Others care most that their therapist is skilled with race and culture, whatever that therapist’s own background. Both are reasonable. Tell us which matters to you when you reach out, and we’ll tell you who on our team fits.

From Our Practice

Some clients come to us after a past therapist spent the early sessions learning from them: what code-switching costs, why a comment in a meeting stung the way it did. We’d like you to spend that time on what you came in for.

Therapists for Black & African American Clients
Culturally responsive individual and couples therapy in Dupont Circle and online
Dominique Harrington Dominique
Manon Pesme Manon
Meet the full team ↓
Ready for a Therapist Who Knows the Context?
Scheduling takes a few minutes, and you can tell us up front what matters most to you in a therapist.

What Culturally Responsive Therapy Looks Like

You don’t have to translate. Code-switching, being “the first” or “the only” at work, the extra scrutiny that comes with it, the fatigue of staying composed all day: these are part of your life, so they’re part of therapy. Your therapist already knows the terrain, so you can get to what’s underneath it.

Racial stress counts as stress. A slight in a meeting, a news cycle that lands close to home, the low-level vigilance of moving through certain spaces. It adds up in your body, your sleep, and your patience. Therapy treats these as real experiences with real effects, and it never asks you to prove they happened.

Your family and your faith come with you. You might carry expectations about being the strong one, the one who made it, or the one who doesn’t need help. You might have grown up hearing that family business stays in the family. Therapy makes room for those loyalties and helps you decide what you need now. You set the agenda, and your therapist brings race and culture into the work as often as they matter to you.

What Black Clients Often Work On in Therapy

Anxiety & Always Being “On”

You perform well, prepare twice as hard, and rarely let anyone see the strain. Over time, the vigilance that got you here can turn into racing thoughts, tight shoulders, and trouble switching off.

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Depression You Carry Quietly

Still functioning, still showing up, and running on empty underneath. If you were taught to push through, depression can be hard to recognize in yourself.

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Racial Stress & Trauma

Discrimination, a frightening encounter, or years of small slights can leave you on guard. Therapy helps you process what happened and loosen its hold on how you move through the world.

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Work, Burnout & the Extra Labor

Being asked to mentor, represent, or educate on top of your actual job is its own workload. We help you name what it costs and decide what you want to keep carrying.

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Identity, Family & Belonging

Moving between neighborhoods, families, workplaces, and communities that each expect a different version of you. Therapy helps you sort out which expectations are actually yours.

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Relationships & Marriage

Conflict that keeps repeating, distance that crept in, or a big decision you’re facing together. Couples therapy gives both of you a place to be heard. Working on a relationship on your own? See individual relationship therapy.

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Recognize Yourself in Any of This?

Tell us what you're dealing with and what matters to you in a therapist, and we'll help you find the right fit.


Black Couples Therapy and Marriage Counseling in DC

A lot of what couples fight about starts outside the relationship. A hard week at work, an obligation to extended family, a news story that hit one of you harder than the other. It comes home and turns into an argument about the dishes. Couples therapy helps you see that pattern together so it stops running your relationship.

You and your partner might also bring different ideas about money, family loyalty, faith, or how much to share with people outside the marriage. Those differences become workable once each of you understands where the other’s view comes from.

Dominique Harrington works with couples, combining Gottman Method training with a narrative approach that looks at the stories each partner brings into the room. If you’re about to marry, premarital counseling gives you a place to talk through those differences early. If you’re in an interracial relationship, our article on the challenges interracial couples face is a good place to start.

What Working Together Looks Like

1

Telling Us What Matters

When you reach out, you can tell us whether a therapist’s background, experience with Black clients, or couples training matters most to you. In your first session, you describe what brought you in, in your own words.

2

Mapping the Whole Picture

Your therapist gets to know your history (family, work, faith, community) along with what hurts now. How much of it connects to race and culture is something you work out together.

3

Doing the Work

This is where things shift: understanding the patterns that keep repeating, building new ways to respond, and, for couples, learning to reach each other in the middle of conflict.

4

Carrying It Forward

As things settle, sessions turn toward keeping what you’ve built at work, at home, and in the relationships that matter to you.


Your Therapists for This Work

Dominique Harrington and Dr. Manon Pesme both put race, culture, and identity at the center of their work. Dominique sees individuals and couples; Dr. Pesme works with individual adults. If neither fits your schedule or what you need, we’ll help you find a match across the practice.


Individual Session Rate
$240–$300
Couples sessions are $275–$350. Many clients receive partial reimbursement through out-of-network benefits.
View payment details and insurance information →

Questions About Therapy for Black & African American Clients

How do I find a Black therapist in DC?
Start with what you’re looking for. Some people want a therapist who shares their racial background; others want a therapist of any background who is skilled with race and culture. Both are reasonable. When you reach out to us, say which matters to you, and we’ll tell you who on our team fits. If we aren’t the right match, we’ll tell you that too.
Do your therapists have experience working with Black clients?
Yes. Dominique Harrington founded Exhale, a psychotherapy group for Black women, trained at Whitman-Walker Health providing affirming care to LGBTQ+ and BIPOC clients, and was an NBCC Minority Fellow. Dr. Manon Pesme treats race, culture, and identity as central to her work, and her research has focused on how people make meaning after traumatic loss.
Do you offer couples therapy for Black couples?
Yes. Dominique Harrington works with couples and brings Gottman Method training to that work. A review of the research found that couples therapy helps about 70% of couples who receive it (Lebow et al., 2012). We also offer premarital counseling for couples preparing to marry.
What if a past therapist didn't get it?
That happens often, and it’s a good thing to bring up. You can tell your new therapist what got missed last time: what you had to explain, what you stopped saying. If something in a session doesn’t land, saying so is part of the work, and you can always ask to switch therapists.
Is what I say in therapy kept private?
Yes. What you share stays between you and your therapist, with a few legal exceptions, such as a serious safety risk, that your therapist will explain in your first session. We don’t contact your employer or your family.
Can I do sessions online?
Yes. Both therapists see clients in person at our Dupont Circle office and by secure video, so you can choose what fits your week.
How much does therapy cost in DC?
Individual sessions are $240–$300 and couples sessions are $275–$350, depending on your therapist. We’re an out-of-network practice: we submit claims to your insurance for you, and many clients get part of each session reimbursed. See payment details.

Therapy That Makes Room for All of You
Bring your whole story: work, family, faith, love, and the context you live in. We'll meet you there.