Alex Hammer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who received his masters degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, with a specialization in clinical behavioral health. Alex’s experience ranges from working with elementary aged youth, up to geriatric populations. Alex’s experience with therapy started working in community mental health, first with some of our community’s most extremely vulnerable populations on an Assertive Community Treatment Team, and then as a school based therapist in Montgomery County Public Schools. From there Alex moved on to work on inpatient units across the lifespan as the Clinical Manager at Shady Grove Hospital through the pandemic. Since then Alex has served as the Director of Mental Health for Linkages to Learning at the YMCA for their school based mental health program, and currently works as the Director of Clinical Operations at JSSA. Alex’s clinical approach is eclectic, and draws on CBT, EMDR, polyvagal theory, mindfulness, child centered play therapy, and more. Alex currently sees adults and children for individual, family, couples, or group therapy.

Monica Kriss is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who obtained her master's degree in social work from the University of Maryland Baltimore. Monica has extensive experience working with individuals who have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and other crimes. Monica's expertise extends to the District Superior Courts, where she conducted intimate partner violence assessments for individuals mandated to attend family mediation. Monica then transitioned from the court system to an inpatient behavioral health setting, where she currently works as a behavioral health therapist. Monica offers clinical evaluation, assessment, and counseling services to adults dealing with a range of issues, including but not limited to depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues, codependency, and trauma-related concerns. As an immigrant herself, Monica brings a unique perspective to her work, having migrated to the United States from Colombia in 2013. She is fluent in both English and Spanish, enabling her to effectively communicate with a diverse range of individuals. With her expertise in clinical social work and behavioral health, she conducts a wide range of mental health evaluations, including those relevant to immigration cases, as well as other types of evaluations required for legal proceedings. Monica also offers individual therapy for adults both in English and in Spanish. Monica uses an eclectic approach to therapy utilizing a unique integration of humanistic approaches and mindfulness-based interventions such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), dialectal behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT),