Therapy with Maryam

What you don’t repair, you repeat.

I help diverse women who juggle multiple cultural identities heal. Maybe you’re the child of immigrants, multiracial or a racially ambiguous chameleon, an expat, “third culture kid”, bilingual (or sad you lost your parent’s language), feel culturally displaced, part of a religious minority, or just don’t quite fit into any one box. I get it.

It’s exhausting to always “be on” for your partner, children, parents, cultural gatekeepers, and work. To top it all off you carry the silent burden of staying cool, calm, and collected in the face of constant microaggressions and glass ceilings that make you want to scream (but you stuff it down to avoid being perceived as too “angry” or “emotional”). You’re not crazy or making it up - the act of carrying it all is exhausting.

You might find it hard to get your own needs met and feel unsettled in yourself and your relationships. I am here to walk beside you to co-create radically new ways of being, relating, and living. What you need matters. In our work together, we will get to the root cause of your protective patterns of over working and find more compassionate ways of showing up for yourself.

We might be a good match if you are ready for change and simply fed up with:

Silence

Always saying yes 

Mothering everyone but yourself 

Navigating contradicting expectations

About Me & Why I Do This

I am not a worksheet or homework therapist. My therapeutic approach focuses on cultivating a safe, secure relationship where we can explore how you’re feeling, connect the dots, and experiment with new ways of relating. I center the ways your intersectional identities inform your experience.

I’m used to straddling different worlds as a “mixed”, second generation immigrant who was raised in halves - half Arab, half white, half Mennonite, half Muslim, half bilingual, and half confused most of the time growing up. I’m also a mama and partner in a multiracial family. So basically I spend most of my waking hours and dinner time conversations talking about the tough stuff of race, culture, oppression, and mental wellness. Interlocking systems of oppression reinforce the expectation that women of color should work hard no matter what, take care of others, and never rest. Raising critical consciousness is a key part of our journey in reclaiming your wholeness through radical self-compassion and self-advocacy.

“I’m on a mission to empower women to break cycles of trauma and misattunement across generations and families. Women are uniquely positioned as mothers, partners, sisters, and leaders to revolutionize how we relate to one another in our families and communities.”

Therapeutic Approach and Frameworks 

Clients and colleagues describe me as down-to-earth, relatable, and fiercely empathic.

Our relationship is the vehicle for change. My work is grounded in culturally responsive strengths-based therapy, cultural relational theory, multicultural feminist therapy, trauma focused parts work, the neuroscience of connection, and attachment research.

My Therapist Specs (aka Credentials)

  • Maryland Licensed Certified Social Worker - Clinical (LCSW-C, License # 21931) 

  • Washington, D.C. Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW, License #200001509)

  • Virginia Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW, License #0904013588)

  • Maryland Board Approved Clinical Supervisor for both Social Workers and Professional Counselors

  • EMDR Level I & II (Institute for Creative Mindfulness)

  • Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk & Therapy that Liberates (cohort 3) - Kindred Community Wellness

  • Master of Social Work (MSW), Morgan State University

  • B.A., Arabic Studies, University of Maryland, College Park 

Fit in everywhere & nowhere at the same time?