Child Center and Adult Services

Therapists will represent a diversity of ages, languages, ethnic and national backgrounds to reflect the diversity of clients who seek services.
Therapists will be skilled and certified in a broad range of evidence-based standards of mental and behavioral health care.
Clients will enter a relationship with our organization to which they can return with friends and family.
Mental health and wellness services will be offered to meet identified needs of the community.
We will collaborate with community partners to ensure all people will have access to a system of holistic, person-centered services.

Aspire Counseling Strategic Plan 2014-2019 outlines our strategies and tactics.

From 2016 July 2017 our services reached 2,020 insured, underinsured, and uninsured individuals and families. In our office we have over 35 Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Professional Counselors, Psychologists, Psychiatrist and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. We have 14 therapy rooms, 5 of which are child therapy rooms. Carrie Zilcoski, PhD, LCSW-C, became Aspire's new Executive Director in January 2017. Mecky Caballero, LCPC, was promoted to Clinical Director.

We expanded our Board of Directors, welcoming five new members.

In 2017, we hired a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, doubling our capacity to do psychiatric assessments and prescribe medication.

We increased our ability to provide specialized therapy to children by hiring a full-time certified play therapist, who joins an already strong child therapy team.

Aspire Counseling has provided mental health and wellness services to families for 39 years. Next year we will celebrate our 40th Anniversary.
In 2015, we were awarded 'Best Family Therapist' Readers Pick, by the Best of Bethesda Magazine.
Our Board has succeesfully implemented many goals within the 'Aspire Counseling Strategic Plan 2014-2019'. At this half way stage the Board feels very confident we will implement the objectives by 2019.
Our services are easily accessible to ALL. Clients may be insured, have public insurance (Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare) or be uninsured and undocumented. They will receive treatment at no or low-cost or utilize our sliding fee scale.
Aspire Counseling helps people overcome short-term mental health issues (trauma, unemployment, grief, OCD, stress, anxiety). Short-term evidenced based therapy differs from treatment for long term chronic mental health conditions (bi-polar; schizophrenia). Very few organizations offer affordable short-term therapy in both office and community-based settings, Aspire does.
According to the Child Mind Institute 2016 Children's Mental Health Report, mental health disorders are the most common health issues faced by our nation's school-aged children. More and more families are seeking help to improve childhood social and emotional health. To help meet demand, Aspire has employed two new child therapists. Both are trained in play therapy and one is trained in ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences. We took mental health education to the community, participating in local health fairs and events for pregnant women and new mothers

This July, Aspire began construction of a new billing and administrative office space. This will free up therapy rooms that have been occupied by administrative staff (Executive Director, Billing and Office Manager, Development Manager - enabling Aspire to see more clients.