Kumari Counseling Center

Therapy can benefit anyone, whether you’re in the midst of a crisis, feeling distant from your partner, or simply want to know yourself better and have a more authentic life. We all have the intrinsic capacity to self-heal, but often need support and guidance from a fellow traveler. I became a marriage and family therapist (MFT) after finding success, if not joy, as a journalist and communications executive in the public and private sectors. But rather than a change in career, joining the mental health field was the culmination of all my prior personal and professional experiences. I’m a native New Yorker and the youngest daughter of immigrant parents from India. By learning to coherently navigate my own intersectionality, I have become a bridge for communities, couples, and families. As someone who has benefited from traditional therapy as well as immersion in experiential and indigenous healing activities, I am honored to pay it forward. I consider my work to be a sacred calling. My philosophy is rooted in the idea that everyone is a teacher and a student, and that collaborative engagement creates the best results. It is the meaning we make from our experiences that helps us grow. By accepting our imperfect humanity, we increase our ability to love ourselves and connect more deeply with others. This perspective is why I chose to become an MFT, earning my clinical master’s degree from Hofstra University and then graduating with a clinical PhD in Human Development from Virginia Tech. MFT employs a systemic approach to healing by viewing individuals, couples, families, or groups in the context of their environments and identities. As a licensed MFT in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York, I have specialized training and experience to work with clients from all types of backgrounds and with a variety of issues, especially trauma and PTSD, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, and acculturation challenges. I am proud to be an advocate for immigrants and refugees as well as an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. Under an integrative humanistic and transpersonal umbrella, I have an ever-growing toolbox of therapeutic strategies to meet your specific needs. My methods include collaborative language and narrative therapies, mindfulness, and trauma-focused CBT in addition to structural, attachment-based, experiential, play, and expressive arts modalities. Using advanced training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), I work with couples on the brink of divorce and families struggling with trauma or any type of intergenerational conflict. I have facilitated numerous therapy and educational groups, including trauma healing, managing couples’ stress over finances, fostering mindfulness, and increasing self-expression through poetry/ bibliotherapy. In addition to working with clients, I am an AAMFT Approved Supervisor for emerging psychotherapists and I have taught at multiple graduate programs as an adjunct professor. My most recent writing project focuses on spiritual abuse, and my latest published work is a book chapter on integrating spirituality into therapy for the Handbook of Systemic Family Therapy. I have regularly presented at conferences on incorporating social justice and diversity into treatment. I studied the impact of being a spiritual minority on anxiety for my doctoral work, and my latest research project focuses on how communal spiritual activities may benefit trauma survivors.