Ellen Singer, LCSW-C
Phone: (301) 444-5135
Locations: Gaithersburg, MD | Columbia, MD | Frederick, MD
Ellen Singer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has specialized in helping couples and families for 35+ years. She was able to personally train with Dr. Richard Schwartz in the evidence-based Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapeutic model. She’s also studied and incorporates tools from highly reputable Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Therapy, and Imago Therapy. She sees all couples and specializes in high conflict, infidelity/affairs, intimacy/sexual relationships, ADHD impact, and coping with parent-related concerns. She also specializes in working with couples experiencing infertility, adult adoptees, adoptive parents, expectant/birth parents and blended-families. Ellen welcomes all LGTBQ relationships.
Meet Ellen Singer:
“I have enormous respect for couples who have the courage to embark on couples counseling. Great relationship therapy is a carefully guided journey into layers of vulnerability that open us to what is real: our fears, sadness, pain, needs, wants, hopes, and dreams! As a couples specialist, you’ll find I work to make this journey safe and strengths-based. I’m always looking for what you are doing well and the abilities you have to make change. My style is always gentle, supportive, and kind. I help you grow in your understanding of the underpinnings of your conflict and unhappiness in your relationship. I work to help you change your styles of communicating, relating, problem-solving and interacting with each other to develop the connection, trust and emotional safety you are wanting with each other. Using a combination of evidence-based models including Internal Family Systems, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman research and methods, and Harville Hendrix, couples grow in their self-knowledge of how and why they are upset with their partner. Couples get better when they learn to change their automatic habits of negative thinking about their partner, when they learn to identify their personal triggers, when they learn to respect their partner’s differences and adjust their expectations, and when they learn on their own how to repair their relationship when inevitable conflict or times of disconnect occur. You can do this! It’s a great privilege to walk this path with you and help you reach back out for each other.”
Education
- M.S.W., Clinical concentration, University of Illinois
Trainings, Certifications, and Continuing Education
- The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy: Differentiation, Attachment, and Brain Science (Year Long Intensive, Couples Institute), 2020
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Intimacy from the Inside Out (online course), Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. and Toni Herbine-Blank
- Infidelity and Affairs: Helping Couples Heal their Broken Hearts
- The Gottman Method Approach to Better Couples Therapy
- Couples Therapy for Treating Trauma: The Gottman Method Approach
- Recovering from an Affair: A Gottman Research Based Treatment for Infidelity, Scott Wolfe, Ph.D.
- Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, Kathryn Rheem
- Sex Therapy for the General Therapist – Marianne Brandon, Ph.D.
- The State of Affairs: Rethinking our clinical attitudes toward infidelity, Esther Perel
- Primed for Life: Psychotherapy for Marital and Family Issues of Older Adults, Barry Jacobs Psy.D.
Publications
- Training for Adoption-Competency Curriculum in Handbook of Modern Adoption: Connecting Research to Policy and Practice, with Debbie Riley, Edited by Gretchen Wrobel, Elisha Marr and Emily Felder, 2020
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