Kimberly Marshall Adams, MSSW
Ms. Adams works with clients across the adult lifespan. She specializes in treating Insomnia, PTSD, Depression, Self-Injury and Anxiety disorders (including Social Anxiety, Health Anxiety, Phobias, and the pervasive, persistent worry associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder). Her primary orientation is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, which has been consistently shown to be effective with these problems. CBT is a frequently used and sometimes misunderstood term that simply involves experimenting with different thoughts (cognitions) and behaviors, and then taking a look at the results. She is trained in DBT, CPT for PTSD and CBT-I.
Specific Modalities
Ms. Adams is certified in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), an approach that includes additional skills and strategies developed for clients who didn’t respond adequately to CBT. This can include clients who engage in self-harm, who have recently been discharged from an inpatient hospital stay or higher level of care, or who have pervasive difficulties with interpersonal relationships and understanding their own identity.
She also offers Cognitive-Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD, which tends to be particularly helpful for those who have experienced ongoing traumatic events and chronic effects of trauma. This treatment helps clients to identify “Stuck points” in their thinking or behavior that prevent one from moving forward with their life and goals. These must be addressed in a supportive yet challenging manner before they can be removed as obstacles.
CBT for insomnia (CBT-I) is another area of specialization for Ms. Adams. This has been shown to be more effective for the treatment of insomnia than sleep medications with more durable effects, and it does not carry the risk of dependence and side effects associated with medications for sleep.
Training
Ms. Adams graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a master’s degree in science with a social work specialization. She previously was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New Jersey and obtained her LCSW in Pennsylvania in 2019. Her formal training in CBT was with Center for Integrated Behavioral Health in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; her intensive training in DBT was through Behavioral Tech LLC; and her training in CPT was through Widener University in Philadelphia and the Center f or Deployment Psychology in Washington, D.C.
“Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “Give me 6 hours to cut down a tree, and I will spend the first 4 hours sharpening the saw”
How does this relate to the practice of therapy? Have you ever been in a therapy session that got off track, focused on a problem that wasn’t particularly important to you, or left at the end of the hour not really able to remember what was discussed or how it related to the rest of your life?
Just as with Lincoln and his saw, we will spend as much time as we need at the beginning of our work together identifying primary problems and creating a map of how these can be resolved. I work with clients across the adult lifespan, and in particular, clients who have seen a variety of therapists over many years report that my approach is refreshing and has helped them accomplish their goals in a way that no other therapy relationship has.
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