Georgetown and upper Northwest
Couples therapy in Washington, D.C.
Couples therapy and marriage counselling in Georgetown — in person and by secure video.
Who you would be working with
For online couples therapy in Washington, D.C., Dr. Elizabeth Wolfe, PsyD is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist with confirmed PSYPACT authorization, trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy. Her couples sessions are held by secure video. The practice also offers in-person couples sessions at our Washington, D.C. office; ask about clinician availability when booking. The practice was founded by Vanessa Cushing, LPC, NCC, MS, an AASECT-Certified Sex Therapist trained at Johns Hopkins. Meet Dr. Wolfe. Most couples therapists cannot treat the sexual side of a relationship. That is usually the part couples were most afraid to raise.
In-person couples therapy at our Washington, D.C. office
We see clients in person and online. In-person couples appointments are available at our District office; online appointments offer the same space to work on communication, trust and intimacy without two commutes.
1660 L St NW Suite 308, Washington, DC 20036. The office is near Farragut North and Dupont Circle. Appointments are arranged in advance.
Call (703) 544-7081 or email vanessa@cushingcounseling.com to ask about in-person appointments and clinician availability.
D.C.-eligible couples clinicians and fees
Dr. Elizabeth Wolfe, PsyD
Clinical Psychologist · Certified Sex Therapist. Accepting new clients. Adults, individually and as couples. Online only. As a psychologist she is PSYPACT-authorized, so clients located in any of the 43 PSYPACT jurisdictions can be seen — confirmed for your state on the consultation call.
- $400 per couples session
Read Elizabeth Wolfe's bio · Book a free consultation
For in-person couples sessions, our intake coordinator will confirm the eligible clinician, current opening and fee before you book. Dr. Wolfe's PSYPACT authorization covers online care in the District, not in-person sessions at this office.
Cushing Counseling is out-of-network. Ask about a superbill and check your plan's benefits; couples therapy reimbursement is not guaranteed. The consultation is free, with no obligation to book.
From the outside it looks like the marriage worked. The children turned out well, the careers held, the house runs. And somewhere in the last few years the two of you stopped being people who touch each other, and neither of you has said so out loud, because saying it out loud makes it real.
Georgetown and upper Northwest bring the District's most established households: long marriages, university and hospital faculty, families where every visible thing is handled. What is usually not handled is the part of the marriage nobody has said anything about in three or four years, and by the time someone calls, both people have privately decided this is simply how it is now.
What Georgetown couples most often bring
- Long marriages where intimacy stopped without a conversation
- Empty nest and renegotiating what the marriage is for now
- Sexual change after menopause, surgery or medication
- Caregiving for ageing parents and the resentment nobody voices
- Affair recovery handled discreetly
That list is not exhaustive — it is what actually comes through the door from Georgetown and upper Northwest. If your situation is not on it, that does not mean it is unusual.
What makes this practice different
After menopause, prostate treatment or a long medicated stretch, the sexual side of a marriage is often the piece a generalist therapist refers out at the exact moment you finally raised it. Here it is treated in the same room as the trust repair and the resentment.
Most couples counsellors handle the communication and leave the bedroom alone. Dr. Wolfe is trained in both couples therapy and sex therapy, so the argument you keep having and the intimacy that quietly stopped can be worked on together rather than referred elsewhere.
How sessions work from Georgetown
In-person sessions are at 1660 L Street NW, Suite 308, about ten minutes from Georgetown, with secure video available for couples who would rather not park downtown or be seen going in.
Weekly is the usual starting cadence: 50 minutes, both partners together, with occasional individual sessions where they would help.
Areas served around Georgetown
Georgetown · Burleith · Glover Park · Foxhall · Cleveland Park · Woodley Park · Palisades · and everywhere else in Washington, D.C..
Common questions from Georgetown couples
We have been married thirty years. Is it too late?
Long marriages generally do well. Length is not the obstacle; the obstacle is how many years the unspoken thing has been unspoken, and that is exactly what the first few sessions are for. Couples who have not had a real conversation about sex since the nineties still get somewhere — usually faster than they expect.
How is couples therapy different from marriage counselling?
In practice, very little separates them. "Marriage counselling" is what people tend to search when they are married and worried; "couples therapy" is the term the field uses. Both cover dating, engaged, married, remarried and long-term unmarried partners equally. You do not have to be married, and you do not have to be in crisis.
Are you actually located in Georgetown?
Yes. In-person couples sessions are available at our Washington, D.C. office, at 1660 L St NW Suite 308. Ask which clinician has in-person availability when booking. Dr. Wolfe's couples sessions are by secure video, so you can choose the format that fits your needs.
My partner will not come. Is there any point in me starting?
Yes, and it is a normal way to begin. You start alone, the shape of the problem gets clearer, and your partner joins when they are willing rather than when they were pushed. Nothing you said alone is repeated to them without your agreement.
We have done couples counselling before and the sexual side never came up. Would that be different here?
It would. That gap is the single most common reason couples arrive here having already been to therapy. AASECT certification is a supervised training standard in sexual health that most couples counsellors do not hold, and it is why desire, frequency, pain and performance can be treated in the same room as the conflict.
Is this open-ended, or is there an end point?
Eight to sixteen weekly sessions is the usual range, with tapering after. You will be told early which end of that range your situation looks like rather than being left to guess.
Do you take insurance?
Fees are listed openly on the fees page. Payment is per session, out-of-network, with a superbill on request that many plans reimburse in part. The consultation is free specifically so the money conversation happens before you book anything.
Nearby and related
- Couples therapy in Washington, D.C. — the District and the inner suburbs
- Couples therapy in Dupont Circle — downtown D.C. and the near Northwest
- Couples therapy in Capitol Hill — Capitol Hill and eastern D.C.
- Sex therapy across Washington, D.C. — when the sexual side is the main concern
- Meet Dr. Elizabeth Wolfe — clinical psychologist and certified sex therapist
Read next
- Marriage counselling vs. couples therapy
- Individual vs. couples work
- What happens in a first session
- Fees and insurance
Fifteen minutes on the phone, no cost, no pressure to book. Most couples use it to find out whether the thing they have not said out loud yet is something that can be worked on.